Wednesday 19th June and time to cross the Tamar and into Cornwall, moving the short distance to Looe motorhome and caravan club site via a provisions stop at Morrisons in Plymouth. Looe C&MC site is a big site, complete with swimming pool, about a mile outside of Looe. After our previous stops we found this place to be a bit noisy and busy. As we were now in Cornwall, we ate our home-made pasties that we had collected that morning - in Devon! As the sun was shining we did a bit of washing and admin.
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| Crossing the Tamar |
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| Admin |
On Thursday we wandered into Looe. The site advertises itself as being a mile from the town. What it doesn't advertise is that the mile is a vertical descent! Looe is a lovely town, spoilt only by the traffic trying to squeeze through the narrow streets crammed with tourists. After a mooch about, we popped into the library where some lovely ladies helped us print out some discount vouchers for the Lost Gardens of Heligan, then wandered back to the site via a delightful little cafe we found in the back streets (Daisy's Café -http://daisyscafelooe.com/ ). If you are ever in Looe, find this place. It's wonderful.
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| Looe |
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| Of course it is. Only a complete moron would do it any other way |
On Friday it was a very long walk along the coast path to Polperro. En route, we witnessed the Looe lifeboat being launched on a shout, which was an impressive sight. The coast path is incredibly pretty, if not a little bumpy, but we arrived safely in Polperro, wandered around, had a pint in the busy pub, enjoyed listening to a choir then headed out of town to get the bus back to the campsite, via another pint at a pub near the bus stop. The bus was half an hour late (dreckly in Cornish speak) due to delays caused by a local school holding its "Prom", with parents trying to outdo each other in their choice of transport to block the narrow roads in order to take their overdressed kids to this thing. What is it with these silly "Proms". Another awful American import that we have decided to adopt.
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| Bronze statue of Nelson the seal |
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| Out on a shout |
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| Polperro |
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Polperro
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On Saturday it was on to a site located at the Lost Gardens of Heligan. They aren't lost. There's signs all over the place, they are marked on the map and even on the Sat Nav! Should be the Once Lost, but now found, Gardens of Heligan. Anyway, using our printed vouchers we got a discount to this place and happily wandered around. It's impressive, but perhaps we would have liked to have seen a few more blooms.
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| Lost Gardens |
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| Lost Gardens of Heligan |
On Sunday 23 Jun on a damp, stormy day, we took the footpath to Mevagissey where there was a festival taking place. It was a nice walk down, albeit we had to don our well-used waterproofs on the way, and, on arrival, we walked out to the harbour to watch the stormy seas - always a great sight and almost worth getting soaked for. The weather was showing no signs of improving so we went to the local pub to dry out and wait for the worst of it to pass. Unfortunately, the pub was too nice, we got mixed up with a couple from Brighton and a group of Cornish shantymen and had the most wonderful afternoon possible, singing and drinking. It's funny how things turn out, isn't it? By the time we emerged, the weather had improved and we could watch a bit of the live music at the festival, enjoy some lovely fish and chips and ice cream and then head back to the site at Heligan, hoping that the gardens hadn't become lost again.
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| Mevagissey |
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| Mevagissey |
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| Cornish beer and cider does funny things to your legs |
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| Chucking it down at the festival |
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| Stuns'ls - great shanty group |
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| Walk back from Meva to Heligan |
On Monday it was on to Marazion (pronounced Marra-Zion, not maraz-eeon), the furthest south-west we would stop. Another temporary holiday site, this time very close to the beach and overlooking St Michael's Mount. The allocated field is very sloping and we just about got level, but we have been looking at higher ramps for a while so it is time we bought some. It would appear that the field that the DA had used in the past is no longer available. The St Michael's Mount management company curtailed the lease to a local farmer and wanted to use the field for expensive car parking. Once again, the greed we witnessed at Lulworth Cove by these companies is evident. Anyway, Cornwall DA staff were lovely and made us very welcome and we soon settled in before walking to explore St Michael's Mount (National Trust). We couldn't be bothered to wait for the causeway to completely dry out so we joined the thousands of other "emmetts" in wading across (we certainly were not going to pay for a ferry). Lovely place, lovely gardens and well worth the visit (with significantly less tourist tat than it's French equivalent).
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| St Michael's Mount |
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| Can't be bothered to wait for the tide |
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| St Michael's Mount |
Tuesday looked like being a hot, sunny day so we walked to Mousehole via Penzance
(not impressed with Penzance - too many hippies and drop-outs) and Newlyn. We were told about an ice-cream shop in Newlyin (Jelberts) that only sells one flavour of Cornish ice cream topped with clotted cream. It's been selling this wonderful ice cream for years and it really is a delight. We also saw the memorial to the Penlee lifeboat crew who perished in a storm trying to save the crew of a freighter in December 1981. A very moving memorial. On to Mousehole and the obligatory pasty for lunch before walking up the hill to visit Paul Church and a wonderful chat to a local who told us all abut the history of the church and more about the Penlee disaster. All very interesting. We then caught the bus back to Penzance, then on to St Ives for a quick look. Strangely there was bright warm sunshine in the south of the county yet St Ives was shrouded in mist. We enjoyed a very nice dinner in a pub before heading home.
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| Newlyn |
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Mousehole
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| St Pol-de Leon Church, Paul |
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| Misty St Ives |
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| St Ives |
Using our bus ticket again, on Wednesday we headed for Land's End. What a dump! Full of hideously overpriced tourist tat and tacky shops ruining some beautiful scenery. We quickly decided to move on and, on an open top bus, we took the rather cool and draughty ride up the coast to St Ives. A lovely ride, with beautiful views, but it could have been warmer. The journey back to Penzance completed the circle, and, as the weather was still good, we had fish and chips and prosecco on the beach. Such extravagance! High winds were forecast that night so we took the gazebo down. Good job that we did otherwise it would have ended up stuck to the walls of St Michael's Mount as there were gales in the night.
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| Lands End, the Tourist Tat centre of Cornwall |
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| Pasties! |
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| St Ives |
The wind kept up on Thursday making for a bouncy journey to our next stop at St Agnes Beacon C&MC site. We would have to choose a high, exposed site for our next stop in a force 10 gale. We walked to the village, but were not impressed with the beach. The pub was great though. Taking a different route back we decided to cross the beacon. Big mistake! The wind was howling and we had difficulty standing upright (and that's nothing to do with the visit to the pub). Back at the van, we were rocking - the van was boiling hot, but we couldn't open the windows otherwise they would take off. We knew we should have packed the fan. The high winds continued into the night and there was little or no sleep to be had with the constant buffeting.
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| St Agnes |
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| Driftwood Spars - Great pub! |
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| Drunk again? No, too windy to stand! |
Fri 28. We took the bus to Truro and nearly missed it as a tree had fallen across the footpath. We managed, however, to clamber over it and got to the bus stop on time. After a wander about in Truro, we found the excellent pub that Harlequins had drunk dry during a fantastic weekend when Quins played Cornish Pasty-Pirates. We then bussed it back to Perranporth for a walk along the beach, but it was still blowing a Hooley and we ran the real risk of being sandblasted back to our bare bones.
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| Tree blown down on the footpath |
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| Truro Cathedral |
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| Great pub in Truro |
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| Sandblasted in Perranporth |
On Saturday we decided to extend our stay at Aggie. There was a thick fog in the morning, but we walked along the coast to Chapel Porth for a lovely hedgehog ice cream and then on to Porthtowan.
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| Chapel Porth |
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| The hedgehog |
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| Porthtowan beach |
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| Wheal Coates |
We managed to get a booking at the Porth THS near Newquay, but we couldn't check in until 3pm on the Sunday, so we parked up at the National Trust car park at Holywell Bay and walked along this lovely beach before climbing the cliff to look at Penhale Training Camp, which holds some happy memories, but now, sadly, appears deserted. From Holywell it was just a short hop up to our allocated pitch on the campsite at Porth and we quickly settled in and went for a walk, ending up at the Mermaid Pub to listen to a live blues band. Warm sun, shorts, feet in the sand, live music and beer. What could be better?
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| Holywell Bay |
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| Holywell from Penhale |
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| Penhale Training Camp |
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| Perran Sands |
Monday saw us on the bus to Padstow (or Padstein as they now call it). We spent the day avoiding being ripped off by any of the Stein outlets, but had an excellent breakfast bap in a local (non-Stein) café. Padstow was crowded with emmetts and many, many bloody annoying dogs on long leads, blocking every access, so we walked along the cliff to look at the famous Doom Bar, then back for a beer in the 14th century Golden Lion pub (also not Rick Stein's). We drank Rattler cider and Tribute, not the locally made Doom Bar (it tastes rubbish since they sold out to the yanks). We then took the ferry across to Rock, but there ain't much to see there, but we did manage a cream tea. Padstein is another place where the seagulls will swoop and steal anything - we watched some chap lose his ice cream to these marauding, thieving bastards. I hate 'em! It was then a bus back in time for the sunset over our beach.
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| Padstein |
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| Another great pub |
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| Ferry to Rock |
On Tuesday we walked around Newquay and on to Fistral beach. We didn't remember it very well since our previous visit many years ago but apparently lots of B&B have closed down so it doesn't attract the hen and stag parties as it once did and therefore the clubs and pubs have gone a bit more upmarket. I did taste a cheese and marmite pasty though. It were bleddy 'ansom! The warm sunshine and clear, clean air was too much to resist so it was back to the beach for us.
We decided that Aldi prosecco is very nice, so an early start and a walk up the cliffs to Aldi to buy 4 bottles of the stuff, then back for breakfast, then sunscreen, flip-flops, shorts and the beach!
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| Agapanthus |
On Thursday we were due to leave, but decided to extend by a day and they kindly found us another pitch. It is interesting that the THS cost £14 a night, yet those camping on the site were paying £32 for exactly the same thing. Another walk to get a bit of exercise then, once again, the soft, clean, white sand was calling....
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| Lusty Glaze |
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| Tolcarne Beach |
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| Towan Beach |
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| Porth Beach |
On Friday it was time to say goodbye to the beach and the sea and start heading for home. An early start to get some photos then off we went across Bodmin and Dartmoor and into Devon, stopping at the C&MC site on Exeter Racecourse.
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| Exeter Racecourse |
Saturday we completed the long journey up the M5 (which was closed as usual due to an accident, necessitating us detouring through Evesham). A quick stop at Gloucester services, where we decided that everything was too dear, before completing the journey in about 5 hours
Over the 4 weeks we had walked 267 miles.
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