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Home From Cornwall….For Now
Ten days in Cornwall in April and we didn’t see a drop of rain, now that’s got to be a blessing. COVID restrictions and protocols made it a different kind of visit, with no indoor catering coupled with cold evenings and limited table space making seeking our main meal a bit of a daily challenge but with a bit of flexibility and resourcefulness we avoided going hungry. Our new found virtue of patience, no doubt brought on by the slower pace of retirement, came in handy at times. And so we have completed the first of three UK trips which we have in the diary to fill in some of…
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The Sleepy Shores Of St Mawes
Approaching St Mawes is in one respect just a little bit like approaching a Greek island, in that the very best view you will get all day is the view you get from the ferry as it turns towards the harbour. Of course it is yet another quaint and picturesque location and is great to explore, but there’s no denying that the first view is the best view. The little ferry, which can be caught from either of two quays in Falmouth, is itself a picture of quaint tradition and bobs rather pleasingly over the waves as it crosses between the two headlands. Within Falmouth harbour sits a characteristically grey…
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Sea Life Safari
Pictures speak louder than words for today’s post, as we head out on a sea life safari taking in uninhabited Atlantic islets and spectacular sections of the craggy coastline. It’s an excellent excursion where we encounter large numbers of dolphins who follow us in a display of what our guide calls “bow riding”, as well as multiple sightings of seals, guillemots, razorbills, gannets and other seabirds. The sun shines, the Atlantic is calm and Michaela is able to capture some very decent shots…..
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The Camel Trail: Bicycles, Birds And Beeching
One of the things we find difficult in Cornwall is turning our backs on the magnificent coastline and heading inland, but because our two breaks here will give us a total of 24 Cornwall days in April and May, we feel we can justify one walk away from the sea along the Camel Trail. The Camel Trail is a walking/cycling route following the river upstream from Padstow to Wadebridge, then on through Bodmin to its final point at Wenfordbridge, though today we only walk the 12-mile round trip to Wadebridge and back, by far the trail’s most popular section. The route is more of a favourite with cyclists than with…
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Port Isaac: Fact Meets Fiction
All of those features which make up the classic look of a Cornish fishing village are magnified in the stunning little town of Port Isaac, 12 miles or so north of Padstow on the Atlantic coast. Its sea inlet is narrower, its sides are steeper, its streets tighter, its older buildings more charming, and its whole appearance is one of extreme attractiveness. It has a kind of impossibly quaint perfection. The only slight downside is that Port Isaac is so appealing that it was used as the location for a popular and rather fatuous TV series, Doc Martin, in which it became the fictitious Port Wenn, a theme which is…
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To The Other Side Of Cornwall
After a couple of days of hiking on the coast path we opt for a change today and take a drive across to the other side of the peninsula and the south Cornwall coast. Most coast to coast drives here take you over the more barren landscapes of middle Cornwall, either over Bodmin Moor or through hills scarred and reshaped due to years of quarrying. We head first through St Austell and down to the pretty harbour of Mevagissey, a classically shaped Cornish fishing village where narrow winding streets between cramped buildings soon rise up the steep sides from where houses of all sizes look sternly out to sea. This is…
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The Path To Polzeath
Something is slightly different this morning as we stir from our slumbers, though it takes us a few minutes to register that it’s the air coming in through the bedroom window: it’s even colder than yesterday. A quick peek through the curtains reveals white grass and sparkling roof tiles – so here we are in mid April, way down in the South West which rarely sees harsh winter, with a proper, sharp frost to start our second day. Whatever happened to that global warming thing??! Today’s walk takes us along the northern side of the estuary from Rock to Polzeath, so we begin with the ferry across the River Camel…
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Cornwall Coastal Path
When you really fall in love with a walk, when you genuinely do have a favourite, your love of it doesn’t diminish with the number of times you walk it, in fact, if anything, you love it just a little bit more each time. And this is one of my favourite walks, probably anywhere, and Michaela has now fallen for it too. It’s still a little cold for the time of year here in the UK and England is struggling to shake off the winter; even on a beautiful day like today, the air has a crispness to it which is normally gone by mid April. But today, set relatively…
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Welcome To Padstow
In truth it feels more like “welcome home”, so often have we visited this lovely place down the years that returning to Padstow often feels like coming home. To get here is a 320-mile, five and a half hour drive from our actual home but our drive down was stress free and sunshine virtually all the way, and arriving to see the picturesque estuary and harbour bathed in the afternoon sun was a treat. The current COVID restrictions mean that only outdoor catering is permitted, and a quick reconnaissance around the harbour established that just 2 of Padstow’s 6 pubs are open, augmented by a number of eateries serving outdoor…
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Cornwall Calling
We aren’t yet in a position to organise any foreign trips but with COVID restrictions easing we can at least now travel within the UK and so tomorrow we head off down to Cornwall, where we will be based in Padstow for the next ten days. We are fortunate enough to own a property in Padstow itself, which we rarely get to visit in high season as in normal times it is used as a holiday let to provide some income in our retirement, but this year we are so starved of travel that we’ve snaffled a few weeks for our own use – in fact we will be there…
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