Cornwall

Although Newquay was a bit horrendous (party town for 100's of UK students), the rest of Cornwall was really stunning, and I had a great time siteseeing, relaxing and socialising with friends despite the grotty weather!!
Day 1
After and initial scare on Wednesday that Fanny (who had a bout of the flu) might not be able to make the trip (meaning Dave an dI would need to organise alternative transport chop chop), the Newquay trip started well. Fanny was better and we planned to leave at 6 am on Friday morning.

Dave made it up to my place late on Thursday evening and we wisely ordered lots of pizza for supper so that there would be extras for lunch during the road trip.

Friday dawned grey and drizzly, but we were ready and waiting when Fanny arrived to pick us up. We crammed her poor Fiat Punto full with gear and headed off hoping to miss the morning rush hour traffic. In this respect we were successful, and it was only the last 20-odd miles of the trip that we ground to a halt behind a stream of holiday makers pouring into Cornwall. The weather on the drive down was pretty awful though, with light to heavy rain virtually the whole way. We eventually arrived at the campsite at 2pm, where we met up with Matt, Paul, Rich and Julie, who had travelled down the night before. Lucky for us they had already pitched most of the tents, so we could dump our bags in the empty ones while pitching our own.

The Newquay Sunnyside Campsite was quite an experience!!.... Billed as a holiday destination for 18-30 year olds, most of the people there were wild students down with the intention of getting as drunk as possible and partying as hard as possible over the weekend. On arrival we were all given a pink and blue (reach for a dreamstyle) wrist-band to wear as identification. It was kind of like Splashy Fen, with better abultion facilities!... With a central abultion block surrounded by several large camping fields and a separate field for parking, 2 pubs, a mini-night club and a bus into own ever 15min during the evenings, the place was swarming with people and was extremely noisy!! This said, the staff did a good job ensuring that the bathrooms and fields were generally (although not always) fairly clean and pleasant.

After setting up camp we headed into town to see what Newquay had to offer... Not much... It's not a very big place, and the town is geared for the student tourists with tacky tourist shops, bars and nightclubs being the main features. The streets were teeming with even more students then the campsite, many of them carrying boxes of booze in preparation for the evenings festivities.

We paid a quick visit to the main surfing beach - Fistral Bay, which was quite nice despite the windy weather, and then headed back to the campsite.

Based on the youthfully exhuberant crowd, Fanny and I quickly decided that we would prefer to spend as little time in Newquay as possible. That evening after some Scrumpy (local farm brewed cider) Checkers and the bbq'd meal, we had an early night in preparation for sightseeing the following day. Dave hit the clubs with Matt, Rich, Paul and Julie, but returned home earlier than they did.


Day 2
I was awakened on Day 2 buy Giorgis's crowd arriving at 5am and he and Fanny conversing in french about which tents they should crash in. Fanny was calling out from her little one man while Giorgis walked about the campsite! I thought about answering them in my limited French, but I was too tired and went back to sleep for a few more hours.

Breakfast on Day 2 was pork sausages and bacon with bread, which was a filling start to a busy day. The story of the morning was how some drunken youth had come into Matt and Julie's tent in the early hours of the morning, fallen asleep there, and when he awoke, gone off wearing Matt's jeans. He wanted to take Matt's cell too, but luckily Matt managed to convince him otherwise. It seems he was probably confused between a very similar tent sightly further down the field...

Post-breakfast, Fanny, Dave and I set off on a siteseeing adventure. The plan was to drive around the south western tip of Cornwall and meet the others from the trip at St Ives in the late afternoon. Giorgis and his friends had arrived in the early hours of the morning and were all still asleep when we set out.

Following my DK Eyewitness Guidebook, and Fanny's French guidebook (which had an opinion on everything!!) we headed first towards Penzance. On the way there we could see St Michaels Mount, so we decided to pay a visit to that island. I remember reading about St Michaels Mount in a children's book, but I don't remember if it was the English one, or the original French one in Brittany... Do you remember Mom?

Although the wind was blowing making it chilly, we enjoyed our visit here and took lots of photos. The castle on the island was closed on the weekend, but we walked across and looked around the outside. While we were there you could notice the tide coming in quickly, so we obviously timed our visit very well.

We drove through Penzance, but didn't really stop. it looks like a pretty seaside town, but the traffic and parking was horrendous with all the holiday makers!!!

We then verntured onto the coast road (accidentally) and wound along next to the sea until we decided that it was going to take too long (despite being really pretty) and tried to head back towards the main road.... We drove for ages through tiny narrow lanes between hedged walls, accidentally encountering pretty little villages, and having to reverse when meeting other cars. One of the places we found was a rocky coastal spot called Lamorna Cove. We managed to get here down a very steep narrow road from Lamorna village. Finally after asking for directions we found our way back to the road and headed in the direction of Porthcurno.

At Porthcurno there is an amazing outdoor theatre built over a 50 year period by an aging woman and her gardeners (she was still working on it when she dies at 89). There was no show on when we visitied, but it was still amazing to see. The Minack Theatre is built on the side of a cliff, overlooking the sea. It is really picturesque and was originally used for a production of the Tempest. The history was very interesting, and we spent a while walking around the small museum and watching the video describing the story. Built before WWII, it was virtually detroyed when the coastal defences were destroyed. It was then rebuilt slowly over time. Surrounding the theatre is a sub tropical garden which even had a protea and aloes!!!

By this stage David was starving and we stopped at the tea shop to sample some local cuisine. Lunch was Cornish pasties (I had a chicken one which was really tasty but incredibly filling) and Dave followed it up with a Shakespearean Smash (Cornish icecream topped with crushed meringue, caramel sauce, a wafer an Cornish clotted cream!!!). The Cornish clotted cream was delicious, but so thick you could butter it!!

Next we set out for St Ives, stopping at Land's End on the way. The drive was incredibly misty, with ghostly villages appearing ever now and then before deserting us again to the dark and foggy road. There wasn't a lot to see as Land's End, but the rocks and the wind were good for a few photos, and of course we had to get a few snaps in front of the famous signpost!!

By the time we finally reached St Ives I was dubious whether we would actually find the rest of our crowd. Parking was again difficult to find in the narrow holidaymaker-filled streets, but we eventually found a parking lot on the coast up the hill from the centre of town.

We walked down past the St Ives Tate gallery, noting some of the interesting tourists on the way (including a gentleman in a pink rose print suit!). Then we explored the harbour and bought some Cornish fudge (delicious).

We then made contact with Giorgis and co, bought some Cornish icecream and walked around the town a bit more. Girogis was dressed up and sporting a dead rat for a moustache!! He loves to be the centre of attention. He clowned around by the waters edge and he and his mate had a stone skipping competition. This must be a favourite Greek passtime due to the lack of waves in the Meditteranean, as Ellena says Stili loves to do this too!!!

After that we drove to another village with intention of finding an authentic non-touristy local pub... We ended up in Perranporth where we messed about on the beach for a bit before searching for the pub. There was a channel across the beachfront, and a rocky outcrop on the sand behind, and so, of course, the guys had to go and climb it. Giorgis went galloping through the freezing water and disappeared into the blackness as the sun set. Dave went off exploring a cave in the cliff face and also disappeared (apparently he was waving at me when I called him on his cell, but I couldn't see anything). Once everyone was back together, we went looking for the elusive authentic pub, only to find all the pubs very full and very noisy. We ended up in a very empty local hotel pub (only about 6 people inside) where we took over the place and sat chatting and getting to know each other. Giorgis's crowd consisted of 2 Greek guys, 3 Italian girls, a French guy, a Russian guy, a Portuguese girl and a Czech girl. Our party of a French girl and 2 South Africans, made it very international!! I'm sure the locals must have been terrified!!

Day 3
Since the purpose of the Newquay trip was to surf the Irish Sea/Atlantic, and because the sun did venture weakly between the clouds on Sunday, it was decided that the boys would hit the beach. I was definitely not keen on testing the icy waters, and Fanny was still recovering from flu, so the boys set off before us and we planned to follow with Julie.

Soon after leaving, the guys called to say that the traffic into Newquay was horrific and they changed the plan to surfing at Watergate Bay. After some garbled directions, a couple of wrong turns, and help from some friendly locals, Fanny, Julie and I made it to Watergate Bay to join them.

Watergate Bay was a bizarre experience coming from South Africa. The place was teeming with surfers and their entire families fully clad in full wetsuits with booties! ON the beach we were wearing thick jackets, and the wind was rather chilly. When we arrived and eventually found a parking and made our way onto the beach the guys were already pretty much finished surfing. Well they had had enough of the freezing water!!! We then sat about while they took turns flying Matt's power kite and played some frisbee. Despite the cool cloudly weather, it was nice to sit on the beach, and my face did get slightly sun burnt!!

Later on we headed around to the next bay, Mawgan Porth, where Rich and us girls played some Crazy Golf (which I amazingly won!!) and Dave, Paul and Matt played Pitch and Putt. I even got a hole in one, but it didn't really count as this was after restarting when I hit the ball completely off the course. Hehehe.

After golf we had a late lunch at the local takeaway and took a slow drive back to Newquay. In the evening Dave, Fanny and I decided to avoid more Scrumpy Checkers and rowdy students, and took a walk to the local pub down the road from the campsite. Here we had a few drinks, some desserts (not me, just the other 2), played a totally embarrassing game of pool and then headed back to the tents. The walk home was rather treacherous, as the road to the campsite was unlit and we had forgotten to bring our torches. Every so often cars would appear round corners blinding us with their headlights and threatening to knock us off the narrow road. On one occasion I jumped to the edge of the road and landed in a hole twisting my ankle. Luckily it wasn't serious, and neither was the next time I repeated the accident about 5m up the road!!! I was thoroughly embarrassed and hobbled home in shame!

When we got back, the Mediterranean+E.European crowd had just got back from fishing in St Ives and were conducting a bbq, cooking the mackeral they had caught. Dave and I stayed up for a bit lighting their cooking with our dynamo torch, and tasting soem of the delicious fare. Then it was off to sleep before the long drive home on Monday.

Day 4
The last night at the campsite was very noisy as all the students were obviously making the most of their final night of partying, and spent the early hours of the morning kicking up a racket and shouting between tents.

We got up fairly early and helped Matt and Co take down the tents and make breakfast, with Dave champing at the bit to get on the road. We planned to take a slow drive back through the busy roads, and I was hoping to stop off at Taunton to take a quick photo of the town where the Woodmans (ancestors) originated. Unfortunately this was not to be as just before this point Dave took over the driving and drove right past while I was asleep. He was in a hurry to get back so he could catch the evening train back to London.

The drive was fairly uneventful, with only a few sections of really awful traffic. Once again we were driving along with all the VW camper vans, and in some sections the traffic stood still for an hour. It was interesting when we all had to pull to the sides of the road to allow an ambulance down the middle. The weather was a bit rainy for the drive home, but not as bad as the drive down. It was really great to start seeing signs for Peterborough again, even though it meant that the long weekend was nearly over!

All in all it was a great weekend, and definitely a memorable experience. Thanks to Fanny for all the long hours of driving!