Cornwall 2016 (Part 5)
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Friday 2 September
This morning didn't exactly dawn, it sort of arrived in being less dark outside. The view from the skylight isn't encouraging and when up I can't see the field behind from the bog window.
I load the dogs in Vera and take them off to chase a ball. No view this morning though and it's feeling decidedly chilly and damp.
@DerekTheWeather is promising that it will brighten up later on, so I'm counting on him being right.
We have guests arriving to stay with us this morning. My cousin, who is Abergavenny's answer to Bear Grylls is coming down with his wife Sabrina. They've left early but I fear that their timing will have them stuck in traffic, so it was with some surprise that I get a text from Sabrina at 11am saying that they're not far away.
Bear and Sabrina rock up in their new motor and we sit in the awning catching up on recent events for an hour or so giving the kettle a good workout at the same time. She immediately spooks me by saying that she saw a dead man by the side of the road back in Crows-en-Wra on the way down here. Apparently he'd been in a fatal RTA. After some quizzing it transpires that it was at the same spot that we witness a fatal RTA when we were down here 3 years ago!
By early afternoon it's brightening up nicely and we make tracks for Penzance. bear picks up some fishing tackle from Jim and Herself and Sabrina make straight for the witches shop at the top end of St Clares St. I sit outside while Sabrina out witches the witch running the joint!
We walk back down the street and take a table outside The White Lion. Herself and Sabrina taking a break from their chinwag only to pause for breath and gasp at the state of an old woman who was going for the "clown" look with her makeup!
With tea time approaching we head over to St Just for food in The Kings Arms (where Sabrina appeared to be nodding to customers that we couldn't see) before adjourning to Cape Cornwall to watch the sun setting on the day.
From there we made our way over to Lands End. Bear thanks his lucky stars that it's my round as we take a table out on the terrace looking over to Longships as the last of the light disappears for the day.
Back at the van we spend the rest of the evening guzzling cider and gin. Herself and Sabrina continue their talkathon and Bear and myself try and get a word in edge ways. Time flies and it's gone 1am before we realise it and turn in for the night.
Saturday 3 September
The forecast isn't good today, not good at all. Much wet stuff is due to be deposited on us. I consult the BBC work of fiction and note that there is little point in travelling elsewhere as it's the same all over the country.
We breakfast on bacon and sausage rolls before piling into Vera and taking the scenic B3306 that hugs the coast to St Ives.
Though we'll have to take the word of others that it's scenic as we travelled the length of it shrouded in mist. We have to be thankful though as the fore casted rain has not arrived.
St Ives is busy and we struggle to find a parking spot with the beaches full of holiday makers. we do eventually find a spot and Bear takes himself off to feed some coins in the meter.
He's just fished the ticket out from the slot and it starts to rain. And it rained a lot. we sit it out for 20 mins admiring the pointing on a wall while we waited for it to ease.
But ease it did not and we gave up.
Rolling into the car park of County skittles I have a good feeling. When we were here last week Ronnie, Roids and TF took great delight in thrashing me at everything, and I'm sure that Bear will not do the same.
We find a table, order some lunch and leave Herself and Sabrina continue their talkathon while we head off into the pool room. Bear beats me 2 frames to 1 before we eat.
After food we book a skittle lane for 30 mins. Herself and Sabrina don't want to play and continue their talkathon while Bear beats me by 10 points.
We retreat back to the tables and a last throw of the dice sees me taking on Bear on the Shuffle Board. He beats me at that too!
It's still hammering down as we guide Vera through the lanes toward Mariazon, but it eases as we pull into the car park that looks over to St Michaels Mount. The place is a hive of activity with many anoraks with very expensive looking cameras and telescope things in the dunes and on the beach.
It turns out that they are all looking at a Sand Martin that has come over from America. Now two things puzzle me about this. Firstly, how did they all know it was here? and secondly, how do they know it's come from America?
Herself didn't even bother getting out of Vera to witness this momentous event!
Bear has promised to go fishing with me this evening so once back at site we stop long enough to pick up his rod and we head down to Sennen. The sea is too rough though and waves are crashing over the harbour wall so we about turn and head to Lamorna Cove on the south coast.
This place has a fearsome reputation for giving out parking tickets and we are warned as such by a local as we park up. We'd not had chance to put our rods together and the warden was down checking our windscreen!
My confidence in hooking a few with Bear in my company was somewhat misplaced and he seemed to spend more time untangling a birds nest from his reel than actually fishing.
We've a table booked in The First and Last this evening so time was of the essence and we are unable to spend as long as we would have liked down at the cove.
We get back to site and the wimmin are foot tapping
Stopping long enough only to put on a clean pair of shreddies we make the short journey to the pub. This place has bags of history though, and Sabrina wastes no time in making acquaintances with the regulars that we can't see.
The food was superb and the evening very entertaining.
Sunday 4 September
After yesterday's washout we are happy to wake and the rain has stopped. We breakfast again on bacon and sausages before piling into Vera and heading on a road trip up country,
We drop down the hill into Perranporth and hit a road closed sign and it appears that the main drag is closed off for the finish of a Triathlon event. Myself and Bear fancy a go at it and are dismayed to find out that the event is just closing as we arrive.
We walk to the end of the street and pause for liquid refreshments in "The Watering Hole" watching some very fit looking people pack away their kit and push their bike out of town.
We happen across a witches shop and Sabrina goes about sussing the "witch" out. is she a real one of just some conning git with dyed hair selling witches tat?
It would appear that this one is the real deal as Sabrina is tempted to start spending money. Bear starts to look worried. Unfortunately for me Herself was a little more than tempted and by wallet is relieved of too much folding for my liking.
We get back into Vera for the short trip over to Newquay and I'm not looking forward to the next few hours one bit,
The fist shop we hit sees Herself paying more for a pair of shorts for Ronnie that I would pay for a suit for work!
Bear has been gagging for a pastie since we've been down here and Herself grasps the opportunity to lighten my mood suggesting a pastie stop. We grab a few of the calorie laden parcels and take a bench overlooking the sea to devour them while a brass band entertains us blasting out "Those magnificent men in their flying machines."
We now have a thirst on, so the next port of call is Walkabout for liquid refreshments, where we spend an hour or so on the terrace overlooking the beach putting the world to rights while Sabrina waves to spooks stood on the top of the stairs!
I'm put in charge of Roid's present and go about buying him a knife. I settle on one that's a replica of the knife that Stallone used in Rambo II and Herself is less than impressed.
Back up through the high street and I have a bit of a scare as Herself takes a shine to some jewellery in a window. Bear is a little too keen on offering his assistance in holding the dogs just so that I can go into the shop with Herself for my liking and I promise to have "words" later.
Luckily Herself has a change of heart and my wallet remains intact for the duration.
We've been lucky with the weather today, and we've not seen any rain. I drop Herself off at the dogs walk entrance when we get back assuring her that it's going to remain dry and she does not need to put on a coat.
Back at the van I'm sat in the toilet and I hear the start of the rain hitting the roof. My thoughts swiftly turn to Herself and I open the blind to look out over the field that they use for dog walking at this time of year. Herself is still only half way round and is hunched up against the driving rain with her face into the still SW wind.
I watch on helplessly, but still nice and warm and dry, as Herself struggles to get the dogs back on a lead, Herself now soaked through to the skin and no doubt freezing cold.
I get it with both barrels when she gets back.
Not going out this evening, instead opting for fish and chips from Sennen. Any thought Bear and myself were harbouring of going fishing were soon set aside as we clocked the breakers crashing over the harbour wall.
It rained, and it rained, and it rained. Trips over to teh toilet block were decidedly moist and I was half expecting to see Morgan Freeman come floating through the site in his Avon inflatable at any time.
The rest of teh evening is spent in the awning having a good old chat while guzzling cider, with Sabrina enjoying putting the eebbygeebies up me regailing tales of spooks and things!
Monday 5 September
My word, did it rain overnight or what? Though we appear to have got off lighter than many parts of the country and my Facebook feed is filled with pictures of flooding.
Herself is a bit slow off the mark as her night was disturbed regularly as our awning LED lights kept turning themselves on. I give Sabrina a look and she exclaims "Wasn't me!"
Bear has already walked the dogs again by the time the rest of us rise and Herself wastes no time in getting a loaf of eggy bread cooked to put on the table for breakfast. With that lot wolfed Bear loads up their car and we wave them off at 11am as they set off for home via Port Issac hoping to do some Doc Martin spotting.
Today is a sad day as we have to break camp and leave west Cornwall. I was dreading it as I listened to the rain hammer on the canvas yesterday, but luckily it stopped at around 5am and the wind picked up, the result was a dry awning to drop, and only a caravanner can appreciate the joy that that brings!
We've broken camp and had a shower by 3pm as we pile into Vera on a mission to get some essentials to take home with us.
Philps in Hayle is our first port of call where Herself throws a few purple ones at the assistants for a sack full of pasties, a few bagged cream teas, some shortbread and some clotted cream.
It turned out that Philps was our first and last shop as they had all that we needed. Our thoughts now turned to stopping our bellies rumbling so some fats food was grabbed from McDs in Penzance before topping up Vera's tank with fuel and heading over to Sennen Cove to run the legs off the dogs and take in the view for one last time.
We return to site to complete breaking camp and are hitched up and pulling out onto the A30 by 6pm. We don't usually leave down here until a little later, but the Trunk Road Agency are closing the A30 around Penzance at 7pm and we don't really fancy the diversion.
The tow over Bodmin is effortless and the light fades the roads are empty making towing with the cruise control set to just north of 60 mph a doddle.
We don't hit any traffic until Exeter and the M5, and even then it's pretty light. Vera is eating up the miles and the journey is stress free until we get over the bridge and into Wales. Still grumbling about having to stump up £6.50 to cross the bridge we hit a wall of signs advising that a section of the M4 ahead is closed.
Bear had been telling us that they close the tunnels at Newport overnight every 6 weeks for maintenance, and typical of our luck tonight is the night! After the irritating diversion to Cwmbran (I'm no fan of Cwmbranistan anyway, but at 10pm and just over 2/3 the way through a long tow it did little to change my opinion) we hit a wall of rain that stayed with us all the way home until we pulled up outside Travels in our Caravan Towers at just after 11.30pm.
Absolutely shattered I go straight to bed, leaving the van hitched up to Vera out on the road until I have the energy to put her away in the morning.
It's been a fantastic beak once again in West Cornwall, we really love the area, and Trevedra is probably our favourite site of all. Don't know why and can't put my finger on it, but it is.
Until next time folks ............
Comments
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Sorry. Missed a few days
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ADMIN - Are you able to edit the dates for me please?
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ADMIN - Are you able to edit the dates for me please?
Have you checked as I thought I had done what you asked?
David
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Thank you David. I posted the comment here as well as on the discussion board at the same time.
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Thank you for your kind words Brue
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