Cornwall 2013 (Part 2)
Monday 12 August
The Commune for the Unwashed has started to thin out. The elder is leaving today and it was a bit of an eye opener. They all had a group hug in the middle of the field this morning before he departed. He is old (about mid 70s I suppose),his van is old (about early 1980s) and his car is old (an ageing Pug 407). When he got his towing mirrors out my flab was aghasted!!! They too have been knocking about since the 1970s, and I didn't realise people still used towing mirrors like this!
Any way, after his departure the unwashed needed to raise some spirits, so the bloody Ukulele came out for a bloody singsong!
While we're on the subject of neighbours, the people who have moved on to the adjacent pitch are a bit weird. Any attempts at engaging in conversation are ignored, they go out early in the morning and come back late at night, I'm sure there's something fishy about them. My imagination is working overtime and I'm convinced we'll see a repeat of the Lake Annecy murders that hit the headlines not too long ago.
Anyways, over breakfast a plan is hatched for the day. The intention is to take a spin over to Falmouth, have a look around and then find somewhere to use the Kayak. The Kayak gets strapped to Miranda and to be honest looks a bit big and precarious perched up there.
Ronnie is following and is under instruction to flash his lights if things get a little iffy up there. We've not got very far and Herself it getting very edgy as the straps in front of her move around. As we hit the high ground to the North of the Lizard the wind is catching the Kayak just right and my arse is twitching big time!
It survives - just - and we find some parking in Falmouth on the quayside. It's a very pretty town and we spend a very pleasant few hours browsing the shops and people watching in the narrow streets. Ronnie and DD have spent the last few nights sleeping on a deflated airbed and Roids and TF's one is also going down so we tracked some replacements down that weren't priced extortionately at the Mountain Warehouse.
We stopped for a drink in a pub with a beer garden overlooking the Fal estuary and watched boats go to and forth before returning to the cars to find somewhere to eat a very late lunch. We follow the roads up to Pendennis Castle and find a picnic spot on the headland looking over towards St Mawes on the Roseland Peninsular.
I have to say, we've picnicked in much worse spaces! What a coincidence though, as we are sat on the rugs (remember we are 40 miles from site now) the strange people from the next door climb up onto the grassy bank and sit down next to us. We say hello, and they promptly get up and leave!! Maybe he is writing an on line blog about this strange Welsh family who won't leave them alone, who knows?
Ronnie says they probably won't use the Kayak today, so we've brought it on a 40 mile spin for bugger all. Roids gives me and him a hand to strap it down tighter and we say a few prayers for it before we leave.
The wind has picked up a little and herself is on edge as we leave. We start to climb up out of Falmouth onto the higher and more exposed ground and a gust catches it just right!! It lifts and almost folds in two as my heart rapidly rises from my chest cavity and races past my Adam's Apple!
I swerve over onto the grass verge as the convoy of traffic behind us slow down to rubberneck at the poor unfortunates at the side of the road. The decision is taken quickly to deflate the bloody thing and it is announced that it will not be travelling up there for any sort of distance again.
Back on site the Weber gets a rest tonight as Herself has decreed that it will be Chinese night. the caravan and awning is transformed into TingTong's Takeaway as we prepare a Chinese Chicken Curry and Sweet and Sour Chicken. This is all washed down by far too many bottles of Rattler Cider that is going down a treat.
I try to engage next door in conversation saying how much of a coincidence it was to see them 40 miles away blah blah blah ... but get blanked. Ah well, their loss.
Over tea Herself enthuses about a meteor storm that is supposed to be happening in the skies tonight. We are fortunate in that there is zero light pollution down here, so it should be a good un.
Unfortunately,the Rattler got the better of me, and after a very pleasant evening in the awning, I'm dribbling onto my pillow as it all happens in the sky overhead.
Tuesday 13 August
We wake again to blue skies and with a thumping hangover I bump into Ronnie and DD on their way back from the toilet block as I take the dogs out for their early morning walk. The beds stayed inflated so they are off back for a while. I check my Facebook and see that Roids and TF spent most of the night sleeping under the stars watching the meteor shower overhead. I must be getting old and cynical because ewhile Herself cood and ahhed over the romance of it all that's all I could think of was aching joins after lying on damp grass for that length of time!
I spend the morning tinkering around the pitch,just doing stuff that needs doing. The odd ones next door are off out early (before 9am) - probably in an effort to avoid the strange Welsh people next door! The Commune of the Unwashed also thins out a little again as more depart - more group hugs in the middle of the field - I wonder when the last one leaves if he'll hug himself in the middle of the field too?
After a very late breakfast we head off out. We follow the very scenic B3306 as it passes through St Just and hugs the coastline towards St Ives, taking in a new vista around every corner we are struck by the fantastic coastal scenery.
It's a narrow road, and travelling along it takes a bit of care and no small amount of consideration for other road users. We are doing fine until we come across a little bit of a tail back. A lorry has squeezed itself into a passing place as cars and 4x4s inch past it going in the other direction. No problem as long as everyone takes their time. It's my turn next but the driver decides that he's not staying put any more and pulls out of the passing place.
I have a queue behind me, and I just look at him dumbfounded and shrug my shoulders. He just looks back at me and points his two hands (pistol like) at the road behind me insisting that we all reverse. What a prick!! He's getting really impatient and is edging forward in a further effort to intimidate me. I resist getting out to break his nose but get some sort of enjoyment from reversing ever so slowly holding him up even longer.
Anyway, after a very scenic journey we roll into St Ives and try and find somewhere to park up. It would appear that the rest of the world is also trying to do this and after 3 unsuccessful circuits we give up and make our way to Hayle, cursing and spitting as we went.
We stopped for lunch in the supposedly World famous Philips Pastys and lunched on some of the biggest pasties I've ever seen before making our way back to Penzance and its shops. Herself and the kids make their way up into the town while I take the dogs for a walk along the harbour wall watching boaty people doing boaty things with boats.
Back on site I go for a little nose and marvel at some of the strange hippy outfits that are camped up.
Tonight is 'Magic in the Skies' at Lands End. After some Gammon rolls I take the kids down there at 6pm so they can do the attractions. Herself and I tidy up the camp before making our way down there at 8pm to join them.
We find an empty table outside the hotel bar with a view over the firework firing area, text the kids to say where we are and settle down to enjoy a few pints looking out towards Longships and the Isles of Scilly beyond.
As darkness falls we ready ourselves for the display. We are quite a distance from the firing zone but from experience we know that the display will be a loud one. We grip the dogs tighter as the skies start to light up and the bangs get louder and more frequent. the dogs are understandably a bit freaked but we do our best to soothe them. All was going well until Tali slipped his leash as the display finished, he tried to bolt and in the scramble to get hold if him Ronnie manged to headbutt Herself. Herself then needed another glass of wine to deal with the pain, and we sat it our for 20 mins to allow the crowds and traffic to disperse.
Some say I am as tight as cramp, I disagree, but if I can save a fiver I will. Hence why in my wisdom I had decided earlier on not to waste money on taking two cars down to Lands End, we could just take Miranda and the kids could squeeze into the back to come back to site. After all it's only ( 1 1/2 miles and a fiver is a fiver.
Herself decides that she will get in the boot with the dogs and I confess to hitting every speed bump and pothole on the return journey. we get to site and I open the tailgate and call the dogs out. They jump out straight away and I then encourage Herself ( as if I was trying to coax a dog to do something) to get out of the car. She does, and playfully flicks me in the Gonads (male readers will understand there is no such thing as a playful flick to those regions) and I immediately double up in agony!!!!!
Once my eyes stop watering I notice that the strange ones next door have not returned from their day out. Maybe we do have another Annecy on our hands?
I fire up the Weber to cook burgers for supper and we have a few drinks in the awning before turning in at around mid night.
Wednesday 14 August
For the first time this week I wake to poor weather. It's windy and it's wet. It is doing it's best to clear by the time we have had breakfast and we hit the road by about 11.30am.
News breaks on the radio that the driver of the car involved in the RTA on Saturday near our site lost his fight for life in hospital. Life can sometimes be about small margins. 30 seconds later and it could have been our car he hit instead of the bus!!!
As we arrive in Perranporth the sun is breaking through and it is quite warm. We spend a pleasant few hours walking around and darting in and out of shops. I spoil myself and buy some oven cleaner and a wire brush from the pound shop to clean up the Weber and Herself spoils Herself with a silver charm in the shape of a pasty for her bracelet.
While I am sat outside a shop I spend some time people watching, and I spot one of the ugliest dogs I have ever seen in my life - the Bull Dog she had on a leash wasn't too pretty either!
We are all getting hungry so head off to The Bowgie Inn in West Pentire for a spot of lunch. It's threatening to start drizzling so we eat inside looking out over the bay through the panoramic windows.
Food was excellent, if a little expensive, and hit the spot. Fortified, we moved on to our next stop today, The Fun Park at Holywell Bay. The kids still had credits left over from their visit on Sunday so after giving the dogs a good run the boys went on the battle boats while the girls fired at them from the sidelines. TF seemed to be taking her role a little too seriously though by wearing a camouflage jacket for the duration.
The noise coming from the guns freaked Tali a little and he tried to bury himself in a wall the escape the noise. With calculations made they worked out the only other thing they had enough credit for was to go panning for gold.
Spend out of credits we hit the road for home, via Healey's Scrumpy Farm for some essential provisions.
The odd balls from next door still have not returned and their caravan is abandoned. I'm starting to annoy herself with my theories as to why they have gone AWOL.
We have a BBQ for tea and turn in quite early as the wind picks up.