2011 Summer Holiday 4 - St Mabyn, nr. Bodmin

[See the additional posts at the foot of the story for extra photos.]

19 August 2011 – Friday: Arrival at St Mabyn

Spent the morning slowly continuing to pack up and took down the awning.  Left Globe Vale before midday and headed towards St Mabyn. Arrived just after 1pm and set up.  The site at St Mabyn seems fine and one of the wardens loaned me an extra piece of hose as our waste hose was not quite long enough for the drain away.  I just felt that the touring section was not quite as well cared for as the rest of the site.  The hardstandings were level but rather rough – stones of different sizes meant that the floor was a ‘bumpy’ - not what one would generally like to be confronted with.  We had to sort the stones out on the hardstanding before we could really start to set up.  Our daughters went to check out the pool – it seemed quite nice.  Went to find the supermarkets in Bodmin before settling down for tea.


20 August 2011 – Saturday: Trebarwith Strand and Port Isaac

After breakfast we decide to head off towards Port Isaac.  Unfortunately we couldn’t get parked so we drove up the coast a little further to Trebarwith Strand.  

Trebarwith Strand is a lovely little cove with a good beach which extends out from a rocky approach.  The council car park is a little walk up the valley but there is a private car park nearer the cove.  This we weren’t aware of until we’d walked down - rather was fortunate really as they were charging £6.  The notice advising car owners that if they ‘crossed the line’ and took up more than one space they would be charged for two spaces, hardly seemed fair considering the parking spaces looked so tiny.  There were a few shops and places to buy food and beach goods.  We didn’t stay long, but it was worth going for a look.

After finding somewhere for lunch we went back to Port Isaac later in the afternoon and managed to find a car parking space.  It was quite a walk from the car park into the middle of Port Isaac, but the walk was pleasant enough, following the coastal path.  As we turned the corner there was a good view of the town with the house used as Doc Martin’s house in the T.V series, clearly visible on the other side of the harbour and beach inlet.    We walked down through the town past Louisa’s School and up Doc Martin’s house for the obligatory photograph.  Since we last went to Port Isaac, they have cordoned off the paved area directly in front of the house, but photos were still possible.  We just had to go into the covered outdoor restaurant for a Cream tea – Our eldest daughter treated us.  On the way back to the car we had a few showers of rain and periodically sheltered.  We were a little damp against we’d got back to the car.

After tea we settled down in front of the T.V. to watch‘The King’s Speech’ DVD.


21 August 2011 – Sunday: Bedruthan Steps

Today was our eldest daughter’s last day with us and we needed to get her to Newquay Airport by about 1.30pm.  We decided to go for a ride up to Padstow and to head down the coast towards Newquay.  We passed a couple of nice beaches but eventually ended up at Bedruthan Steps for lunch and for a walk around.  After lunch we headed towards Newquay Airport and dropped her off at just after 1.30pm.

Later we drove towards St Austell to find the Tesco and filled up with petrol with my two 5p off per litre tokens, before heading back to St Mabyn.


22 August 2011 – Monday: Widemouth Bay

Today was destined to be a beach day.  The weather was good so we headed towards Crackington Haven.  It looked a really nice cove but sadly there were no parking spaces.  We drove on a little further towards Bude and we came to Widemouth Bay where we got a lovely parking space overlooking the beach.  We sat on the beach for a couple of hour while our daughter went in the sea, before heading back.


23 August 2011 – Tuesday: Tintagel and Boscastle

We started today by going to Boscastle, but the parking problem seems to be following us.  As we Couldn’t get parked we headed to Tintagel instead.  After a little walk around the shops, My wife and daughter walked up to what they described as the ‘rather disappointing’ castle remains.  They left me sitting on a bench, but on their return we went to the National Trust ‘Old Post Office’ before driving out of the town to find somewhere to eat our lunch.  After a quick visit to Crowdy Reservoir, we returned to Boscastle and this time sucessfully managed to park the car.  We had a good look around and found it more picturesque than Tintagel.  The man in the rock shop obviously had a Midlands accent and after a conversation it appeared that he came from Sutton Coldfield and that I taught his son some 30 years ago when I was Head of Music at Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School.


24 August 2011 – Wednesday: Polperro

Well, we’ve arrived at pack-up day and almost at the end of our holiday.  Just time to visit Polperro though.  Parking spaces were very small again and the car park was a little way out of the village.  They were obviously very keyed up for visitors, with a shuttle service down to the town.  Luckily we decided to take the bus down and back, and I’m glad we did.  It was worth the extra cost.  Polperro is a lovely fishing village and port, and a good place to end our stay in Cornwall.  After a walk around and a time sitting in the harbour we headed back to start the big pack-up, but not before driving through Looe on the way back. Pack up awning.  

We spent the rest of the day tidying and packing so that we can take the van straight back to storage when we get back home.  The awning was safely taken down avoiding the shower and then we went out to find a fish & chip shop at about 8.30pm. for a late tea.


25 August 2011 – Thursday: The journey home

After a final thorough clean of the inside of the van, we left St Mabyn at about midday.  Our journey back was almost a complete reversal of our journey down.  Rather than taking the M5 route home, we travelled back via Dorset as we needed to stop off at Lady Bailey.  We needed to have our front window finally replaced under warranty and to pick up my service history documents I had dropped when the van went in for a service right at the start of the holiday.

We continued our journey from Blanford Forum to Salisbury, Andover, Newbury and up to Oxford.  The M40 from Oxford was busy but traffic was moving at normal speed.  We missed the rush hour on the M42 and got back to Tamworth between 8pm and 9pm.

Our holiday was over – we had had a great time in spite of the odd problem and our bad news.  When we arrived home the house was still standing and the post was there to open.  Two letters took my eye – both from the bank.  The first one was a new pin number.  The second one was a new debit card.  I could now access my personal bank account for the first time since before leaving Polesworth for our holiday.