Weekend Warriors

 

So there’s a first here. The first time I had a roll of film ruined by a lab during development. I won’t lie, I was pretty gutted. There were a few shots from this trip that I knew were going to be gold, and was really looking forward to scanning in. That’s the risk of shooting film I suppose, and I’m probably lucky that it’s the first time in all the years since I left digital behind that it’s happened. I shot plenty of 35mm though so we’re still good.

This was a rare weekend (we both usually work Saturdays) that we both had off work and decided to drive the few hours west and head to the lakes again. A couple of days walking, sitting by a fire and being away from everything is always my favourite way to spend time. We recently bought a tarp (Prospector’s tarp, see it here, but shop around to find it cheaper) which is probably one of the smartest purchases we’ve made. There were a few showers over the weekend and if we hadn’t had the tarp we wouldn’t have been able to cook and would have just been trapped in the van.

All in all, a successful trip which the rain didn’t ruin. Just a shame that I’m missing those shots.

 
 
 
 

Cornwall - Part 2

One thing we’d really been looking forward to in Cornwall was visiting the Eden Project. It’s quite expensive to get in, but there was no way we were ever doing that drive again so we knew it was this trip or never. It was worth the visit, but I couldn’t spend a whole day there. After walking the outside gardens, visiting both the biodomes and having something to eat at one of the restaurants you kind of run out of things to do. After about 3/4 hours or so we both admitted it was time to leave and spend the rest of the day exploring.

 
 

The campsite we stayed at for most of the week was Pleasant Streams near St Austell. It’s a relaxed campsite on a farm, and has a little lake in the middle with a rowing boat. These campsites are my favourite…. turn up, pick your spot, campfires allowed. Ideal. Always a bonus if there’s decent walks direct from the site too. We did try and get in the rowing boat but we both panicked and thought we were going to tip over so that didn’t happen. It was nice lying in the van in the evening watching other people rowing about though.

At the entrance of the site is a little table where the owners sell cacti and succulents for next to nothing. Another massive bonus.

 
 
 
 

Our last days were spent in St Ive’s, which has cracking little beaches but was a bit too busy for me, and then a rainy visit to Crantock beach. We were planning on staying another day but the weather became unbearable so we headed off and tried to cover as much distance towards home as possible, which is where we experienced another prime example of ‘type 2 fun’.

We decided to just keep driving so we could cover as much ground as possible, getting us home as early as possible the next morning to pick the dog up (we always get really soft towards the end of a dog free holiday and get really excited about seeing him again). At about 8 o clock we hit the wall of exhaustion and randomly picked a nearby campsite to stop at. Somewhere we could just have a beer and a nice dinner and refresh ourselves to finish the drive in the morning.

When I booked it I did read that it was on a racecourse, but I didn’t realise it was literally a racecourse. Like, no trees, just racecourse white fences. The least cosy place ever. We’d arrived later than usually allowed so they wanted to us to park up on the gravel in front of the stables but it was awful and exposed and just didn’t feel right. We moved the van to underneath the one and only tree in the area, but noticed there was a kids pop up beach tent underneath. We presumed the kid inside would go back to his motorhome or tent later on. But then I saw an arm emerge, that was holding a can of beer and attached to a very full grown old man who was clearly very drunk. I’m guessing he was one of the racecourse regulars who just wanted to be close by to get in early the next day, but he definitely killed the vibe, so again we moved.

We had a very awkward, rainy night but just got on with it and left super early to get back and get Pim. As we left I saw the old guy still in his tiny pop up tent, wrapped up in a blanket, sleeping off the beers. Good times.

 
 

Cornwall - Part 1

We’ve been saying for a while now that we should do a road trip to Cornwall, but the length of the drive always put us off. But after the Kielder/midgie incident we realised that our July trip to Scotland might be a really terrible idea, so last minute we decided to change direction and do the big one. This is the joy of camping in the van…. plans can be changed so easily. There’s always a campsite or a nice spot you can park up, pretty much anywhere you go.

To split up the drive we booked a spot at Manor Farm Caravan Park and it just happened to be exactly what we needed after a solid day of driving (and getting stuck in 2 hours of stand still traffic). It’s a working farm with a semi formal area for tents and campervans, with plenty of animals wandering about to say hi to. There were alpacas and llamas on fields either side of us, a little dog that kept jumping in our van and a shetland pony called Bumper that was a saint and wanted to share our barbecue with us.

We felt so relaxed here that we slept with the boot fully open, looking out to the alpaca field.

 

We spent the first couple of days dotting from coastal town to coastal town with no real plan. I prefer doing this, it’s how we’ve found some of our favourite places, and the thing with Cornwall is that every single place you stop is amazing and you’ll probably never be disappointed. Even on countryside roads, we’d stumble upon antiques shops and cafes. The only downside is that everybody else seems to have the same idea and everywhere is heaving! People everywhere. By day 3 it got a little overwhelming for me and I craved peace and quiet, but luckily we had another campsite booked that ended up being one of my favourite ones yet. More on that in my next post.