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.