For those of you who don't have access to it, below is an extract from my brother Mike's blog - saves me the typing (thanks, Mike)! It was a real pity about the weather, we were so looking forward to getting on the beach and doing a bit of surfing. It could have been a lot worse though, the heavens really opened on Saturday as we set off home and showed us how wet it could have been!
Saturday
After leaving Bristol we headed south into England's biggest dead end - Cornwall! The queues started almost straight away but we persevered and made it to our farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. It was a pretty nice stone barn conversion with 4 good bedrooms downstairs and a huge open plan upstairs with a great kitchen. The garden included a big trampoline sunken into the ground and a playground for the kids. We also got a warning not to stray onto the rest of the farm, which seemed to have been converted into about 8 other homes! In the evening we headed to a nearby village and found a pub for dinner, despite most of the lanes being a little narrower than my car!
Sunday
We took the car out into the lanes again and headed to the nearest beach town at Looe today. There are tons of disused tin mines around here and the lanes just seem to get narrower - not that it stops the coaches and lorries charging down them! Looe is a lovely little town full of Cream Tea and Pasty shops and we had fabulous pasties for lunch sitting on the harbour wall. We lit the BBQ in the garden for supper and went trespassing up the lane behind the farm for a nose about. Nobody saw us!
Monday
We had a stormy night and the rain managed to break into my bedroom window (which explained the splashing noise all night).We decided to pop to Polperro - more narrow lanes and a very picturesque little village. We found our way up the cliffs and Freddie and Luke decided they were mountain goats and charged off across the rocks. After lunch on the harbour wall (again) we tried to find our way to the car ferry to Fowey. We'd managed to avoid driving through most of the harbour towns so far but we went a bit wrong in Fowey and ended up blocking the road as we tried to escape. Very embarrassing. We had our first Cream Tea near the sea then headed home for another BBQ.
Tuesday
Rain today so we went off to visit King Arthur's Castle in Tintagel. It was pretty rainy and blowey but it didn't stop us getting up to the hilltop castle overlooking the sea and smugglers rocks. Impressive place even on a rainy day. We huddled in a pub for lunch and hit the tourist shops to dry off a bit. When we got home we went for another walk behind the farm to try and find a disused mine. I helped Freddie into the top floor of a derelict barn just as a neighbour came storming out and told us to get off the farm! Freddie hid and took a few photos of the inside of the barn for evidence. So we went back to the road and followed the footpaths to the mine but it was so close to the farm we just took a shortcut through the field and guess what - we got caught again!
Wednesday
Eden Project today. None of us knew what to expect and we were pretty impressed with the place. The weather held off so we managed to visit most of the outside stuff as well as the impressive "Biomes" of James Bond fame! On the way back we stopped at a BT Hotspot in a pub to download 1500 emails! The landlady had no idea she had a hotspot in the place - or even what it was. The boys had a drink whilst got our emails - which meant we had a few unexpected and unscheduled 'pea breaks' on the way back!
Thursday
Today we went to Seaton on the south coast. It's a funny little place with a small beach and a cafe. The kids decided to play with the waves (fully dressed) and ended up in their pants and soaked through. Luckily we had enough spare clothes to warm them up and we headed along the coast to Looe again. We had another Pasty lunch in the town and spent a happy afternoon fishing and crabbing in the rock pools.
Friday
Our last full day today so we started at a local Slate mine where we headed underground. The grown ups all enjoyed it and were impressed that it doubles as an underground music venue for the likes of Midge Ure and Echo & the Bunnymen, but the children decided it was dull. So we headed off to Mevagissey on the south coast. It's a beautiful little fishing village - typically tucked away down a narrow valley, with a double harbour and houses perched on the cliffs. We rented a boat and went Mackerel fishing in the bay with spinners. The kids caught a bunch of Mackerel so we celebrated with the best Cream Tea yet and we ate the fish for supper. All in all, not a bad week!
