Here is a selection of photos from the last 2 weeks, when we had the joy of a bit of a mini-heatwave for our camping trip to Cornwall. We stayed in 2 different campsites, both of which were on our hit list from our favourite Cool Camping book. The sites were very different in layout and owner-involvement, but both had a similar relaxing feel to them and we really liked both.
The first site was at Porth Joke, a quiet cove a little to the west of Newquay. It was essentially 2 fields which you found by driving down a long sandy track, going through several gates, past farmhouses and busier campsites, across a common, and eventually you happened upon the right field! One field had a large sandpit in the middle, and attracted the families with young children. The people without children mostly hid in the other field (apart from a couple of brave souls!).
I didn't take many photos of the first campsite, but these two will give you an idea ..... The view from our tent - if you look carefully, you just see the pale line of edge of the sandpit behind Brodie's head. It doesn't look very big here, but was at least 15 feet in diameter I should think ....
You can just see Cinderella's white roof and our blue tent, in the middle of the photo (the furthest left of the settlements!) ...
We could walk from the site along a lovely country path to the beach ......
Arriving at our favourite beach at Gwithians .....
... and jumping for joy (she's not really as close to a cliff edge as she looks!!!) ...
This is why Gwithians is popular with Tess & Brodie ....
..... busy, busy, busy - building and filling up a moat .....
We had a fabulous day at The Eden Project .....
.... in the rainforest biodome ....
... and the mediterranean biodome ...
Brodie with his windmill, windsock fish and handprint for the handy tree .....
Brodie's handprint on the tree ....
Brodie's chain of men .....
Tess's crafts ....
Time for a rest ......
Back outside ......
Tess loved this game about the Tea Clippers sailing from China to London ....
Brodie happily aboard 'Pinky' the tractor train ....
Our home for the second week - Henry's campsite, mainland Britain's most southerly campsite, on the Lizard Peninsula .....
Our walk from this site took us down to the coastal path, just west of The Lizard itself.....
..... where the scenery was spectacular ....
Tess & Brodie really enjoyed the walk, and amazed us with how far they walked, especially as it was probably the hottest day of the holiday .........
Looking towards The Lizard lighthouse, our target .....
Tess & Brodie taking a break and filling in their Spotter notebooks (Tess's was Wildflowers, and Brodie's The Seaside) ....
We made it! ......
Tess & Brodie enjoyed the activities in the heritage centre at the lighthouse ....
... building a lighthouse ....
..... listening to the VHF radio ...
.... sounding the fog horn ....
Back at Henry's, a bit of painting in the open air in your pyjamas - can't be beaten! .....
Brodie rinsing his brush out in the fire bucket! .....
We made a special trip to Land's End as Tess saw there was a Doctor Who exhibition there. However, when we got there, she was worried it might be too scary, so sent me in alone to check it out first of all. Good call by Tess - let's just say that I won't be applying to be The Doctor's assistant any time soon (and Tess made do with photos of all the aliens!) .... here are a couple to whet your appetite...
After Land's End, we went to Sennen Cove, the next bay along - somewhere I'd wanted to go for a while. It was very beautiful, and we thought we'd found our dream restaurant with a large veranda overlooking the beach. However, we were disappointed to find that we couldn't eat our meal on the terrace (only drinks on there), and had to make do with watching the view through the windows from inside the building......
Tess enjoyed writing her name and making kisses and hearts in the sand .....
Rob was ill with a nasty virus on the last couple of days, so Tess, Brodie & I went to Pendennis Castle, at the south end of Falmouth, without him on one of those days. The castle was built for Henry VIII and was used by the military until after the 2nd world war. It can still be recommissioned for service by the Prime Minister at very short notice (I want to say 2 hours, but that seems incredibly short - maybe it was 2 days?), although it's hard to imagine this once very strategically placed fort being much use in today's wars.
Tess finding out about the British Empire and trading routes ....
Brodie spotting various parts of the castle & peninsula and how/when these had been developed ...
Tess & Brodie enjoyed dressing up in authentic soldier's uniforms (though Brodie seemed a bit too keen on the Windsor Davis Sergeant-Major soundalike telling him to straighten himself up and look smart!) ...
Playing a game about the history of the castle ...
Brodie 'writing' his name in morse code ....
Listening to a secret wartime message .....
The beautiful princess and her handsome prince walk off into the sunset together (I drew the line at buying the wooden horses as well, so they couldn't ride!!) ....
And what does a princess do when she gets back to the campsite? ... she toasts her marshmallows on the fire, of course .....
The 2nd day that Rob was ill was also a bit damp, so Tess, Brodie & I went to a nearby tourist attraction called Flambards, which had interesting indoor exhibits. Tess & Brodie had other ideas, though, and we ended up spending most of the day at the outdoor amusement park ......
A quick detour though the science exhibit ...
I don't like big wheels, but Brodie the dare-devil made me go on this .....
Wisely, Tess stayed on the ground .....
Although, she took off for a while on this one .....
We did a quick tour of a few inside exhibits before being thrown out at closing time. Inside a reconnaisance plane, later used for pilot training ....
The next day it was time to leave Henry's campsite, so Tess whizzed round and took photos of all the animal friends she had made during the week.....
And then we left ....
BUT - the holiday wasn't over just yet ..... at Brodie's behest, we made a grand detour to Mevagissey to see a model railway exhibition ......
one happy boy ....
And then drove across Dartmoor, stopping for dinner at a nice little spot on the way .....
We stayed near Okehampton that night, and spent Saturday at the Devon Railway Centre - again at the behest of Brodie, after he picked up a leaflet at Exeter Services on the first day of the holiday (and had talked about it for the whole 2 weeks!) .....
And then we came home.... tired, happy, almost healthy .... and the washing machine is still going to try to catch up with all the laundry!
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