By the time I lift my head off my dribble soaked pillow at 10.30am (what a kip!!!) yesterday evening's foul weather has cleared and the site has come alive again.
John the owner comes to see me and I pop up to the site office to sort out some admin with Wendy. This means we can stop here an extra two nights instead of moving to another site up country to complete our holiday.
Wait for it ........ I skip breakfast this morning, and once we've freshened up the dogs jump into Vera and we take them off over to Sennen to chase a ball before heading through the lanes to the metropolis that is St Buryan.
I've driven through St Burynan many times and never seen a soul, but this morning I've seen 3 people walking in the street. We spotted a sign yesterday advertising their Farmer's market here today and it immediately become apparent that it's not a patch on the one in Sennen. We are the only customers for a start and all the stall holders (5 of them) watch us intently as we wander from stall to stall.
I take a look at the butcher's wares. His Sirloin looks nice and well aged, but there is no way I would be paying £8.50 for a single steak that I'd be cooking myself!
Herself wanders over to another stall and fancies the bacon and egg tart that the woman is selling. I think £2 a slice is a bit OTT, but Herself otherwise and buys two (I'm sure out of embarrassment more than anything else)
Next stop is Penrose Touring in Redruth. Our windbreak didn't survive the foul weather last night and we're on the lookout for a decent replacement. The spotty assistant is in sell mode and has Herself in the palm of his hand as he waxes lyrical about the £120 model he's trying to sell us. Luckily I have custody of my wallet, and I start to ask some awkward questions. He can't quite see how the one made of gold he's trying to sell us has the same weakness as the one back at the van.
Falmouth is next. We park up at the maritime end of the town and head first to Trago Mills. They didn't have windbreaks so we carried on. Herself fancies lunch out and we head to a nice pub we know of with outside tables overlooking some boats.
We round the corner and my heart sinks. There is construction work going on and the tables, while still set up, have a fantastic view of some steel containers. We trudge on failing to find a pub serving food with outside tables. Somewhat disheartened we turn back, resigned to being ripped off by Rick Stein at one of his pretentious gaffs.
As luck would have it, just as we are passing Harbour View some people are vacating their table. Pushing women and children out of the way we win the race and settle down to lunch at a table with a view up the River Fal.
I knew that I had done it straight away, and was gutted but said nothing for a while, just furtively glancing down to try and assess the damage. I''d hooked my sunnies into a loop on my daysack and when I'd put it down it scraped along a pebble dash wall. Eventually my shiftyness got the better of Herself and I was forced to fess up. Closer inspection revealed that they were a write off and I'm subjected to all forms of piss taking from Herself until something else occupies her mind.
While waiting we witnessed some simply unbelievable behaviour by a dog owner. Now it's hard enough to find places that are dog friendly, so it really grinds my bones when I see people put that at risk through stupidity.
We were sat outside, but just the other side of some bi-fold glass doors was a family with an old greyhound. They had a travel bed for him to lie down on, and to be fair he was good as gold. However when it was time to leave, they all got up and the bloke picks up the dog bed and gives it a good old shake, spraying sand and dog hair everywhere (inside the restaurant mind). As if that wasn't bad enough, he then lays the bed on the table so that he can roll it up to stash away!
Our Crayfish butties were superb.
Back on site the sun is high in the sky. You know it's trendy for model types to take a pic of their long slender and sun tanned legs stretched out on a lounger? Well here's my effort of my short and dumpy legs with gnarled toes for you to appreciate.
It's simply glorious just sat there swigging on a cold one as the sun warms my chops. Just to break the monotony a nutter flies over the site hanging from a bed sheet.
The BBQ gets lit to cremate some kebabs for tea, and the site looks like there's a new Pope being elected on nearly every pitch as white smoke fills the air.
With dishes squared away we jump into Vera and sit on her tailgate in Sennen watching the sun drop into the Atlantic some distance west of The Scilly Isles.
I honestly wouldn't holiday anywhere else.
Nos dda
Sunday 13 August
We wake this morning to the sound of Bongo drums being hammered into submission by someone with less rhythm than a Catholic father of 15.
i take the dogs over to Sennen and throw a ball for them to loosen up a bit, and then get out my rip off Go Pro to take a 360 shot to capture the beauty of this place. Apologies for the dog shaking like a sh****g dog at the end!
Herself needs perfume and I need a pair of replacement sunnies, so boots next to Hayle RFC is our first port of call. We had a bit of an argument in the sunglasses aisle, which involved liberal use of the word cheapskate, but I won the battle and scored myself a pair for the grand sum of £7.50.
We've seen posters dotted about the place promising an air show, but they've been at busy junctions and are only A4 in size, so capturing the detail has been difficult. I spot one and slow down enough for Herself to catch ..... Air Show ...... Hell's Mouth ........ 12th & 13th August ........ 10.30am to 5.30pm.
That'll do us and we follow the arrows from Hayle. Hell's Mouth seemed to be a strange place for an air show, but I figured they would be taking off at Perranporth and doing a flyby at Hell's Mouth. We stop near the cliffs first the give the dogs a walk and take in some sea air .. like we've not had much of it this week.
As we pull into the allocated car parking area we get that sinking feeling as we read one of the posters close up. in very small print is the word "model". We've driven all this way to park up in a mowed field full of anoraks!
Herself made her intentions quite clear by picking up her phone and staring intently at it. She's not getting out then!
I site on Vera's tailgate long enough to see one do a buzzy fly by before banging the dogs up once more to make tracks further north. We make it as far as Portreatreath where we swerve in to the car park of The Portreath Arms Hotel.
After taking a table in their rather nice beer garden I was initially informed by the brick serving that we couldn't have a sandwich as we had not booked. I found it rather hard to believe but was on my best behaviour. I don't know exactly what the manageress said to him when he was pouring our pints of cider, but one advantage of being nearly deaf is that I'm rather good at lip reading, and the words stupid and imbecile were directed at him.
For all that, our lunch was lovely, even if they did serve the side of chips in a flower pot!
We stopped off in Hayle for provisions on the way back and the place is rammed. I'm not in the best of moods by the time we're done, but a van tickled me on the way back to Vera, and lightened my mood.
I drop Herself and the dogs off at the caravan and head off out to catch us some supper. On pulling up at Lamorna Cove I note that more of the sea wall has dropped away over the winter. There'll be nothing left by next year
The mission was a success, and while I didn't catch any fish so to speak, I didn't lose any tackle either!
Back on site Herself has cleaned the caravan and got into Nigella mode. We have a late supper of Thai Fishcakes and a stir fry.
Nos dda
Monday 14 August
Up early this morning and outside pottering about before the bongo drums started. We've a busy day ahead of us as it's breaking camp day. @DerekTheWeather is predicting light rain showers, so not really a good day for it.
The awning is soaking after an overnight drenching, and as a result is bloody heavy to handle, but by 9am the awning and its contents are stuffed into Vera. We sit and wait.
By 10.30am we get the nod from the site owners that our new pitch is ready. You see, a few days ago I went and had a word. the uncontrolled hippy kids were starting to get me down. Last night one of their stray balls actually came into our awning last night, hitting stuff off the table.
Some juggling by the site enabled us to move onto a fully serviced pitch on the more civilised CC members' field today, with the added bonus that we can stay extra nights instead of having to move up country.
We're in the middle of setting up and the biblical rains started. We got soaked through while setting up, but luckily I'd had the foresight to connect all the services first and turn on the water heater so hot showers could be had.
It rained and it rained and it rained. The ground is sodden and people are in hiding, the only respite from the monotony coming when a little dinky toy pulls onto the adjacent pitch.
We've nothing in for tea, so a trip into Penzance is needed. Just when we thought the rain couldn't come down any heavier .... it did. Good job it was only light showers that was forecast, I'd hate to think how we would have coped if there was heavy rain.
Our evening meal is winter comfort food ..... mid August mind!!
We're just clearing away the dishes and the clouds part. This is why we love it so far west in Cornwall, even after a horrendous day the place still manages to send you to bed with a smile on your chops.
Until next time
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