Time to kill

I can't pick my new car up till after noon so I thought I'd get on and give you the run down on our holiday. We left home at 3am on Monday morning and had a fairly uneventful drive down to Kathy's house. We were a bit early and I needed to buy a couple of birthday cards so when we stopped for petrol just round the corner from Kathy's I got a couple and put some money inside them for the twins. We got to the house at about 9am and I could see Kathy was trying to have a mad clear up through the window. LOL. We stayed for a couple of hours and helped with some of the food for the birthday party later on that day. Kathy was going to be having 12 kids there after school - rather her than me. We came away with four ham and cheese muffins that I definitely want the recipe for. (We had them when we got to the caravan and they were scrumptious!). Sun just starting to go down.


We arrived at Perran Sands Haven holiday park at about 2.15 - and check in started at 2.30pm so we timed it really well. Luckily our caravan - 516 - wasn't too far away from all the facilities and it was really lovely inside. There was a small dining area, a large-ish lounge, small kitchen but big enough for us as we weren't really planning on doing much cooking in there, small toilet, a twin bedroom with really small single beds in it, lots of cupboards, a bigger bathroom with loo, sink and double shower, and the main bedroom, which had a door from it to the bathroom, kinda like en suite. Craig did our unpacking and made the bed up. Kate and Matty did their own. Once stuff was sorted in the van we drove down into Perranporth itself and people watched for a bit while sitting overlooking the beach. There were lots of surfers bobbing about in the sea, looking like a whole load of seals. We decided we were hungry by now and we walked over the beach to the Watering Hole pub where we had a lovely meal, sitting outside on the beach. I took some great photos of the sun going down over the water.

View from the bar

The sun was to our left and as it set it cast a lovely light over the water

We were all pretty much knackered by the time we'd finished eating. Kate and Matty walked back over the beach to the car park while Craig and I had another pint before gearing ourselves up to do the same. There is no easy access to this pub, no road. You HAVE to walk across the beach. But we thought it was well worth the visit and the French lad who served us was a bit of alright too. Kate asked him where he was from when she heard his accent and when he said he was from France she said a couple of words to him, which he replied to in French and which totally stumped her. ROFL! She only really knows the basics.

On Tuesday morning we were up bright and early. Kate and Matty wanted to go to a fun park so we dropped them off at Holywell Bay fun park and we carried on to Port Isaac, which is where they film Doc Martin for TV. We parked in the harbour on the beach as the tide was out and went to find somewhere to have something to eat. We ended up having a toasted tea cake in a little cafe but we were still hungry and there was a pasty shop next door. Can't go to Cornwall without eating Cornish pasties now can you! They weren't actually all that nice to be honest with you but we ate them anyway.

We parked on this part of the beach in the harbour in Port Isaac

Another view of the harbour

Canon overlooking the harbour

Floats and lobster pots on the harbour wall

After a look round some of the nearby shops we decided to carry on up the coast a little way before heading back to pick Kate and Matty up. However, I got a text message from Kate to tell me that they'd got on a bus back to the park and we didn't need to hurry back for them. So we just had a slow drive back down the coast. When I say slow I don't really mean it. Craig loves winding country lanes, and so do I when he is driving like a sedate spinster. This, unfortunately, doesn't happen very often, and he's more likely to drive like a demented trainee rally driver...on speed! Talk about taking your life in your hands! JEEZE! Oh and another thing that drove me mad - last week before we went away the car had to go back to the garage for the wheel bearings to be fixed and while they were at it they changed the brake pads or something. Well, they obviously didn't put something back or tighten something up properly, cos we rattled and squealed all over bloody Cornwall and it was very annoying. Roll on this afternoon. It took most of the rest of the afternoon to get back to the park, stopping lots on the way to soak up the views.

We ate at a pub in Perranporth that night but I can't say I was all that impressed with the food. We sat at the beach for an hour when we were finished before heading back to the park. We found a great place to get shots of the sunset, but I won't bore you with all seven of the photos. Here's one though that shows you what a great sight it was. You don't get to see sunsets like this on our side of the country and I'm not up in time to see the sun rise in the mornings.

On Wednesday we all piled into the car for a day long trip. First off we went to the Cornish Cyder Farm, and we were looking around we realised we'd actually been there before. So we bought a 5 litre flagon of Scrumpy Jack for Dene as his reward for dog sitting all week then headed off to Falmouth and picked up some proper Cornish pasties from Rowes pasty shop. We've had them from there before and they're really scrummy. After that we went up to Pendennis Point where there is an ice cream van. He does gorgeous Cornish ice cream with clotted cream on the top - very fattening but sod it, we were on holiday. After that we carried on down the coast and round the bottom and on to Land's End, where we ate our pasties overlooking the sea, near the famous sign. We were 507 miles from home at this point. We had a bit of a wander round and perused the shops, bought a couple of small gifts for people. Actually, mostly for me! LOL. We went back to the caravan park via St Ives, Hayle and Redruth. I know these place names aren't strange, but there are certainly some really weird place names in Cornwall. Let me see, there was Goonhavern, Sticker, Fiddlers Green, oh, and Cocks. I kid you not, there is a place in Cornwall called Cocks. I was in stitches.

On Thursday we went to Cornwall Gold and Treasure Park. This place has loads of little shops and a huge hall that sells everything to do with jewellery imaginable. Craig bought me a lovely gold and blue topaz bracelet and I bought him a bracelet too. He's wanted one for ages and there was 25% off so he got it. He also bought me a pearl that I chose myself - or rather I chose the oyster that it was in. I didn't have it set because there was nothing I really fancied. And they didn't have a drill anyway! Kate went to the bear factory and made herself a bear, which came with a birth certificate and everything. When we left there we had a bit of a drive around then went back to the van. We started packing up some of our stuff ready for in the morning. Kate and Matty stayed on site for something to eat, but Craig and I went to the Plume of Feathers, not far away, and had a lovely meal.

Friday was time to head for home. We left the park after loading the car up at about 8.15am and it took us till 2pm to get to Lynn's house. We had a pee break and cuppa to revive before setting out once more to come home. We dropped Matty off at his house near the Metro Centre and we were home for 8pm. It was a long day. Mollie was pleased to see us and so was Dene when he saw his cider! We were all starving so we sent out for Chinese to be delivered. Once I'd eaten I caught up on my emails and the message boards I visit and I've caught up with all my blog reading this morning, seeing as I was up at 6.30am.

Well that's it for now, hope I haven't bored you stupid. Should have probably warned you it's a long post. LOL. If you've made it all the way to the bottom you deserve a medal. There are more pics in my Webshots album if you're interested, link to the right.