Treva's Tales: March 2007

A short weekend break with (for various reasons) no kids.

Easy journey down on the Friday night.

Saturday we woke to glorious sunshine - we managed to pick the hottest weekend of the year so

far. Into St Ives, which was really bustling but not overcrowded, in search of the "original" Miners pasty. The shop we'd seen them in before was open and we had two specially cooked for us. It wasn't worth it, they were horrible - despite what they said the jam at one end seeps into the meaty part. Yuk. A quick detour to have a look as St Uny Church. It's right next to a golf course and from there you have excellent vies across the estuary towards Hayle and miles of sandy beaches, and can also walk through a wonderful graveyard.

Drove down to Marazion and walked out to St Michaels Mount. The castle was closed till April but it's still a great experience walking out to the island, knowing that in a few hours the path you've just walked will be under water.

We then drove through Newlyn into Mousehole, a quaint little fishing village. Was told the story of the Mousehole cat but an over friendly shopkeeper who looked very disappointed that we didn't buy a book/cd/dvd of the story he'd just told us. Excellent pint in the Ship Inn, a very old pub that you could really imagine being frequented by sailors and smugglers hundreds of years ago. A plaque on the wall outside gave a poignant reminder of the Penlee Lifeboat disaster, the pubs landlord being one of the eight crew to perish that night.

Just driving around we spotted a sign for Logans Rock and decided it was worth a visit. It wasn't. We walked a mile or so through fields to find a rock - we're still not sure if we found it.

Saturday evening after eating in we had a quick drink in the bar at the camp before we visited relatives living locally.

On Sunday took the long slow way home, through Hayle and Portreath. Finding ourselves near St Agnes a quick phone call had a friend dropping everything to meet us in The Driftwood Spars, one of my favourite pubs.

A few pints later and it we continued home and discovered a little treasure. The Kingsley Food Village, right on the A30 about half an hour or so into the journey (look for the flags). It's a huge retail place but the massive food hall is full of stuff you won't find at your local supermarket - with loads of free samples and tasters to fill yourself up with for the journey home. We pay Little Chef prices when you can eat for free.!

Friday 2nd March.
A very excited Sam tore out of Beavers at 6.30pm on the Friday ready for our adventure to begin. The car was already loaded with fuel and our gear so we were on our way at 6.50pm, only 222 miles for Dad to drive.
Sam soon settled into the journey watching "Danny Champion of the World" on his portable DVD player (What a godsend!!!!!) An hour into the journey we were still only 35 miles from home (a quick calculation in my head worked out at about 6 more hours of driving ahead!!!)
We soon made up time on the better roads and arrived on site at exactly 11pm after a short diversion through Hayle. (Total journey time 4hrs 10minutes) We were greeted by a couple of the local rabbits hopping around outside the bungalow. We put our gear indoors and after a quick drink curled up in our sleeping bags in front of the TV. Sam was very quickly asleep, Dad soon followed, zzzzzz.............

Saturday 3rd March

We were both awake before 7am so got up, opened up the doors and let the Cornish air flood in, and had our breakfast listening to the birds in the trees.
We then decided to explore the park and followed the Woodland Trail which starts just behind the bungalow. We saw Squirrels, Crows, a Robin and heard lots of other birds in the trees.

We made our way back to the bungalow and headed out for the day.

In the car we followed the St. Ives road up to Tescos to stock up on teabags (which we did not really need, but Sam NEEDED a PG Chimp!), we sat in the restaurant enjoying our Hot Chocolate and muffins whilst admiring the view across Carbis Bay.

We then set off for Flambards which was due to open at 10am, we headed towards Penzance then turned left towards Helston we got a beautiful view of St Michaels Mount on the way, and arrived at Flambards 10 minutes before it opened. We were the first visitors of the day, but as it was so early in the season only a couple of the attractions were open.(The reduced admission fee made up for this.) Sam was interested in the Victorian Village but as we were the only people in there he was a little bit put off by some of the very realistic dummies dressed in the period costumes, when we went into a Victorian Hardware shop and the smoke alarm suddenly went off!!!!!!!! This nearly finished Sam off..
At this point he decided he didn't really fancy visiting the Blitz Experience. This was a shame because both these exhibitions looked very interesting, but once a 7 year old has made their mind up, they have made their mind up! We will save this for another time, I think he would have been fine if there were more people in there with us.

Sam "enjoying" himself at Flambards.

As we went outside to have a look what else will be open in the Summer we saw a glider coming in to land at Culdrose airbase next door. We got back into the car and then drove around the airport and came across a viewing area. (There was a gift shop and tea-room which offers guided tours of the base, but again we were too early in the year) We stayed a while watching the Gliders, Helicopters and the numerous Wagtails.
We then went for a little drive and Dad spotted a sign for the National Seal Sanctuary at Gweek, after heading down some country lanes and into a local housing estate!?! we soon reached our destination. The sanctuary is in a lovely setting on the side of the river estuary, it is a sanctuary for seals which have been found injured or abandoned along the West Country coastline and have been brought here for recuperation, until they are able to be released back into the wild.

They also have Sea-Lions and Otters which you can get a close look at. We spent a good three hours here and can imagine in the high season a whole day could easily be spent viewing the feedings. When we had finished we drove on to Goonhilly Down and the huge dishes soon loomed into view like something from "Close Encounters". We headed towards the visitors centre and parked under "Arthur" the Big Dish.

The last bus tour of the day was just leaving (to a space launch style countdown) as we arrived. We were able to enter the gift shop and cafe and had a small taste of what there is to see, and we will DEFINITELY be returning here ASAP. You can take a bus tour of the entire site and do loads of hands on stuff in the exhibition rooms. After a quick look through the gorse bushes for the deadly adders we decided to start heading back towards the bungalow. We took a direct route straight across Cornwall on the B3302 passing through Leedstown, which has coloured lights strung the entire length of the village, and soon arrived in Hayle.

We had a quick look at the shops in Hayle before we headed for the coast to see the sunset over the sea. We left Hayle by the B3301 signposted Portreath and made our way to a National Trust area overlooking Gwithian Sands with nice views of Godrevy Island and its lighthouse.

After taking LOTS of photos of the sunset and the moon rise (this was the night of a lunar eclipse) we headed back through Hayle to pick up our Fish & Chips to take home with us, which we enjoyed in front of the telly. Surprisingly Sam lasted until about 9.30pm but I had no chance of waking him up to see the eclipse!

We had already decided that we would get up early and have a tidy up before leaving at 10ish in the morning, to call in at Paradise Park on our way back to Southampton. After a bottle of DoomBar in front of Match of the Day I too was soon ready for bed.

What a busy day!!!!!

Sunday 4th March

Rain, Rain, Rain..........

After being spoilt by beautiful spring weather yesterday we awoke to payback,

the rain was p......ersistantly coming down!!!

We soon realised our plan of visiting Paradise Park was out the window as the parrots were probably drowning in the downpour outside!!!!

Sam was very good at helping put the dishes away and hoovering, and at handing me our bags as I ran back and forth up the path to the car (Thank God we are the end nearest the Car Park!) and all too soon it was time to say goodbye to Treva until our next visit. Sam was sat on the sofa being quiet which is EXTREMELY unusual for him, when I asked what was up he burst into tears, "I don't want to go home" he said. I knew exactly how he felt ;-) and I am so glad that we are able to go back whenever we can.

We packed a lot into our flying visit but have barely scratched the surface of what West Cornwall has to offer, we are both looking forward to our next visit in May with Mummy (Sara) and Katie.

Thanks Treva' see you soon.