Poscard from Cornwall (delayed in the post)

It’s been a while since we updated but we’ve been busy, so here goes.
Our week in Bude was fantastic; it was lovely to get to know Dave’s extended family properly. Ann-Marie’s sister Karen joined us with her family so it made a really good party week. We spent lots of time on the sand and in the surf at Bude and Widemouth beaches.

We did lots of cycling, (Well, it was lots for us, you don’t get 1 in 4 hills in South Lincolnshire!) and a fair bit of walking around local footpaths and the coastal path.

At the beginning of the week there were about 40 of us at the campsite, (as well as our Kon-Tiki the Woods had hired 4 static caravans and there were a couple of tents) so we took the cooking in turns. Thursday was our go; we did mixed kebabs on the BBQ with sweetcorn fritters and roasted cherry tomatoes. That seemed to go down well, but not nearly as well as the chocolate fondue that we did for pudding!

On Friday we rolled up our awning and trundled off with Karen, Andrew, Lauren and Ben to Crackington Haven, where we had a walk along the coast and voted the pasties as the best ever.

Dave and Ben went out to the end of the peninsula across a very scary path that they had to do on hands knees and bums.

We then went for a wander round Port Isaac - an extremely pretty and very Cornish fishing harbour; houses all built on top of each other and narrow, secret looking passages oozing with flower baskets.

We packed up early on Saturday and pulled out of the site at around 8am with Dave’s sister Anne and her bike and son Ben in the guest wing. We drove down to St Mawes on the Roseland peninsula, stopping at a little beach somewhere near Portscatho (we’re not quite sure where, Ben was navigating) There were a lot of Falmouth Working Boats in the water at St Mawes and just after lunch they congregated near the shore for the start of a race. We watched them go out of the bay – such grace and power – these are old wooden boats but the crews don’t hold anything back. What a fabulous sight!

We carried on to Marazion, just outside Penzance. On the way the Kon-Tiki had a go on a ferry in practice for things to come, and parked on the sea road overlooking St Michael’s Mount.

Dave’s sister Kate and Angelo joined us for a birthday cream tea on the sand dunes; unbelievably it was our first cream tea since we crossed the border from England into Cornwall, and was made all the better by the addition of fresh strawberries and raspberries. Happy Birthday (& 1/2) Kate!
It reminded us all of family picnics from our respective childhoods; sand in your food and everyone huddled behind an improvised windbreak. We had a bag of Mini Chedders each though, so it was OK.

We spent the evening at Kate and Angelo’s house then on Sunday morning our house guests, Anne & Ben caught the train home. We waved them off from Penzance then walked back along the seafront to the van before heading off back into Devon. We stopped for the night in Newton Poppleford and had a sunset walk round a lovely little village called Harpford; every house a contender for a jigsaw.

On Monday we drove 4 miles further to the campsite at Sidmouth Folk Week.


On the way down the 1-in-4 into Crackington Haven and – more severely - on the way back out, the Kon-Tiki’s gearbox was not at all happy. It’s now making a distressed rattle in 1st and 2nd.  Luckily Ann-Marie’s Dad knows a mechanic who may be able to rebuild it and replace bearings.  We’re off up there next so fingers crossed.

Lists – unchanged apart from “Fix Gearbox”