This is a diary account for our holiday in Cornwall in 2003. As with the other's, this diary can be quite long to read, we were camping for about 2 weeks or more so be warned. There are pictures etc. still to come so please bear with me.

Friday 12th September
Car got packed, ready to go and so off we went ar around 10am. For about an hour, we made good time. However the M5 southbound decided to be stupid and even four hours later, we were no further south than Cheltenham!
Taking backroads, heading this way and that way, still did not see us near Cornwall until 6pm this evening!
We found a nice little campsite, I think it was called Rock Farm, not far from Doccum, Dartmoor. The site was very traditional, they even let you have a camp-fire! :D

We set camp, using the new campbeds and we ate at a pub in Mortonhampstead, then headed back to set our campfire burning, drink our beer and start relaxing!

Saturday 13th September
I woke up at around 6am, desperate for the bathroom and cold! I hadn't slept very well, my neck hurt and too boot, my feet were cold!
After I had answered nature's call, I returned to bed, had a quick chat with Nigel about how cold it was, then managed to get back to sleep.
When I awoke later on, it was around 9am and we decided to get dressed. (I then realised I had only packed one half of Nigel's underpants!) We washed, broke camp, took some photos, said goodbye to the old man and his 19 month old grand-daughter and hit the road.
We aimed to get onto the A30, heading South. Nigel asked about St Austin after we'd fulled up and so we decided to head there. Trevalling through parts of St Austin, we found asite called Pentewan Sands and by 2pm we'd pitched camp long before any of our neighbours had finished (in some cases, even started!)

We did offer to help one of our new neighbours, they seemed to be having trouble with their tent. After they gracefully declined, we quickly changed and headed for a walk down to the beech and up the coastal walk, which helped pass half an hour.
We remembered as we returned that we had one chair and that was broken, so we bought another and a few cups (to drink from) and then relaxed in the Cornish sunshine :)

We went for a walk into the village, taking a look at the few shops it had along the way. We sat and had a cream-tea, which was very nice! We then wandered back to the tent, stoping along the way at the games arcade. I was a little tired when we got back, so I had a nap. When I awoke, Nigel had napped too, so we went to freshen up, before finding somewhere to go and eat :)

We dove into As Austell and parked up and as we wandered around the town-centre, we saw a fight in progress. Nigel and I (mainly Nigel) broke it up and we eventually saw him wander off. The fellow we mainly helped tried to get Nigel and I to roll a cigarette for him, but we soon discovered we were awful at that! *blush*
We decided, after wandering around the town for a bit, that as we returned to the car, we would / should try our hands at the bowling and let Nigel clean himself down (him breaking up that fight did mean he had the other guys blood on him. Yeuk!)

It's been about 5 years or so since we went bowling (since Nigel whopped my pretty little ass!) and I expected Nigel to beat me, but as it had been so long since we last bowled, we both started out fairly badly, though my game improved much quicker than Nigels'! :D

I won both games, much to my surprise and we reflected on what our games were like, decided we would find a bowling alley near to us when we got home. (As an aside, we never have). We returned to camp, decided to rest on our chairs and drink beer.

We spent some time in the club house later on that evening. Nigel had to find something to beat me at and he found it: table football! Things got interesting when the wee boy from the couple who were next to us (the ones who had trouble pitching their tent) decided to help Nigel win by putting extra balls onto the table! :D
We played some pinball then sat outside for a while, then headed back to our tent for the night.

Sunday 14th September
I awoke to the sun-rise at around 7am, taking a few pictures of it against the headland before grabbing a few more hours sleep ;)
After our second rising, we showered, changed and broke camp, deciding to see the Eden Project, so off we went.
The Project might not look large, but your feet do start to ache as you walk around it! (We stopped for breakfast on the way to the Eden Project at a little chef)

We had a look around (which took us about 2 1/2 hours) then bought some souveneirs, then headed towards St Mauves. This town is very deceptive on the map and we arrived on the wrong road for the campsite!
Turning around and aiming for the backroads, Nigel got us to a campsite near Bohortha, just on the coast. The views are wonderfin and the weather has been fantastic all day! It took us about 1/2 hour to pitch camp totally, campbeds and all, so we took in some sunshine (no, not in bikini's, not with this coastal wind!) and the views, resting our weary feet and having a beer. (Good old Tesco!)

We went for another walk shortly after the above was originally penned, taking in some fantastic views! Nigel steered us towards the village and by 5pm, we were sat in one of the town's pubs, having a beer. The campsite is so close to the village that we can walk to it, which makes a really nice change for me as I'm usually driving and can't drink!
We asked when food was being served, to be told we were an hour and a half early! Oh whops!
Nigel had the brilliant idea of trying the put at the top of the hill nearer the campsite, so faced with a steep walk but with the prospect of food at the top, off we went. 10 mins later, we were there, ordering food and more drinks! :D

The smell of the lamb rogan josh enticed Nigel to ordering that, while I had a dirloin steak and babked potatoe, which was incredibly well cooked! Very good food on all fronts and when the chef emerged from the kitchen for a brief moment, he received our thanks :D
I had desert, a hot apple pie and custard, then we went and sat in the beer garden, having settled the bill for the wonderful food (The Pub itself, by the way, was the Royal Standard and I can't find a website for it at this time :( ) Finishing our drinks, we headed for camp to unwind and sit down.

I should point out that the left cheek of my bum hurts. Nigel thinks it's from bowling the previous evening. I think he wants me to ache as much as he does, his feet are sore and he has blisters on his feet, poor thing!

Monday 15th September
We woke at some point during the night for a bathroom break and when I went, I had fantastic view of the night sky! Venus was up, the moon was full, the sky was perfectly clear and it was just wonderful!
The next time I awoke, it was gone 8am, my right arm flopped about like a dummy's as it was dead asleep and it was hard getting up with just one arm (I'm right-handed). Eventually, we washed, dressed then headed to the village to get some breakfast, taking the car with us.
The local conviences store had everything and we breakfasted on bacon pasties, orange juice, milk and fresh raspberries. Breaking camp, we headed to Truro, then tried to find Trelwarne, the signs for it only pointed you there from one direction, so we decided against it and found ourselves at a site north of Vellan Head. It's not got the costal views we thought it would do, but it's not far from a nice little town / village, so we'll have somewhere to relax this evening.

When we drove back to Truro, we came across a camping and caravanning supply place, so we bought some little heat packs, a stove, a saucepan and some campinggaz (to undo the heat packs when we need to).

We went for a walk and oh-boy, did we go for a walk!! To my best guestimate, since it took us one hour and 11 minutes to get back, that it took us one and a half hours to talk to Mollin Cove! Nigel's hips gave out (:O )and his left (his good leg!) hurts too! My right knee hurts, my feet ache, my bottom still hurts (more so now!) and the muscles at the top of my legs at the front hurt too! :(
We got back from our "walk" early evening time (it was another coastal walk back but up and down cliffs and ravines!) and we decided to drive to Mollin and get something to eat. We'd had enough walking today!

We ate at the Old Inn a very nice pub. I had lasagne and Nigel had the sirloin steak, cooked to his liking. On the way back, I made a point of driving down to the Cove, to see what was there (we turned around at the ridge at the top as we couldn't see a pub or somewhere to eat) and I'm pleased to say it doesn't seem as if we missed much! We caught the sunset, I think, on camera.

We picked up some goodies from the Spar, incase we get caught short for an evening meal, as well as some sweet and savoury snakcs, then headed back to camp.

Just a mile from camp was / is a craft workshop and in there is a wonderful candle maker and I actually managed to get black candles that are black all the way through! Worth checking his site out.

Tuesday 16th September
We went into the village to get something to eat but the bakery store (or that part of it) wasn't opene, so Nigel persuaded me it would be a good idea to get some bacon and bread and have that. I have to admit, I thought it was just an excuse to use the camping stove etc. but he says it wasn't. I'm not totally convinced yet, but I am about breakfast in the morning! Yummy scrummy!

By the time we'd eaten and washed up etc. it was around 9am and the tent was still damp from the morning dew, but we wanted to go somewhere slightly bigger , near a town, so we drove to Helston, then out to Porthleven and stopped off at a chemist. We found the campsite but it was over-looked by houses, so we drove onwards to Penzance. We had lunch in Penzance, visited their camping shop and bought two walking sticks (one each), more tent pegs, another pillow for me and from a store down the terrace, a knife to go with the camping stuff. Turning over cooking bacon with an eating knife and fork does get you scalded some!
We were on our way again shortly after, then we visited Land's End. We took some photo's, then left, going through St Just and taking the northern coastal route to St Ives.
We camped at Polmantor, near St Ives and quickly set camp, in pitch Wicca 104!! :D

I do have to point out that the roads this end of Cornwall are very badly signposted and often the bends came up at me without warning (i.e. no warning signs, no chevrons or anything!)

We went into St Ives to eat. the town is in a valley and you have to walk down to the town centre. It's a quaint little town and I look forward to seeing it in daylight!
Nigel spied a restaurant called the Saucy Chef (oh err Mrs!) so there we ate. Nigel had the sole, which was and I had the Drunken Duck, which was very very very nice! We saw some seals playing in the bay at St Ives, which was quite sweet.
We bought some bacon for tomorrow's breakfast, then headed back to camp for some beer. The stars at night were wonderful and I can now understand why astrologers hate the light polution in City Centres.