Early but slow start with a leisurely breakfast. Some of us left the house at about 10 for a walk to Baggy Point and round to Putsborough Sands for a coffee before heading back over the top. The weather was a bit grey so I put my 50mm on the camera which forces you to think a bit more, rather more than I do when I have my favoured wide angle lenses. Part way round we lost two of the walking party as they headed over the top to get back to watch the Davis cup matches.
At the Cafe there was a rush on and it took some time to get J and I a coffee and a portion of chips each. The trouble with going to the Cafe us that it is a long descent so to get back over the top we had a fierce hill to climb, however once tackled the rest of the way back to the north end of Croyde Bay is level or down hill. The path follows old farm tracks where you can see the way carts have worn ruts in the bedrock just below the surface. We also had to follow the path of a stream which had been paved with breeze blocks to make walking dryer.
The tennis finished Murray won but not without making it look difficult, then we turned over to watch rugby world cup matches. I had volunteered to cook and spent the afternoon in and out of the Kitchen. On the menu was my usual tomato pasta sauce, my new favourite roast cauliflower and hazelnut carbonara, and a BlackBerry baked cheese cake, with the berries coming from the bushes just up the lane from where we are staying. There were plenty about but not at the edges, they grow low so it was easy enough to kind of walk on them without getting too scratched by the brambles.
Timing for dinner went well with everything ready within 5 minutes of of the predicted 19:00. All the dishes went down well, I was pleased with the cauliflower dish I seem to have cracked it, so it will now be part of my small repertoire. The cheese cake was not as good as I thought it might be perhaps it was still a bit warm but it seemed a bit split. Not sure what I need to do to fix it?
Downton starts again tonight so it will be a late night all of 22:30 before it finishes, so a lay in tomorrow will be the order of the day.
Holiday change over day, from Cornwall to Croyde in Devon, and from just me and Helen to Helens family and hangers on. We were up early and ready to leave the hut at 09:30 without any trouble at all there was not much to tidy, so we had time for a leisurely breakfast. Helen prides herself on leaving holiday properties tidily, today was no exception, ensuring the mantle piece items were repositioned where we had found them.
We took the coastal A39 which winds through the Cornish and Devonshire countryside, the sun was shining and the atmosphere pretty crystal clear, so the drive was a pleasure. We passed through quite a few familiar places from holidays past. At Bideford we passed the turn off to Croyde but we had planned a detour to the National Trusts Arlington Court where our first priority was coffee and cake in the Cafe. The gluten free lime and coconut cake went down a treat with a large americano.
Arlington Court was or is home to the Chichester family which are related to Sir Francis Chichester who sailed around the world single handed at a time without GPS. (ed: bloody good book). The house itself is full of shells, stuffed birds and model boats, it seems that they were a family that liked collecting stuff. The last of the house even had a museum wing to store all of it that somehow there was no room for on the house itself. We left Arlington Court at about 13:00, time for a supermarket sweep before our anticipated arrival at the new holiday venue in Croyde at 15:00.
I hadn’t banked on the amount of shopping that would be required at the Braunton Tesco we needed provisions for 7 for a week, almost £300 and a trolley full. The very helpful store manager asked if we had picked one of every item they sold! The shopping took about an hour, we wondered why people bothered doing that every week, we get Tesco to deliver which is far more convenient.
C&T were already at the hut when we arrived and five journeys later I had unpacked the car of luggage and shopping. Everyone was accounted for by 17:00 and we all settled in, some resting on the lawn others taking a stroll on the beach. Dinner would a simple affair preprepared salad stuff from Waitrose. Bring Devon on.
The next door neighbours have have vacated the property next door and annoyingly have switched off their broadband hub, so we have lost the small internet access point that is the corner of the sofa in the front window of the property. Last full day in Cornwall we fancied a light walk, so Padstow was the obvious choice. Helen was not keen on a boat across the river Camel but a 5 minute drive to Rock and a ferry, compared to a 30 minute drive to Padstien made the sensible choice the boat. Parking at Rock is an exorbitant £4.50.
The wait for the ferry was short and we boarded with a family, and made the short crossing to Padstow. Feeling lazy and because it looked like it might rain we opted for a coffee before heading out on the coastal path. We nostalgically looked at the flat we rented above the public conveniences quite a few years ago, whilst make use of them.
The path hugs the headland and is relatively flat compared to the walk we had done the day before, and is semi paved with Cornish rock. The sun came out as we got to the point and it seemed like a good place to stop for sandwiches and to lose a layer. Two marmalade sandwiches later we popped round the headland where the wind was blowing and spent ten minutes with the coast lookout volunteer. I always find the coastal lookout people very accommodating, and always make a point of popping in. On a winters day they always have a heater going and it is a welcome break from the constant coastal wind.
The lookout also provided a short cut saving us a big descent and adventure on the coastal path, however it did mean that Helen had to walk through a field of friendly (ed: ???) and inquisitive cows. We were soon heading down hill as luck would have to a Cafe in a set of cottages called “Rest a while Tea Garden” where we stopped for another cup of coffee. A flock of house sparrows were scrounging for food but every time I tried to get a picture some one walked through the garden gate and they flew off, I even tried offering them my sandwich crumbs. (ed: very friendly and good quality food/drinks).
It was not far back to the ferry pickup which had moved closer to where we were because the tide, which had the added benefit of allowing us to walk on the sand directly across the bay. The ferry crossing was smooth enough for Helen to announce that she was enjoying the mode of transport.
We were back at the hut by 15:30 so we went down to the seafront where Helen did some shopping then after a brief walk on the beach we went to the Waterfront bar for a final Cornish beer, Tribute, before moving on to Devon beer next week. Pasta for tea then watched the opening game of the rugby world cup. Tomorrow a new county and another week of holiday.
The nearest place to the east of Polzeath is the little hamlet of Port Quin, on a previous holiday we had walked from Port Isaac to Port Quin and back, we had taken the coast path but the overland route back. Today we decided to do the route the other way, more for convenience than anything, there were coffee shops and loos in Port Isaac but Port Quin only had a coffee van and a car park.
The road into Port Quin is very narrow and quite steep in parts, but it is worth the thrill. The port itself is a natural feature, a rocky inlet that stretches a couple of hundred yards in land, apart from a storm in a perfect direction it is hard to imagine that waves of any significance reach the port. The coastal path starts very steeply between a couple of cottages nestled into the rocks.
The weather was a treat again with blue skies and white fluffy cumulus cloud, perfect seaside photography weather. The coastal path however was far from perfect clinging to every contour and believe me there are lots of them, and for good measure the downward ones are matched equally with stretches of upwards ones, for the whole 3.2 miles. I am not sure if the distance on the signs was measured on a flat map or reflected the true distance a tape measure placed on the ground would have measured, it seemed longer and took more than the hour 3 miles should usually take. (ed: Cornish cliff miles!)
After several rests, one for lunch, we descended the final set of steps to Port Isaac, which is where the ITV series Doc Martin is filmed, it stars Martin Clunes as a doctor, dealing with his patients and getting into lots of moral dilemmas. That all I know about that as I don’t watch it myself. Down in the town itself it started to rain and we were fortunate enough to get a seat in the terrace for a coffee and a packet of crisps, where we nursed them until the rain stopped and the sun came out.
The walk back was quicker and simpler, although the first hill was a long up hill trudge. We took the direct route straight over the top avoiding the undulating coastal path. We also avoided cow fields until the very end, much to Helen’s relief, as she does not feel she can trust cows. (ed: sensible woman!). Back at the car park Fiona’s coffee wagon was still serving coffee and biscuits, I had an Americano and a white chocolate and raspberry shortbread.
They had had trouble at the mill today, so I took the opportunity when we had a mobile signal to check in. The outage was just about cleared by the time I checked in which was good to hear. Back at Polzeath we headed to the beach and enjoyed a well earned pint in the late afternoon sun. We had had an energetic day with great weather, all in all another great holiday day.
The weather was not promising to be as warm or as dry with a deep low resulting from storm Henri passing just to the south of Cornwall. Just to keep a pattern going rather than a walk we decided a National Trust property was the order of the day. Llanhydroch was the closest so that was to be our first destination. We have visited before but if I am honest I can’t remember it. (ed: worth reading something about the Victorian family who lived here before you go. I read up after and wished I had known the details prior to the visit. It explains the warm, friendly atmosphere in the house).
There seemed to be a lot of roadworks on the way there perhaps they avoid the peak season and fit them in before the winter. They only delayed us by 5 minutes compared to the sat nav estimate. The family who owned Llanhydroch seemed to own a fair chunk of Cornwall with farms and pockets of land scattered all over the most south west county of the united kingdom.
I would recommend a visit the house is extensive and there are lots of rooms to see, and it has a lived in feel about it, very homely. There is a good Cafe where the food and sandwiches looked appetising, and the coffee was well made. I noticed that the barrista knew what they were doing by having up to 3 brews on the go, they need to send her down to Castle Drogo to train the barrista up there. It was almost 13:00 when we had finished the house, so rather than have lunch at the house we thought we would take a look at another house called Pencarrow which was not far away.
Pencarrow is a private historic house so not covered by our National Trust membership, but we did find a voucher online to get a £1 discount, which although they state you have print out they accepted the one I showed them on Helen mobile. There was confusion over whether we could get on the 14:15 tour as the lunch time relief person had not tallied the numbers correctly. Eventually after a phone call to the central administration to office we were allowed on the be the tour!
We had time for some lunch before the tour and the cafe, not National Trust quality, had sweet potatoes and butternut squash soup on offer. We both had a healthy and tasty lunch. We had a ten minutes to spare before the tour so Helen had a fag and I did a couple of photospheres.
The tour was quite interesting with the guide pointing out the expensive antiques and the more interesting facts about the stuff on display. China by various famous manufacturers featured prominently, as did quite a few artists that I had heard of. Photography was not allowed in the house so you won’t see any photos here.
We stopped at Wadebridge for some provisions then I dropped Helen off at the shops in Polzeath then I headed down to the beach for a look. I set up the time lapse camera on a rock and had to wait longer that usual because a couple went and sat below where I had placed it. We had a pint at the Waterfront, chance for another time lapse, before wandering back to the hut for pasta.
We had a lay in finally surfacing at 09:00, we are really recharging our batteries. By the time we had had breakfast and got sorted it was 10:20. We headed away from the hut by climbing to the very top of the garden and then taking the footpath down into Polzeath we thought it might save some time but in the end it didn’t. The storm had passed overnight and the sun was out, but we went prepared for showers. The sea was quite rough and lashing the rocks at the bottom of the cliffs. We stopped for a rest, a look at the view and a time lapse on an out crop. Helen pulled her usual trick of being the first to spot seals, an adult and young pup. Her day was now fulfilled!
Just around the headland there is a plaque marking the spot where the poet Laurence Binyon composed the poem “For the Fallen” in 1914:
They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning we shall remember them.
I’m sure you will recognise it from the remembrance services, and it was quite fitting that we were there on the day of the Battle of Britain anniversary.
On the lee side of the Headland out of the wind it really was quite hot and we decided that rather than walking the long way to the Bee Centre we would head back across the inland part and onto the beach. The far side of the beach we found a cafe that sold a nice coffee and we sat there and watched the world go by for a while. We were back at the hut by 15:00 and although we had forgotten to put the rubbish out in the morning we noticed that the bin men still hadn’t come so I did two sets of steps up to the house to put the rubbish away.
We spend the rest of the afternoon lounging around on the terrace watching the sea in the distance and reading the newspaper. We went down to the beach to watch the surfers before we ate, the light was not good as it meant shooting into the sun and through haze. The meal was OK I had seared tuna and chips, and Helen a pizza.
We woke up to the blue skies disappearing, as the storm clouds moved in in front of the promised deep low. By the time we were ready to leave the house it was raining hard, and the wind was blowing a gale. The plan was to drive to Plymouth and take a look at the National Aquarium and then take in a new film called Legend about the height of the reign of the Kray twins. Although it would take over an hour to get there we had seen the trailer and decided the drive was worth the effort, particularly as we had not see a decent film at the cinema for some time. Needless to say the drive was a wet one, and the one highlight was the chance to pay £1.50 to cross the Tamar bridge.
By the time we had parked up we thought we might have made a mistake the storm was clearing, the sun was out. The National Aquarium costs £14.75 to get in, not unreasonable for a big venue attraction. The building is part of the renovated dock area, and was modern and bright, glass steel and wood exterior. There were lots of families visiting probably with the same idea as us, a good place to be on a rainy day. The museum itself is a procession of aquariums of differing sizes, some small some several stories high including 3m sharks. It would have been nice to see some of the behind the scenes stuff but there did not seem to be that option. Once we had done the full tour we gave the cafe a miss it was full of screaming children because there were two bouncy castles in the cafe.
We headed round out of the museum and round the port but had to wait for the harbour gate to open, and let a fishing boat in. We soon found a place to have a sandwich, a cocktail bar at night and snack and coffee place during the day. I had a chille prawn sandwich and Helen a feta cheese and oregano salad sandwich, both came with a salad, coleslaw and tortilla chips. They made a good coffee too. The name of the place was Rakuda Kitchen and Cocktails http://www.rakudabar.com/
We walked the full circuit of the harbour area back to where we had parked the car, and took the short trip to the Vue cinema. The film lived up to the trailer and reviews, it was beautifully filmed and the same actor played both of the Kray twins which was quite cleverly done, both twins looked different and had different characters. The drive back to the cottage was tedious as we were in the middle of Plymouth rush hour. We stopped off at the Sainsbury in Bodmin for some quick supplies and were back by 18:30. The seas was quite rough in Polzeath but there were still a few body boards mucking about near the shore.
We thought the weather was going to be bad so we had thought that maybe we would drive to Bodmin and find a cinema to see the film Legend which on looks quite good. However looking at the weather in the morning it turns out that Sunday was going to be OK till late afternoon and it was some Monday when the rain would really start, there was a deep low coming in from the Atlantic so we changed our plans and were out at a reasonably early time of 9:30.
Rather than head straight to the sea we walked in land up the path that leads to the holiday cottage and then across over the hills and down into rock. On the way we walked through a farmyard where a friendly farmer was happy to tell us where abouts the footpath went through his farm yard.
When we got to Rock we walked down on the beach and round to where the ferries beach and found a cafe called Rock Road where they were serving food and coffee. Unfortunately lunch menu didn’t start till 12 and we were there at about 11:10 but from the breakfast menu chose a veggie sausage bap Helen and egg Royale for me. We managed to get a table right at the front of the terrace so I was able to set up my time lapse camera take pictures of the cloud floating beautifully over the town of Padstow.
The path back to Polzeath was along the beach and round the headland was a bit hard walking because the sand was soft so we did a lot of zig zagging to keep to the firm ground. Eventually we reached Daymer Bay where we headed in land a short way across a golf course, to get to the small church of St. Enodoc church where Sir John Betjeman is buried. The church itself is dug into the dunes and is quite small. There had been a wedding quite recently and the arch across the doorway was surrounded by white flowers with the odd pink one which I thought was quite tasteful. We sat on a bench watching the clouds go by another chance for a time lapse sequence. We headed down to the beach and up around the coastal path back to Polzeath, but stopping off for an ice cream at the next beach. The Eton mess flavour was great and the hippies serving it were playing Pink Floyd over the sound system.
We did some rock pooling out on the headland, before we got back, to the village where we stopped at the Waterfront bar Cafe for a coffee and shared some skinny chips between us. We were on the terrace so had another opportunity to capture some time lapse. Whilst we were there I sorted out some of Helens whining (ed: justified complaints) by installing the BT openzone app on her phone, it cheered her up no end. We booked a table for Tuesday evening.
The weather had held and I have been able to get some great pictures with bright white fluffy clouds on deep blue skies. The walk although not that long had eaten up most of the day, which was perfect. For dinner we had the rest of the salad from the day before.
We were up earlier than anticipated and left the house to go on holiday just before 8:30. Our late summer holiday was going to be in Polzeath down in Cornwall followed by a week in Devon. Sat nav told us the best way to go was via Bicester and Oxford then down to Swindon and onto the M4 before joining the usual road to the south west eventually ending up on the A30. We hit the usual big traffic jam at Bristol but the traffic pretty much kept moving and by the time we stopped at the Sedgemoor motorway services just after Bristol we had only lost half an hour which is pretty good going.
As is traditional we had planned a stop at a National Trust property on the way there today choice was Castle Drogo. Helen was not amused when I decided to follow the single track signs to the property. It meant having to stop a few times to let cars and buses go by. In any event we got there without any mishaps parked up and got our tickets to have a look around the Castle. It turns out the castle was in the middle of a very extensive renovation project. The whole Castle is completely enveloped in scaffolding and plastic sheeting. On the inside of the castle they have some of the stuff in storage but they had special art exhibitions on in various rooms where you could see some of the historic things that might have been out had the house was open. The building itself is grey granite which looks very structural and it is a house I would like to return to someday. Our timing was not that great the trips up the scaffolding tower were shut for lunch, so rather than wait an hour we went to get some lunch at the visitors centre.
The queue at the cafe was interminably slow they needed someone to come in and do a time and motion study to get things moving a bit faster. We didn’t fancy the soup of the day or sandwiches so we both settled for cake, we are on holiday after all. Suitably replete we got back in the car and headed to Wadebridge where we wanted to pick up some supplies before heading the cottage in Polzeath.
On the smallish road that got us over the A30 we came across some slow traffic, a couple of caravans, which looked more like chicken huts on wheels and were being towed by vintage tractors, they were from Germany!
We did a quick tour of the shops of Wadebridge and I managed to get a hair cut without queuing, the hair dresser corrected my pronunciation of Polzeath apparently it is zeath pronounced like wreath. The co-op supplied us with some salad ingredients and emergency pasta meal, so we were all set to arrive at the cottage.
We had earlier got a text to say that the cottage was ready which I thought was a nice touch. The final few miles to the cottage were very rural. We found the cottage easily by the instructions provided. It over looks a valley which is a caravan park and even has a distant view of the sea. We were not prepared for the many steps up to the front door. I was regretting buying a new large holdall for holidays, I had to stop for a rest on the way up.
We unpacked and had a sit down then walked down to the beach to have a look around, it was a bit grey and the sea was a bit rough. Luckily for us there was a bar Cafe on the beach where we could get a beer, and some WiFi. Helen had committed the ultimate crime of booking a cottage with no WiFi!
We had salad for tea and I was in bed fairly early with a book.
The weather promised to be rain there was a band of rain about the width of Norfolk running from the north coast to through Buckinghamshire down to the south coast. We decided that we might be able to escape the in if we visited Norwich. Before we set out I got up early, at 0720, to have a look at the car park tide situation. The the tie was about half way across the road at the Blakeney Hotel, and two or three cars on the car park were up to the bottom of there alloy wheels. I wandered around and took some pictures and threw stones with a kid trying to hit a bucket floating by. The sailing club were already up as they can’t really sail if the tide is out. A family walked down and went for a swim.
I walked back to the hut at about 0800 at the deli someone was ordering croissants for 0830 when the shops officially opens. Not wanting to be disappointed again I stuck my head in the door and ordered a baguette, the owner said he had some ready fresh from the oven so I purchased one and pot of strawberry jam to go with it, breakfast sorted. Helen was not quite up when I got back so I waited for her to have a shower while the baguette cooled down. After breakfast we agreed that a trip to Norwich would be the best option.
We arrived in Norwich from the airport side, and found a very expensive car park £5.60 for 4 hours near the cathedral, then walked towards town. The cathedral is a pedestrian zone surrounded by old houses, a quiet oasis in the city. There was a service on so we could not go into the knave for 45 minutes, so we went to have a look at the cloisters, grabbed a coffee and biscuit from the coffee shop, which is a modern building integrated but not quite attached to the cloister walls.
Jeff Koons Winter Bears 1988
We arrived at the knave as the service was finishing and the organ was very loud and a pleasure to hear. The building it self is very impressive with a very high vaulted ceiling. I took some photos where I could find a convenient spot to rest my camera to stop blurred exposures. Our next destination was the castle which has a Jeff Koons exhibition on in the temporary gallery. When we got there we found out that it was not open till 1300 so we walked around the market via the royal arcade. We saw a couple of free runners at the top end of the market jumping all over the stone work.
Back at the museum we looked around the excellent permanent art gallery with lots of Norfolk paintings, then I had a look arounf the modern Jeff Koons exhibits while Helen had a look around around the archaeology sections. On the way out of the castle grounds we came across the same free runners this time being photographed by someone who was blaming their DSLR for not getting the shots, I suspect it was a case of not reading the manual and selecting the wrong mode. We thought we might find a cafe or something for something to eat, but they all seemed shut so we grabbed a bag of almonds from an Asian store and got back to the car headed towards Cromer in the hope of finding somewhere on the way.
Inside Norwich Cathedral
The search then started we drove through Cromer but it was packed and tere was nowhere to park, then we stopped at East Runton opposite a chippy which turned out to be shut. We ended up a Felbrigg hall but arrived as the rain started, so everyone headed to the cafe for a coffee so the queue was long and the staff seemed slow, but eventually we got to the front. I had coffee and chocolate cake and Helen a cheese and chutney toastie, but very nice. We took the coast road back to to Blakeney and synchronised our crossing of the Sheringham stem railway with an engine heading back the the depot, which I captured on the car dash cam.
Back at Blakeney we could not find a space in the £3 car park so ended up having to pay £5 at the British Legion. We relaxed for a while before heading out for out 1830 table at the White Horse an Adnams pub. I had sea bass on mini onions, peas, beans and sauted potatoes, and Helen had a very interesting cauliflower and hazel nut “carbonara”, mine was washed down with a couple of pints of Adnams bitter. For dessert I had grilled peach with elderflower parfait, and sugared almonds which was lovely. We headed down to the harbour to see the tide, but we were half an hour early and it was cold so we did not hang about. Tomorrow morning would be the main event as the tie would be 30cm higher than this morning an would have the wind behind. Being half and hour later it we decided we would get up to have a look at 0820.
