Zebedee has been to Cornwall

After returning home from our last adventure we had three days to get everything clean and ready to go to Cornwall for three weeks.  This trip included three sites we've previously visited and two new ones.

Our first site was Treamble Valley Caravan Club Site near Perranporth.  We visited this site last September but couldn't do much walking as I'd injured my foot so decided to return at the start of this holiday.  We travelled on Sunday as we hoped the roads wouldn't be too busy.  We had a good journey to the site and chose a lovely sunny pitch on 'The Shelf' which was near the pitch we had last year.  After setting up we spent the afternoon on site.

Pitch 83 Treamble Valley

We had heavy rain overnight and it rained heavy most of the following day so we stayed on site - Steve spent the day reading and I spent some time crafting.  It stopped raining late afternoon so we had a few walks around the site.

On Tuesday we had a taxi from the site to St Agnes, a village we'd not visited for years.  After pottering around the village and a pot of tea at The Sorting Office we headed for the coast path at Trevaunance Cove and walked back to Perranporth.  We've not walked this section of the coast path before and most of it was very barren with lots of old mine working as well as interesting ruins at Cligga Head (old mine buildings, explosives factory and WW2 airfield).  Large sections of the coast path had been rerouted due to erosion and some of the paths were very close to the edge of the cliff.    

The following morning we spoke to our neighbours on site who suggested we walk to the poppy fields at West Pentire.  We had previously walked part of the route but headed for the poppy fields which were still very pretty even though most of the flowers were past their best.    After lunch at Crantock Bay we walked back to the site.

Crantock Bay

After four nights we moved to The Meadows Campsite near Mevagissey as we wanted to visit The Lost Gardens of Heligan.  We were allocated a sunny pitch backing onto the Pentwean Valley Trail and the road.  Although there was a lot of road noise during the day, it was fortunately very quiet at night.  After setting up on site, Steve gave Zeb a quick clean before we walked to Pentwean beach and had a drink at The Ship Inn.

Pitch 18 The Meadows

The weather was fine on Friday so we walked the Pentewan Valley trail to The Lost Gardens of Heligan.  Although we've visited the gardens before we enjoyed our previous visits and wanted to visit again.  When we arrived we headed for The Jungle as the paths are quite narrow and get very busy so thought we would explore that area first.  We walked around The Jungle paths including walking across the Burma Rope Bridge.  The rest of the day was spent looking around different areas of the gardens - heading for The Lost Valley when the main gardens got too busy.  We also wanted to see the new sculpture 'In Nature's Hands' which had only been installed two weeks earlier.

'In Nature's Hands' 

On Saturday we walked the Pentewan Valley Trail to Mevagissey.  We hadn't been there for years and couldn't really remember the village, other than there was a pretty harbour.  We had a quick walk around the harbour but it was far too busy for us so we continued along the coast path to Portmellon where we sat by the beach for lunch.  After lunch we walked back to the site to sit in the sun and read the paper.

 

We had torrential rain overnight and it continued all day on Sunday so we stayed on site.  It eased slightly in the afternoon - just long enough for us to go to the facilities block for a shower.

On Monday we drove to Teneriffe Farm Campsite, a National Trust campsite on The Lizard.  We had a glorious hot sunny day and were pleased to see we had a large grass pitch at the bottom of the field and spent the afternoon on site.

Pitch 10 Teneriffe Farm

On Tuesday we had a hot sunny day and walked from the site across Lower Predannack Downs to Soapy Cove and back along the coast path to Mullion Cove.  This was a lovely walk across the downs and most of the footpaths were fairly quiet.

Wednesday was a very hot day and we walked across the downs towards Lizard Point.  Near to the top of Kynance Cove we came across Ellie's Soul Kitchen and stopped for a pot of tea.  The roads were gridlocked near Lizard Point as everyone seemed to want to get to the nearest car park.  We walked down to the Point and then took the coast path to Kynance Cove.  We loved Kynance Cove on our previous visit as it's so pretty, but not this year - it was horrendous as there were so many people on the beach and surrounding paths.  We had a drink at the Kynance Cove Cafe before returning to Soapy Cove and the site.

Looking back to Lizard Point

We had a cloudy start to the day on Thursday but the sun soon came out for another hot day.  We walked from the site to Poldhu Cove before returning to Mullion Cove on the coast path and back to the site.  We got back to Zeb a bit earlier for a 'mid-holiday tidy up'.

On Friday we travelled Trevalgan Touring Park near St Ives.  We had visited this site in September 2019 when we had a very wet and windy weekend - this is when we decided to sell Cali and buy Zeb.  After leaving glorious sunshine on on the Lizard we arrived at St Ives on a dull and cloudy day.  It took us a while to pitch as the grass was very yellow and muddy from the previous occupants but we pitched with the muddy patch on the nearside so we didn't have to walk across it.  The pitch was on the edge of the site with fabulous views across the valley.  The evening got a lot cooler and we had more rain.

Pitch 29 Trevalgan Touring Park

The forecast for Saturday was more rain so we decided against walking into St Ives and caught the bus from the site.  St Ives was far too busy for us so we walked to Carbis Bay and back before returning to the site by bus.  The weather was better than forecast with only a few spots of rain, but we had more torrential rain in the evening.

On Sunday we stayed on site for the morning waiting for the weather to improve and then decided to walk from the site to Zennor.  Part way along the route we were walking through a field of cows and calves - in front of us was a family with noisy children and dogs.  The cows became very agitated and didn't like us walking through the field so we retreated and found another path back to the site.  

Monday saw a lovely sunny start to the day so we walked from the site to River Cove and then the coast path to St Ives.  It started raining as we reached St Ives so we again caught to the bus back to the site arriving just before the torrential rain.

Coastpath towards St Ives

We were both tired when we woke on Tuesday having had a disturbed night with the very strong winds and torrential rain.  We packed up and travelled to Wooda Farm Holiday Park in Bude.  After setting up on site we had a short walk around the site before it started to rain again so we spent the afternoon in Zeb.

Pitch E9 Wooda Farm

After more heavy rain overnight we spent the morning on site before walking to Bude via Crockletts Beach.  It was only a short walk but we wanted to get back to site before the rain started again.

On Thursday the forecast was for a dry but cloudy day.  We walked from the site to Widemouth Bay and then along the canal to Bude before returning to the site.  The day turned out to be very hot and sunny, much better than forecast although it went cold in the evening.

Friday rained on and off all day.  Steve wasn't feeling too good so we stayed on site all day - reading and crafting.  In the afternoon we had a couple of short walks around the site's Woodland Walk and fishing lake.  

Saturday was the last day of our latest 'adventure'.  After heavy rain overnight the day was dry so we did a circular walk from the site to Poughill, Stratton and Bude before returning to the site.  It was a lovely walk although very muddy after all the rain over the previous days.

Coastpath near Bude

On Sunday we packed up after breakfast before making our way home.  .

We both really enjoyed our three week 'adventure', which was the longest time we've ever been away.  We love the site at Treamble Valley and could easily have stayed there for longer.  The site is well laid out, beautifully maintained and there are lots of walks from the site.  The Meadows was a new site for us and was a site of two halves - the tent area in and around the meadows was beautiful but the area where we were pitched was very cramped and we felt like we were pitched on a car park.  We wouldn't return to that site, but found another couple of sites in the area we would use in the future.  The National Trust site at Teneriffe Farm was lovely and quiet.  The facilities block was good but needed more cleaning as it was very grubby.  Trevalgan is one of our favourite sites and the facilities are amongst the best of any site we've ever visited - we could have stayed longer on this site will certainly return in the future.  Wooda Farm has very good facilities but it's not a site for the summer months (we said that last time we visited but thought we would try it) as it was very busy and it's the only site post-lockdowns that we've visited where visitors are allowed on site.

After returning home we emptied Zeb of all possessions to take him back to Highbridge Caravans to have the front roof light replaced under warranty.  We're going to be without him for a couple of weeks, so are home until August.

20 June-11 July 2021