North Cornwall sightseeing

Saturday 1 June

Tintagel is in North Cornwall, an hour’s drive from Saltash where Karen and Dave live.  Most places are within a few hours drive from here.  Tintagel is where King Arthur lived.  The ruins of his castle are perched on top of the headland overlooking the ocean.  Walking around the ruins all I could say was ‘this is magic’.  Looking from the hills to the ocean I could just imagine King Arthur and his men riding over the hills back to the castle after an adventure and thinking I’m glad to be home.

Part of the ruins

Looking across to where the castle may have joined  - so they say

Always the joker

It was a 15 minute drive from Tintagel to Port Isaac  – home of the television show Doc Martin & crab sandwiches.  We had a yummy lunch of crab sandwiches at a pub facing Doc Martin’s house.  The crab is caught locally and purchased from the market across from pub – how fresher can it get – the crab was mouth watering and went really well with a pint of cider.

Another ten minutes down the road was Padstow.  Did we have anything to eat there?  I have to remember – no, what a surprise.  We have eaten loads over the past two weeks with camping and visiting villages.  You really could eat (and drink) your way around Cornwall, the food on offer is fresh and tasty. 

Padstow is a fishing village and home of celebrity chef Rick Stein.  We wandered around the village before heading home.  Another interesting day of sightseeing in beautiful Cornwall over.

Doc Martin's house (the middle one)

Padstow harbour

As the sign says

Cornwall camping continued

There was only one really wet day (and night) – so that day we drove to Bodinnick and sat in the pub for a cider (or two) for the afternoon.  One wall in the pub was a massive rock and the pub had been built around it.  Reluctantly we ventured out of the pub into the rain and drove back to the campsite where we spent the night in the living room dome of the tent listening to the howling wind and rain playing Bananagrams (similar to Scrabble).  Our tent was very comfortable and having hot water bottles to cuddle each night was a luxury. 

Whilst camping we made two day trips – one day to Looe and Polperro and another to Fowey, all three being fishing villages. 

In Looe we sat on the harbour wall and ate pasties whilst watching tourists crabbing off the harbour wall.  It is an iconic Cornish holiday activity.  You pay for a bucket, bait, crabline and net.  Place the bait on the end of the crabline, lower into the water, the crab latches on, reel it up and pop them into your bucket.  Silly crabs, there was no shortage of them in people’s buckets.  When you’ve had enough you throw the crabs back into the water below.  Odd, but families love it.  There are t-shirts with "Caught crabs in Cornwall" for sale in all the village shops. 

After Looe we drove to Polperro, another cute fishing village.  From Polperro Jim and I walked back along coastline to our campsite.  It was a 1.5hr walk with 4 very steep climbs.  Jim says ‘this is like hiking in Nepal’.  You can just imagine him can’t you.  I was told it was flat all the way – shows you shouldn’t trust everything you’re told.

Our second day trip to Fowey started at Bodinnick (remember our rainy day outing) where we parked the car and caught the ferry over to Fowey and wandered around the village.  Enjoyed a yummy fresh lunch at Pinky Murphy’s followed by another cream tea (remember the weight we both lost in India, well!!!!!!!).  

It has been difficult to write blogs because I normally pick photos and write a story around the photos but because the scenery here is so spectacular (and Jim is taking so many photos with the new camera) I am having trouble picking a few photos for each blog.  Week after next when we are in our housesit (for three weeks) Jim will load all our photos onto a photo sharing site, then I can attach the link to a folder for each blog to share all our photos for that event.  

Karen & Noodle walking down to the Bodinnick Pub - Fowey across the water

Inside the Bodinnick Pub - notice the huge rock in the background

Horses being led past the campsite

Looe

Looe - beware of the seagulls

In Looe, being silly

Waiting for the ferry from Bodinnick across to Fowey

Camping in Cornwall

Cornwall is the home of the pastie, cream teas (aka Devonshire tea) and cider.  All of which, we have now tasted.  Some more than others - I’ll let you guess which.

It is also famous for quaint fishing villages and we have visited a few of these over the past ten days.  Summer is a great time to be here with the sun setting at 9.30pm, plenty of time to explore and enjoy.

Camping days 

Karen, Jim and I (and Noodle, the dog) drove the van down to the campsite on Friday morning to set up camp.  Dave drove the kids down after school.  The kids, Jack and Lola had the week off school for mid-term break.  By the next day there were eight or more families from Karen and Dave’s village all camping, each family had a couple of kids and a dog.  It was a lovely atmosphere.  They have been doing it for the past couple of years.

The campsite of Lansallos is heritage listed and well-maintained.  There is solar hot water showers for 20p (30 cents) for 6 minutes – so generous.  You don’t realize how long 6 mins is until you are standing under a timed shower.  The church at the end of the campsite is 17^th century and still holds Sunday service.  The graveyard surrounding the church has the most amazing old gravestones.  The half hour walk down to the beach was down a leafy wooded path.  It is a long and slow walk back at the end of the day.  Believe it or not, our noses are peeling after the first day sitting on the beach.

What a treat it was when the food truck drove into the campsite fully loaded with fresh produce.  We ordered scones and clotted cream from ‘Des’ the driver for another day.  It was to be our first cream tea. 

The campsite before everyone arrived with the church in the background

Karen, Noodle and I soaking up the sun with our three layers on

The outside sinks

Driving down to the camping ground - typical single lane Cornish roads

The mobile fresh produce selection

VW's are an extremely popular camping option

The graveyard 

Looking down on the beach

The track to Lantic Bay, a walk I did one day

Returned from camping

Hi everyone

We returned from our 7 day camping trip late yesterday and by the time we unpacked it was time for dinner and bed.
Then we left the house early (ish) this morning to visit north Cornwall - Tintagel where King Arthur lived then down the coast to Port Isaac - where Doc Martin is filmed then onto Padstow where Rick Stein has his restaurant so those are my excuses for not writing a camping blog last night or today.

I am writing this very very short blog to say hello and let you know we are having a fantastic time.  It's who you know not what you know that helps make a holiday special.
Cornwall is beautiful and has many sights to see.
I will try to get to the computer over the next day or two and tell you about some of our days events.  It will be difficult to pick out a few photos because they are all worth posting.

Bluebells down the path to the beach - Jim's artistic shot

Groovy old van - admire the leadlight windows

Along a beach walk - look Jacq Shasta daisies

Enjoying lunch at Pinky Murphy's in Fowey with our Cornish friends

London calling

We arrived last night and made our way on the tube to our apartment in Paddington. 

Our apartment is a generous title for our room.  It is a studio (another word for tiny) apartment - neat, tidy and comfortable in a typical old block.  

We were so thankful our room was on the ground floor.  Our bags are heavy.  Most of these old blocks have no elevators and many floors. 

It is in a great location - quiet with shops and restaurants down the end of the street and Hyde Park a 10-minute walk away.

This morning after a yummy brekky of a latte and croissant (and we aren’t even in France yet) we walked to Hyde Park and wandered round (and round).  Walking past Kensington Palace Jim says ‘ Didn’t Di live here, she probably hated all those people in her front yard’.  

The park was beautifully green, how could it not be with all the rain and cold weather England has been having.  Saturday week is the first day of summer but it is more like the first day of winter.  It is cold with temperatures between 10 & 14 degrees.  Lucky we have some winter clothes with us.

Tonight we met up with Dianne, a friend (and neighbour) from Tawonga.  She is visiting London with her sister.  They came to see the Chelsea Flower Show.  We had dinner at a typical English pub.  It seems so natural to meet up with friends all over the world. 

Tomorrow we are catching a bus to Cornwall to visit our friends Karen and Dave whom we met 10 years ago in Fiji.  They were travelling for a year back then.  Since then they have married and had two children Jack and Lola.  We are very excited to be seeing them again after so long.  On Friday we are going camping with them for five days.  The fun continues.

Tell you more after camping, till then!  Love to you all. 

Reading the menu at one of the many locals

The old black cab

Hyde Park

An English icon

And another

Street scape

In front of our apartment block

Back in Dubai

The bus trip from Oman to Dubai was uneventful except for the coffee stop and border crossings.  The coffee stop was at a service centre just like in Australia.  You know the ones, the really boring ones with all the fast food franchise outlets on the highway. 

The border crossing consists of getting an exit stamp from Oman and an entry stamp into Dubai and then another two checks just to make sure you really really do have an entry stamp.

It seems like the scenery changes as soon as you hit the border – leaving Oman with its rugged mountains to the mostly flat deserts of Dubai. 

Overall the food has been disappointing in both Dubai and Oman.  I was expecting tasty middle-eastern food stands of felafel's and kebab to be on every street corner.  More so in Oman than Dubai there was the doner kebab shops but it is served on a plate not in flat bread like Australia serves it up and no tabbouleh.   You have to buy that at the supermarket (mostly).  We did find a restaurant serving true Omani food but Jim wasn’t keen because there are no tables and chairs, you sit on the carpet with cushions and with his knees – ouch.  I wasn’t keen because it is mostly meat and mutton (goat) at that.

It appears that both countries have embraced the western style fast food outlets in a big way and the malls are full of cafes and upper market franchise. 

Yesterday we went to Aquaventure – a water park.  It is in the grounds of the Atlantis resort on The Palm.  Seen from the sky The Palm looks like a palm tree and each frond has residential living of villas and apartments - man made like all of Dubai.  I know I have said it before but Dubai really is a surreal place. 

Aquaventure was good fun.  It was 39 degrees so it great walking around in our swimmers, going up and down slides and floating around in plastic tubes.  There was lots of screaming and laughing with the slides.  Kenny & Jim went down the Leap of Faith a couple of times.  They said the first time was scary.  It is a near vertical drop that plunges (through a tunnel) through a pool of sharks, fish and stingrays.  Lisa has been down it before and didn’t really like it so wasn't keen to do it again and my excuse is I have a head cold and sinus so was not keen to do anything too extreme. 

I blame the heat and cooling for the cold and sinus.  Your body goes from being heated up (outside) to being cooled down (inside) constantly.  It can’t be good for you.  

Today is a rest day, I am trying to get better before we get on the plane on Tuesday.  Kenny & Lisa have gone into school to catch up with reports and Jim is in heaven - he is watching the rugby Brumbies vs Waratahs. 

Part of the lagoon 

One of the lagoon beaches

Approaching the slides

Leap of faith

Kenny having a go with Jim's new toy

Happy little aquaventureres after a fun day - Jim practising with the flash

Last day in Oman

Oman is a country of natural beauty – on the ground and under the water. 

Today, being our last day in Oman we went on a morning boat trip for dolphin watching and snorkelling.  It is off-season now, too hot the locals say for tourists.  The busy season is October to March, just like India and just like India this is great for us because there are no crowds travelling at this time. 

There were five of us on the boat.  A guy from Denmark, who says he may have lived in the middle east in a past life because he can identify with the area so much and two (male) flight attendants from KLM on a stop over – now they were entertaining.  They loved the fact that their fins (flippers) matched their swimmers and they commented that my fins also matched the trim on my swimmers, bright blue.

There were dozens of dolphins.  We watched them play for half hour then motored on to the snorkelling spot, past Qantab beach where we spent time the other day on the beautiful beach of Oman Dive Centre.  The snorkeling was fun, shame about the amount of dead coral but we saw three turtles and many interesting fish. 

This afternoon I visited the ‘beauty parlour’ near the hotel for a leg wax and ended up having a wax, manicure and haircut.  I haven’t had a haircut since the day before we left Australia, it was long and badly needed a trim. 

Two Filipino ladies ran the salon.  Oman is the same as Dubai in that aspect that the country is run by an Asian imported labour force. While one lady did my nails the other did my hair.  She washed, cut, blow waved and straightened my hair – all for $13.80.  What a bargain and what a great job she did, I must say.  

Jim thinks otherwise – when I walked back into the hotel room he says “Oh my God”.  I replied ‘don’t worry after the next wash it will be back to its natural messy state’.

Tomorrow morning we are catching the 6am bus back to Dubai to spend the weekend with Lisa & Kenny before flying out to London on Tuesday.  How exciting!!

Dhow cruise boat - next time round perhaps

A few of the dolphins

Snorkelling spot 

No sunnies, no bunny ears - what is going on Jim?

We went through the arch - spectacular scenery

After the beauty parlour