A Week in Cornwall

Our ninth year of staying in Port Quinn for a week in September. But this time Doyden was full, so we found an NT cottage in Port Quinn itself, right on the coastal path. In fact it passes the gate and climbs around the back of the property where you could touch the roof.

The journey down on Thursday seemed much shorter this year, four and a half hours travel time, perhaps because there were no roadworks or holdups. We arrived to the normal sunshine in time for a walk to the castle at Doyden. We found the wall where Julia Bradbury and Matt Baker start every episode of "Secret Britain". We could not remember it being there when we watched the first episode of the series, and on inspection it did seem new.

We always like to take the coastal path west from Port Quinn on the first day so we do not have to take the car out. Friday dawned to a shower but soon brightened and we started off in the sunshine that lasted through the day. We used to finish at Rumps, but now we go on to Pentire Point for views over to Polzeath and round to Padstow and beyond. It is a superb viewpoint and we had a fabulous spot to have lunch.

The next day Alison likes to run from Port Quinn to Rock and take the ferry to Padstow where she meets me after my bike ride down the Camel Trail to Wadebridge and back. I even had time to have a walk around Wadebridge which was quite busy as it was a Saturday morning. I enjoyed my fish and chips at the Quayside cafe in Padstow before a walk up the hill to look over to Rock.

It was a little cloudy on Sunday, and wanting to avoid the crowds on the coast, we decided to visit the NT estate at Lanhydrock which is not far away. We had not been for a few years and we were glad to be there again. The weather brightened as we arrived, the gardens looked spectacular and we found an area with nice paths through the trees on the hillside above the house which we had not seen before. Before a longish walk down to the river, we had lunch sitting on a bench with this great view of the estate.

We always try to find somewhere new for one of our days and this year it was Falmouth. We were looking for a park and ride but actually found a "Park and Float" which took us on a ferry from the car park at Ponsharden to a quay in the middle of Falmouth.

After a coffee and a walk around the town, we caught another ferry to St Mawes from where we had good views of it's castle.

Again we were very lucky with weather and St Mawes is a very pretty place to visit.

On Tuesday we parked in Rock, as we do every year, for a walk along the beach at Daymer Bay and the ferry over to Padstow. It was sunny but quite windy which meant we did not stay too long on one of the benches above the port. Although when the tide is out, the sandbanks are really beautiful.

We did not want to be back late as that evening we had booked for a return visit to Jamie Oliver's "Fifteen" at Watergate Bay. Again we had a excellent dinner and although this time we did not have a window seat, we could still see the surfers through the glass wall from our elevated table, and a very nice sunset.

Our last day started off a little cloudy, though still bright. We wanted to revisit Lundy cove as the tide was in on the walk of our first day. Alison ran to Rumps and met me there. On my walk I had time to take some good photos of the sandy bays around this part of the coast, the tide this time being out.

At Lundy, the waves were great and we were able to walk along the sand to a beach that is only accessible when the tide is right out. Previously, we have only seen the caves from above.

The last day turned out to be one of the best. Although it remained cloudy, we had a very nice bacon roll in The Granary, our favourite cafe in Wadebridge (a very heavy shower was over by the time we left). And then we off for bodyboarding at Polzeath. The waves were pretty good, the odd one would take you fifty meters if you were lucky to catch it.

Back at Port Quinn, we had time to take a last look at the tiny harbour before starting our packing for the journey home.