Camper to Cornwall!

This adventure was proof that "every cloud has a silver lining".

Andy was due to come to mine for a long-overdue weekend catch up. Rob had been down to Cornwall for a week with friends, but had car trouble while he was there (the Cloud). He'd had to leave his car there and travel back the following week to collect it, but decided to make a weekend of it and camp for 3 nights. 

I suggested to Andy that he could go down with him and reschedule coming to mine but he didn't feel good doing that. So we found a silver lining and all went to Cornwall instead!

I was very excited, as it must be over 12 years since I last visited and it's a place I love.

All packed and ready to go!

I had decided to leave a day early and break the journey on the way down, so stopped overnight around Gloucester way. The weather was beautiful and I was soon organised with a beer and my guitar out!

The following morning, I soon had a brew on and the side door open to enjoy breakfast in the sun.

I set off at 9 ish and by early afternoon I was rolling onto the campsite at Perranporth. Rob wasn't due till 5ish and Andy during the evening, so I took the chance to stroll down into town and reaquaint myself with the beach.

I was just REALLY enjoying a real Cornish ice cream when one of the local wildlife residents decided they wanted it more than me, swooped down and stole it from me! I was gutted 

The lads duly arrived; beer was drunk and we rolled into bed. Woke to brilliant sunshine the following morning and decided that a beach day was in order.

We bought some meat from the butchers for a BBQ and had the obligatory wander around the surf/tat shops and I decided my house needs this sign.

Got a brew on in the morning for Andy and I. There was a spell of rain came across, so the van was quickly reconfigured into "day mode" and we nattered in there for an hour or so. 

In the afternoon, we went for a round of pitch and putt. More like a small golf course really but you only had a few irons and a putter. It was years since I'd played golf but we had a great time. Rob decided that his best club was his putter and so used that for everything apart from the initial drive off the tee, irrespective of where he was! 

The old man managed to beat the young pups!

And just to show that, even though they are in/approaching their thirties, they are still big kids at heart....

We decided to head down into Perranporth for Fish and Chips and then onto the Watering Hole on the beach for a couple of beers. What a gorgeous way to spend a sunny evening.

Dee was also in Cornwall with her girls, which was kind of weird and nice to both be sharing parallel Mum & girls / Dad & lads time. We were tasked with judging their stone painting competition and fortunately chose the right winners 😟

Sunday dawned and it was time for us all to start the journeys home again. On the way we called in at a forest for a coffee and walk before going our separate ways. What a wonderful, spontaneous time we'd had!

I'd been trying to liaise with Dee to have a quick catch up on the way home, but we kept missing each other. In the end I decided to just drive by Trebarwith Strand where they were staying, but she was nowhere to be seen. Turned out she'd just nipped out for 20 minutes to buy some honey 😞

So I headed for home and decided I'd try my hand at "Wild Camping" aka park in a car park overnight. I stopped just outside Monmouth but happened on a lovely spot backing onto the River Wye. 

I was up early the following morning (had to leave the car park by 8) and home before midday.

I love adventures like this one - totally spontaneous and almost perfect in every way. The van proved to be perfectly capable over 5 nights.