Cornwall

My favourite county so far!

We drove into Looe at night drove around the harbour and found a beautiful spot in a residential area, on top of a hill, over looking the ocean. Parked up our van and we were out to it for the night. Cornwall is 'world renowned' (even though i'd never heard of it before) for its cornish pastys and cornish ice-cream, so our main goal on our first day in Cornwall was to have a cornish pasty and find an info centre. After the info centre and finding probably the best map ever, we went to 'Sarah's homemade cornish pastys'. Pastys are sort of like pies, they are made of pastry and filled with steak, spud, swede sometimes a bit of onions and some seasoning… they are so beautiful and very filling, but for 2.50pounds they are just too expensive to be buying all the time! Plus I have put on 3kgs since I've been in England, so I'm trying to keep away from all the pastry and pasta!! Probably doesn't help that I ate a bag of chocolate caramel buttons this morning at 10:30am...

Allow me to explain exactly how we are living. We bought an eight seater toyota van. We lay all the seats in the back down and bought a memory foam mattress off ebay and laid that down on top of the seats, we both have our own sleeping bag and a duvet to go on top, there are curtains on all windows including the back and behind the front seats so no-one can see in at all when we are sleeping. Our bed takes up alllll the room in the back except for one small space behind the front seats, and thats where our backpacks live. The back seats are 3/4 of the way down so when we sleep our heads are slightly on an upwards angle, which is surprisingly comfortable, so our boot space is very limited. We keep all our food and cooking utensils in the back on the left side we have a dry cooler bag for food and in front of that we have a cold cooler bag for the cold food. In the middle space we have the dishwashing bucket along with the tea towels and washing up liquid, and in front of that we have our 20L container of water, which needs filled daily. And on the right side we have a banana box filled with plates and pots and things. Under the seats are our extras that we barley use, plus our twin gas cooker along with the refill bottles, we also have an extra gas cooker that is sort of stuffed somewhere in the boot.

We use public toilets all the time and we shower every 4 days or so. We never pay for our accommodation, we find a space on the street somewhere, in a posh residential area usually - just depending on where we are, and we never pay for showers, leisure centres (swimming pools) will usually let you shower for free. Hand sanitizer, dry shampoo, a cloth and soapy water works a treat. I have learnt that when you need to pee in the night, you need to pee, so yes I have peed on the road, don't judge me until you've been in my position!! 

At this point I had not shaved my legs in about 5 weeks, possibly longer and my body was in need of a good working over with some hardcore soap and hot water. Luckily for us, the little angels Beth & Rich, Aaron's sister and brother-in-law, had given us a spa retreat and tea for two voucher for Christmas, that voucher was sitting with my passport in a hidden location in the van. 

St Austell, Cornwall Spa Retreat and Hotel, here we come!!

We arrived at night slept in the car park and we were in at 8am. Through out the day I washed my hair and body in the shower 4 times, I went through 3 shavers, my legs were smooth and moisturised, we used the sauna and steam room, we swam in the pools and relaxed in the spa, we lounged in our robes, we got all dressed up and pretended we were rich and beautiful while we drank tea and ate scones and finger sandwiches and cakes until we could eat and drink no-more, we used the golden loo's that actually smelt like roses, then we returned to the pools. We did this until 10pm when after fully satisfied we returned to our lovely little home outside in the car park and slept wonderfully.

Fully rejuvenated with smooth legs and all, we carried on our journey around the coast of Cornwall. Pendennis castle is one of Henry VIII's Device forts, (a 'device fort' is a series of castles that were built to protect the southern coast of England, deal castle is also a device fort.) It was built in the 1500's for King Henry VIII to guard the entrance to the River Fal on its west bank, near Falmouth. St Mawes Castle is across the river on the east bank, they were both built to defend Carrick Roads from the French and Spanish threats of future attack. It is in such a beautiful location and the amount of history pilled into that site was spectacular! Once again we cheated England, and we climbed almost vertical walls using grass growing out of the cracks as our grips and stepping stones, and so we got in for free! HA! There were canons poking out of walls everywhere, great big war guns and bunkers everywhere, the gun deck was fantastic!! The castle was still in great condition, although we didn't get to go inside the castle its self. We took loads of photos until we seen a security guard walking around when we stealthily boosted it to a wall jumped a spiky fence and ran away laughing! We walked a short walk to the very edge of the ocean, where there were more war bunkers and another small castle like fort, the rocks surrounding the bank are so beautiful and they really suit the location, spiky and dangerous looking. Content with our adventure we moved on, we drove the coastal road past a few pretty spots stopped here and there checked out some gardens until we arrived at Lizard point, the most southern point of England. We watched a beautiful sunset and settled down for the night. The next morning our rough-guide-to-the-United-Kingdom directed us to Kynance Cove, a little gem not many people know about. Cornwalls coast is so dramatic, like really dramatic. The cliffs aren't just straight cut cliffs they are beautiful coloured rocks with huge drops and large spiky rocks pointing in and out from everywhere, there are coves and holes and little ocean ways everywhere, the water is crystal clear and bright blue. This particular morning it was miserable and drizzling, we were almost put off but decided to brave the weather and go for it, it was a 10 minute walk down a track, the rain stopped as we got to a point in the path that said "dangerous, path reconstruction, go that way -->" we totally could had gone the other way, but where is the fun in that? We veered off track and went rock climbing we found lots of secret rock pools and beautiful views, we reached the beach and explored some more, I just can't get enough of these wee treasures. The water is so gorgeous and the view is beyond words. Its as good as NZ you know, some English people just don't understand or appreciate what they have in there own country!! We slowly made our way back to the van sticking to the edge of the cliff enjoying the views, and just as we got back it started to rain again, good one England, you put on a good show!! 

Onwards we go, to a place called Minack Theatre. A women called Rowena Cade with the help of two or three men built this theatre after the first world war for her and her mother to live in. Minack Theatre is an open-air theatre built above a gully with a rocky outcrop cutting into the sea. There was no sneaking into this one unless we went swimming and tried to climb some super intense rocks, England got one over us and we paid 4.50pounds each to have a look around. Even though I hate paying for historic sites that I believe should be free and available for everyone, I thought this one was well worth it, and had they been showing a production, I'd have paid to watch that too!! The view from the theatre is magical and I can't get over the fact that a women back in 1890 decided to build a theatre in a cliff edge!! So crazy and so beautiful! Whitsand Bay and Lands End were our next destinations, both beautiful spots, Lands end is the most western point of England. We spent the night in St Just in a car park. Today was our 2nd year anniversary and what a great day it had been, we ended it with vegetables and fish cakes for tea. I am so lucky to be travelling Europe with Aaron, and we are so blessed to be able to live in such a small space together and love each other more, not less. Happy Anniversary to us :)

On the front of the awesome map of Cornwell we got from the lady in the info centre in Looe, is a big beautiful picture of two old houses on the rocks on the cliff edge, it is such a beautiful picture and I desperately wanted to see it in person. So we headed from St Just to Botallack where we were told the picture was taken after some searching and the non existent road signs, we carried onto the Levant Mines. They mined here for cooper and tin, the old mine site was beautiful, and right on the cliff edges, like everything in Cornwall it was all very dramatic and beautiful, it was a freezing morning, -1 degrees when we got up! We even snuck into an old mine tunnel which we weren't allowed in without paying, or guidance! It was scary, but cool. It was scary cool! hahaha. (Lars that ones for you!) 

After some exploring we thought we would attempt to find that picture I so badly wanted to see, so we walked and walked, we didn't take the normal coastal walking track, we made our own, again on the cliff edge, we can't get enough of it!! We climbed the massive rocks and jumped from point A to point B and before long we were missioning it along the coast!! Staring death in the face, Aaron clinged from rocks with huge drops into water he wouldn't survived, while I ran down steep banks with a small gap of a path before a drop into the wild ocean, you would think we are stupid, but its so much fun, adrenaline rules our lives these days. After an hour or two of walking I looked down the edge of the cliff and seen my picture!! We ran down and around onto a big rock that sticks our to get the big shot!! Pulled out my camera and absolutely gutted, it was flat!!! So instead we used Aarons phone, the quality is average, but what a shot!! We sat on the rock and chatted and enjoyed the view for ages. It was my favourite moment, equal with the seven sisters. What an absolutely beautiful place. It was surreal. It was only 11 in the morning and we were already being stunned by England. We spent the rest of the day travelling around and checking out beautiful beaches and just chilling out.

It wasn't long before we'd driven to New Quay. Stunning place, but we didn't spend long here, we drove to Watergate Bay Aaron jammed on his guitar I did a word find we relaxed and watched the sunset and the surfers, a gorgeous beach and a pretty sunset.

Tintagel Castle. Just up from New Quay. A beautiful castle, one half of it is on the main land and the other half is on an Island just beside the main land. Built into the cliff side the castle is believed to be built in the Roman times and is also believed to be the birth place of King Arthur, although there are doubts if he even existed!! Still it is a very beautiful place and the ruins are gorgeous. Once again it was 6.50pounds each to go to the Island and see and explore the castle. We didn't want to pay, of course, and they closed at 4pm so we decided we would just wait until then to see the other half of the castle. The part of the castle on the mainland was really easy to sneak into. We walked around a bit and waited until 4:30pm. It wasn't until we climbed the stairs and snuck up until we realised they shut the door! Allow me to explain exactly, the bridge and stairs leading up to the second part of the castle is almost vertical, there are HUGE stone walls on the cliff edge, the door that we didn't realise even existed was closed and bolted and padlocked shut. There is no chance at all of climbing that wall, and if you did try and climb the dirt and rocky ground and attempt to get over the wall, if you fell, you would fall a very long way to a horrible death, it was far to dangerous and risky. England had got one over us and we were gutted!! Never mind we saved some pennys and that would pay for our next few meals, instead we walked to a different point on the mainland and enjoyed the views from there. 

I love Cornwall.

A Cornish Pasty.

Minack Theatre

Botallack Coastal Walk, the much wanted picture :)