Whenever we have nice weather Zoe always says, "oh, it's like being in a different country". Today was definitely like being in a different country. First of all the sun has been blazing all day long with not a cloud in the sky. Second, walking along the coast into Looe felt like a hike along the Cinque Terre in Tuscany, Italy with its steep climbs, cliff side houses and spectacular views.
Looe is a beautiful harbour town with a beach, narrow streets and lots of places to eat and drink. We had a light lunch in "The Coffee Shop" which was really delicious.
Just found out that Herman is live on the campsite webcam
New campsite today. This time we are in Looe, on the south coast of Cornwall. We've got a great view of Looe Bay with Looe Island and the sun has been out for most of the day.
Getting here was somewhat entertaining. First, we stopped off at Lanhydrock which is a very impressive Victorian stately house and gardens. And second, the campsite is situated down some very narrow roads with a sign that says "Road Ends Ahead"! Luckily, we didn't meet much traffic but we still had to change our underwear when we arrived.
The weather has been so much better today. The sun was out for most of the day and no wind. In other words a great day to visit St. Michael's Mount which is right on our doorstep.
The tide was out so we were able to walk to the island via the causeway. The island has a small community of cottages, a chapel, gardens, a harbour, restaurants and a castle. A family still live in the castle but you can still visit it and go inside.
By the time we wanted to leave the tide had come back in and we had to take a short ride on one of the ferries to take us back to shore.
This is when we spotted a seal just bobbing along not 20 metres from where we were standing.
Returning back to the campsite we had another BBQ and Zoe volunteered to wash Herman. And a pretty good job she did too even though it took her 14 buckets of water!
St. Ives was todays destination which is another pretty coastal town. It's full of pasty shops, art galleries, bakeries & sea gulls.
Afterwards, we took Herman on a tour of the north coastal road to St. Just. Amazing, twisty, narrow roads which I think I did on my motorbike many years ago. I was driving so there was no wetting of knickers at the sight of the 556 bus coming the other way. This road had some really nice views. You couldn't see much of the coast but the surrounding countryside was amazing.
We didn't stop in St. Just because we missed the car park but instead we went to Mousehole which is on the south coast near Penzance. This coastal town must have the narrowest streets in the world but it also has a bus service which has to do a 3-point turn when it arrives at the harbour.
The weather has been getting better. The wind isn't so strong, the sun has kindly appeared and we managed to have a BBQ.
Today was a chore day. We had to do shopping and laundry and we did both in Penzance.
Lunch in Penzance was a bit of a disaster. We ordered and 45 mins later we still hadn't been served so we walked out and went and had a delicious (proper) Cornish pasty instead.
In the afternoon we ended up at Lands End. It was so windy there you could almost lean against it. At least it wasn't raining. We saw a few people who had just arrived or were just setting off for John O'Groats (874 miles away in Scotland).
Our campsite is a 5 minute walk from the coast and St. Michael's Mount which is an island that you can walk to when the tide is out. It's also a great place to watch the kite surfers riding the waves and getting some air.
We moved on again today. This time we headed for Penzance but before that we took a detour to Pendennis Castle in Falmouth.
The castle was built in 1540 by King Henry 8 to defend against a French or Spanish invasion. We got in for free with our English Heritage membership that ran out in March. Interesting place with guns & cannons but we thought that the smaller Mawes Castle (also by Henry 8) on the opposite side of the Falmouth estuary was better with more detail and an audio tour.
There was also a exhibition of cartoons drawn by George Butterworth who was on the Nazi hit list for taking the piss out of Hitler during World War 2.
The weather has been the worst so far. Windy, cold and heavy rain at times but that didn't put some guy off eating his Mr Whippy ice cream.
Today we decided to walk the coastal path to the Bedruthan Steps which is a famous beauty spot of a small group of islands along the coast. The weather was very different from the last few days and we got wet a few times.
We managed to catch the 556 bus back to the campsite and what a ride it was. The Millennium Falcon had nothing on this bus. Single track, narrow, twist roads at what seemed like light speed. Cars and Land Rovers jumping out of the way. And the driver? Well, he was learning the route. He'd only just started the job a few days ago. He was previously a rally car driver.
It was a great way of seeing the Cornish coast.
Wow, it was hot today. Forecast was clear and thunder in the afternoon. So wrong. Today I've been in shorts (with my lillie white legs) and factor 25 sun block. We spent the morning just being lethargic and relaxing while in the afternoon we went to Padstow which is a fishing town famous for the celebrity chef Rick Stein.
This beautiful town is full of places to eat with more pasty shops (including three in a row down one small narrow street) than you'll ever need and only out numbered by ice cream parlours.
We needed to buy bread and the only place selling proper bread (it was late in the day for fresh bread) was Rick Stein's bakers. In fact, he has a number of shops and restaurants in Padstow. In one shop you can buy his beer, his wine, his ice cream, his pasties, his fish, his veg, his salt and his BBQ charcoal!
We are now back at the campsite and it has gone a little cloudy. Maybe that thunder is coming after all.
Moving on today we head towards Tregurrian, north Cornwall.
The weather was sunny and warm. Perfect for sight seeing. We stop off at Port Isaac which is a beautiful historic fishing village with small, narrow streets.
Lunch was fantastic. We ate in Cup Cakes, a small tea room and we both had the locally caught crab tarts.
Zoe did all the driving and not being used to the narrow, twisty roads she almost ended up wetting herself but we made it to the campsite in one piece.
 | |
| Herman in Dartmoor |
 |
| Zoe in the rain on Bellever Tor |
We woke up to frost this morning and so we decided to wear an extra layer before heading out to WWT.
We saw the bittern again. Well, I say "saw" since it's hard to distinguish between it and the reeds. We also saw the peregrine, black-tailed godwit and white-fronted geese, amongst other things.
We are very happy with the spotting-scope purchase because we wouldn't have recognized half the birds without it and we saw a beautiful snipe up real close.
We are now on our way home from Slimbridge in Herman and Zoe is driving
Another good weather day today except it was bitter cold sitting in bird hides all day. It was worth it though, we got some good views of not one but two bitterns at the Zeus hide. I managed to capture the second on video. If it wasn't for the noisy click click click click click of the cameras with massive lenses then we may have seen a bit more of the bittern but instead it was scared back into the cover of the reeds.
Back at the campsite in Herman the Hymer, we run out of gas (always happens at night while your making the dinner) but this is good because it allowed us to switch to the refillable gas system that I fitted over Christmas. No more buying expensive gas bottles.
What a great day we've had today at WWT Slimbridge. The weather started out with clear blue sky, a great day for bird watching.
However, our first stop was the telescope and binocular shop. After, what seemed like hours, we left with a shiny new spotting scope with tripod and bag.
We spent the rest of the day sitting in the bird hides. I think Zoe enjoyed the new scope, in fact she spotted a peregrine falcon miles away chomping on a kill on the ground. You couldn't make it out with the binoculars. We also saw three marsh harriers, buzzards, red shanks and many others.
Winter is definitely the best time to see birds.
This week we are going to the Wildlife & Wetlands Trust at Slimbridge for a few days. We are staying at a campsite right next door in Herman.
We finally arrived after a miss-start due to me forgetting my camera lens and tripod just in time to watch them feed the spoon-billed sandpiper chicks. Feeding was shown through a live video to their cinema. The spoon-billed sandpipers are near extinction and there are only 200 left in the world. The WWT are in the process of bringing them back from the brink and have collected some eggs from the breeding grounds in the artic tundra in Russia. They now have 13 healthy chicks which is 5% of the spoon-billed sandpiper population.
The WWT are an amazing organization originally created by Sir Peter Scott who's father is the famous Captain Scott of the Antartic.
 |
| Corfe Castle is a bit drafty |
 |
| Santa's Express |
 |
| Middle Beach |
 |
| Old Harry Rocks |
