Porthcothan Bay 2009

One of my favourite beaches in the UK is Porthcothan Bay down in North Cornwall. It isn't ever crowded and as the tide comes in and out the beach changes dramatically, exposing pool to explore and a river down the middle to ride a boogie board.

We've been to this beach before and we shall return. Let's just hope that next time the sun decides to make the journey with us. out of 7 days camping we had only 2 days of sunshine and only 2 half days of no rain. The rest of the time it completely tipped it down. Not to worry though: we had the Bentley of all tents. Our Outwell Vermont XL held up very well. In fact it was more comfortable than some caravans we've stayed in. Right up until we had to cook in the driving rain.

never mind. We made s'mores and drank hot chocolates and grilled lobsters and crabs and fresh mackerel (caught by our camping neighbours). We covered ourselves in our waterproof trousers and rain coats and pulled on our wellies and just ignored the wet weather.

Blakeney Point Seals

We have now returned from our final leg of our summer holidays. Our camping trip to Burnham Deepdale in Norfolk was a bit rainy but enjoyable nonetheless.

The highlight the week was our boat trip out to Blakeney Point to view the seals. They have both Grey and Common seals, hundreds of them. The Commons have just had their pups and the Greys are just arriving for the winter. We could not walk around the peninsula for fear of disturbing them but we got plenty close. What cute little faces!

Colorado Camping

Camping

If you are an avid reader of my blog (and you better be!), you will have read about my families camping adventures this summer. This was an important holiday for me on so many different levels.

As a young family, I'm not sure how my parents could have afforded to take us five children on holiday. Maybe they couldn't. Maybe that is why we went camping instead. I can honestly say that I don't care that we didn't go on extravagant holidays to Disneyland. I think what a child can learn exploring the campsite is better than any theme park ride!

Camping taught me a whole host of life skills that I still use today. Knowing not to run from a bear and that the best defense is to curl up in a ball can be very useful. In North America. We don't have bears in the UK! OK, not sure if I use these skills but it was great fun. Ah, peeing outdoors: never know when this might come in handy!

Abigail has a complete fascination with the whole camping concept. Not sure where this grand idea has come from. And one insightful individual did point out to us that it seemed a bit mad to allow the whim of a 3 year old influence you choice of holiday destinations. but she is already talking about our camping adventures next year.

But none of us had a better idea. Besides I have incredibly fond memories of camping as a child.

My first family camping adventures started out in a tent. My dad had this ancient jeep and we would pack everything up and go. At this point I believe there were 4 of us and Tyson was little more than a wee baby. I remember one time in particular lying in our sleeping bags and hearing the trees behind the tent rustling in the dead of night. My mother swears she saw the outline of a moose. I believe her.

This was the time that me and my brothers found this amazing natural slide in a group of rocks. We would sit down on our bottoms and slide down. Every night when we got dressed for bed my mother would find holes in our underpants. It seems that our jeans were sturdy enough to withstand the sliding down the rocks but our underpants we were wearing straight through. Dad told us not to go sliding down the rocks any more.

Seems to me we spent a lot of time fishing. or trying to fish. Mostly my dad was digging hooks out of each other. Hard to fish with small children. I imagine it could be classed an extreme sport. But we did always seem to catch something. Mom was always cooking up trout for dinner over an open fire in a large cast iron skillet. Mmmmmmm, mouth watering just thinking about it.

Shortly after that we got one of those campers that fold down then once you get parked they pop up and the beds slide out from the sides. I don't remember lots of camping in that one. But we must have done it because that's it in the picture. It was hard to pack with not a lot of room and no where to do the cooking. Steph wasn't born yet. I think my mom might have been pregnant with Tyson. You can see my dad leaning against the jeep. That's Shelby hanging out the window and George is sitting on the ground. Obviously that's me standing up near George.

But then we got the Cadillac of all campers. Dad bought us a fifth wheel trailer which is bigger and better than a motor home. This was a house on wheels. Of course, we couldn't go to the out of the way places in the Rocky Mountains like we did with the tent and I never heard a moose behind the trailer but we did take the trailer to the Colorado State Fair. And the bed were comfy.

Mom & Dad's bed was up some stairs at the front. Steph was a baby and we had this little moses basket that mom would just put down next to the bed. The kitchen in this trailer was lovely. But I reckon camping with 5 small children was no picnic. But we did have some fun times.

I hope my children gain the same fond memories of camping that I have.

Cornwall Camping - Episode 2

But before we could go to the beach we had to check out the facilities at our campground. And they were superb. The campground had ample facilities to wash dishes and shower. They also only had 46 campsites so it wasn't mobbed.

For the children there was an extensive collection of farmyard animals: geese, calves, ponies, owls, lambs, goats, chickens, rabbits, guinea pigs). The children could feed them at 9 am. They could walk a goat and hold a rabbit and ride a pony and give a calf a bottle. There was a miniature golf and train which could be played on-demand. There were trampolines and climbing frames. The were courses to drive little kiddy carts on. And there were loads of other children to make friends with.

Marc and I sat on the porch of the cafe and enjoyed our coffee and read whilst the children played.

After a couple hours we packed up and headed for a beach, any beach. First stop was Harlyn Bay. The beach was packed and we decided not to stop. We went further down the coast and stopped to see the Bedruthan Steps. This is supposed to be the most dramatic piece of coastline in Cornwall. We parked, used the toilet facilities and got some ice cream. As we stared over the precipice I was trying to muster the courage it was going to take to get myself down these steps.

A couple people came up and said it was really worth the walk. They didn't look frightened and seemed to have survived the trek. So I psyched myself up and we went down. Now I ask you to remember back to the spiral staircase in France at Mont St Michel. Remember? I get vertigo. What was I doing going down a rackety steep curved staircase hanging out over a cliff? This simply wouldn't do!

The steps were uneven and steep. I had Abigail's hand and Marc had the dog and Sebastian's hand. I was in front of the decent and trying desperately to hang on to the handrail which was wobbly. We got about half way down and I am looking out over the cliff edge and I freak. I mean - REALLY FREAK! I froze. I couldn't move a muscle. Not another step. There were people behind us trying to get down and the children, sensing my fear, decided they weren't going down either.

We got ourselves turned back around and had to head back up to the top. I was hyperventilating and shaking when we got to the top. I felt like a right prat!

So far, we weren't doing so well trying to get ourselves to a beach!

Off down the coast we headed. Again.

And then we found Mawgan Porth. This was a cute little beach with loads of facilities. We got the very last parking spot and unloaded our beach gear. We stopped for some Cornish pasties and chips and then carved out our spot in the sand. The children played in the fresh water river that ran down through the middle of the beach. We made sand castles and Bailey played with the other dogs.

Several hours passed and we decided it was time to make a move for the supermarket and get dinner started back at the camp.

Sebastian helped me do the shopping whilst Marc and Abigail waited in the car with Bailey I find taking the children shopping to be a bit of an adventure. They've got quite an interesting idea about what one should eat! We didn't let him make many decision except for hot chocolate and the marshmallows for toasting.

We also purchased a proper tent for Bailey to sleep in since he seemed to have gotten quite cold the night before. The shop didn't have the tent set up so i couldn't tell how big of one I was buying. When we got back to the campsite and set it up it was huge! We practically needed another site for pitching it!

The following day we set of for Newquay (after suitable parent relaxation time at the campground cafe) and the famous Fistral Beach. Fistral is famous with the surfers. We went there a few years back when Abigail was just a baby. On that visit, Abigail ate the sand. I was hoping she had out grown that.

We had lunch at a super groovy surfer hostel and then went to get the children wet suits. Sebastian loved his but it took quite a bit of convincing for Abigail to keep hers on. She threw a raging tantrum in the surf shop but finally one of the shop assistants convinced her that she looked even cooler than the surfer chick in the poster on the shop wall. Abigail apparently decided she was cooler and stopped screaming long enough to not scare off the other shoppers.

The beach at Fistral is huge and the waves are even bigger. I wasn't too comfortable with the children playing in those big waves but the RNLI provide the life guards and there were loads of them. Marc and Bailey kept a close eye whilst I starred at the other people on the beach (I love sunglasses!).

It was very late when we decided to head back to the campsite and make dinner. Sebastian had spent the last couple evenings walking around all the other campsites and introducing himself to all the other people and their associated children (if they had them). This night saw several children appear at out campsite for toasted marshmallows. Sebastian had invited everyone round to ours! This boy is going to be a politician!

Thursday afternoon we walked round Padstow and did a spot of shopping. the town was very crowded and we could only find once place to eat our fish and chips that would let Bailey sit on the patio.

Friday was the best day! We took the advice of our campsite neighbours, Ian & Gina, and set off for Treyarron Beach. And this wins the award. We totally unintentionally saved the best for last. This is a beautiful cove with a beautiful beach and great facilities. Again RNLI lifeguards watch everyone. We watched the tide come in and start to go out again. The beach was shallow and loads of fun. There weren't mobs of people and Bailey loved the beach. Seb wasn't so keen on the sea weed but he got over it.

I sat and read a book. It was bliss!

Saturday morning we had the challenge of packing everything up and fitting it back in the car. You have no idea how difficult this was. We packed, unpacked and repacked about 3 times. I finally ended up with my foot well (and the children's) packed full of stuff. the drive home was uneventful (thank goodness!).

CAMPING VERDICT: YES YES YES! I will do it again and again and again. We had so much fun. I now know what to pack and how to pack it. Marc has bought a tow bar for the BMW and we are looking for a trailer so that we can avoid the fitting everything (and a dog) in the car issues! The children were fabulous and they loved the freedom and independence camping gave them.

We were very lucky in that we had gorgeous sunny weather although the evenings were a bit chilly and the mornings were very damp with dew. I am sure this (along with the wet grey France trip) contributed to my chest infection. But we loved it. We can hardly wait for our next camping adventure!

PS You might have noticed that there are no photographs to go with this story. This is not because I didn't take any. This is because the computer that has all my photographs stored on it has died. Not to worry though. I have loaded all the pictures up on Flickr. So I am using my Mac exclusively. As soon as we get the other computer working I will put some pics with the story!

LATE EDIT: We now have some photos although the computer is stil a bit dodgy. Flickr has the whole album of photos!

Cornwall Camping - Episode 1

A quick turn around of laundry and a rethink of the packing strategy was required.

For France, I was expecting hot, steamy, August weather. I packed up all shorts and strappy tops/dresses/short sleeve shirts. I missed that entirely and we all froze our tooshies off.

For camping in Cornwall I wasn't going to make the same mistake. I packed only trousers (no shorts), long sleeves, jumpers. Warmth was my objective.

Plus I hadn't ever camped in the UK before. And I've never camped with children before. I camped quite a bit years ago when I was a child with my family and in my 20s when I lived in Colorado. But camping in the UK is substantially different from camping in Colorado.

We had none of the equipment we needed so had been acquiring it over the last couple months: a camp stove, camping dishes, sleeping bags, air mattresses, etc. I felt we had just about everything we needed.

We spent much of Sunday trying to fit that everything into our car. Given that we were taking our dog, Bailey, with us this wasn't as easy as we had originally thought it was going to be. But Marc managed it and by 10 am on Monday morning we were off. We made fairly good time down the motorway until the last couple hours when we were diverted off the motorway due to a road traffic fatality. The little narrow roads of Cornwall are not designed to handle all that motorway traffic especially in August. It was a nightmare.

All in all though we only arrived 1 hour later than planned at our campsite. It was blowing boots though and setting up the tent in the howling winds presented Marc with more than a few challenges!

But we managed it. And we got dinner cooked. And then we went down to the beach. We thought we could walk it but the road was VERY narrow and in August and at dusk this probably wasn't a very sensible thing to do. So we drove the 800 yards, parked at the parking lot right across the road.

We followed the little path over the sand dune and voila! We were treated to a most spectacular sunset over a gorgeous little beach. there were 3 or 4 other people on the beach but it felt like we had the place to ourselves.

Bailey and the children lost no time and got busy running about across the sand.

Then it was back to the campsite and into the sleeping bags. What is it with children and sleeping bags? Seb & Abby could hardly wait to get into theirs! The night was a bit rough because the wind continued to blow a hooley. The flapping of the tent woke Abby up but she went right back to bed. Marc & I were slightly concerned with whether the tent could withstand the battering it was taking. And poor little ole Bailey didn't have anything other than a wind block which we had set up on 3 sides that he could lay down in.

We woke in the morning to calmer winds and beautiful sunshine. Bailey was shivering so we knew we had to fix his sleeping arrangements. but all in all our first night was a success. No one peed in their sleeping bags. No one woke up in tears. OK, so I had some pretty low expectations.

After a quick breakfast, we were off. To another beach. Again.

To be continued.........

Home Sweet Home

We have arrived home safe and sound from our camping adventures. We were thrilled to experience beautiful British seaside weather aside from the first evening which was VERY windy. The remainder of our time was bathed in glorious sunshine. The beaches were great. The children had a brilliant time and loved camping! Stay tuned for details of our adventures.

Camping

And we are off on the second leg of our holiday. We are headed off to Cornwall (the western sticky outy bit at the bottom of the island, bottom left if you're looking at a map - for the non-British readers) for the wee. CAMPING! Marc is still out in the garage cursing trying to fit everything into the car and has now decided that we need a fleet of trucks to carry our camping gear!

We got Bailey back yesterday and we are very happy to have him home.

It is still raining. Please send some sunshine our way. Camping in the rain with 2 children and 1 dog doesn't exactly sound so appealing now.

Not sure if I will be able to blog but again seriously doubt it. Enjoy your time off from me!

Intermission

We arrived back into the UK yesterday evening and home about 9pm. I've got loads of pictures and stories for everyone.

One casualty of the trip was our beloved goldfish, Toby. Our neighbours forgot to feed him and he went to goldfish heaven. Hoping the children won't notice before we can replace him.

After going through our stack of post, we enjoyed a good night's rest in our own beds with our cat, Murphy, sleeping at our feet. He really missed us! Bailey comes home today.

I've got to unpack, do laundry and repack for our camping trip. We are scheduled to leave tomorrow morning. It is raining now and the forecast is for rain until tomorrow midday. The thought of camping with 2 children and 1 dog in the rain is not appealing.

Will try to get as many pics and stories loaded today in between everything else.