Base Camp Journal: More Things to See in Cornwall

Of all the sites Robby and I have stayed at last year, Carnon Downs is my favourite, and we just had to return and visit the places around Cornwall we didn't get round to. Carnon Downs is just as immaculate as before, with the giant trees around the perimeter and hedgerows marking sections of pitches making the site resemble the gardens of a stately home. Sometimes wildlife can be spotted there in the Summer evenings. And it was very quiet, with the other residents being almost exclusively old couples.

This time we had the ideal pitch, just across the path from the bathroom and shower block, where the water supply happens to be.

Also, we have our first Caravan and Motorhome Club coin, which apparently can be acquired whenever we visit an affiliated site. Neither of us were aware of that, until another member of the CMC showed off his collection.

Carnon Downs has its own bar, of sorts, which only has a couple of tables indoors (though a lot of outdoor seating) and closes at 21:00. There is a Beefeater just across the roundabout by the entrance, and it's a quiet, friendly place frequented by people staying at the nearby Premier Inn. One of the guests, who was sitting on his own, before I invited him to join Robby and myself, turned out to be an actor off Holby City (never watched it myself) . Another guy I got chatting with over a cigarette happened to be from my home town.

Falmouth: A Bottle of Rum and Pieces of Silver

Having legged it down a country path in Trelissik the next morning, we managed to board a ferry seconds before it departed for Falmouth. We discovered, at the last minute, that the parking was up the hill, outside a National Trust site.

What a nice experience the next 40 minutes was! The weather was just right, and the ferry took us past some fairly picturesque locations along the river, where boats were moored at marinas and outside the gardens of mansions.

Approaching Falmouth harbour/docks, we passed close to Silver Whisper, a cruise ship that Andy later told us was, despite being relatively small, among the most luxurious and expensive. It only carries five hundred passengers.

We arrived at Falmouth Harbour amid a lot of singing and many people walking the main street wearing novelty pirate hats, and there were quite a few market stalls. Was this place distinctly famed for having a pirate-related history, I wondered?

It wasn’t long before we learned we’d shown up in the middle of the International Sea Shanty Festival, a carnival of re-enactors, people who like singing about the sea and suchlike topics, and those with a pirate clothing fetish.

I came away from the market area with a bottle of Twin Fin rum, which I'd been looking for since we were last in Carlyon Bay, and Robby insisted on paying for a silver and garnet ring that I was in the process of buying.

As we were enjoying a quiet pint in The Prince of Wales, there was the sound of a procession of drummers approaching, and thinking it was about to pass by, we went to have a look. Just as Robby reached the door, a column of men in the kind of sailor-related attire, rather like one would see on Hornblower, stormed in and proceeded to liven the place up with a commotion of drumming and singing. They were the Falmouth Marine Band. I think they stopped here because The Prince of Wales had some association with a Royal Navy ship that one docked at Falmouth, but I could be wrong.

Truro

We spent the better part of the next day wandering Truro, one of my favourite cities. It's a city because it has a cathedral, which towers above all the other buildings here, and is worth visiting to appreciate the impressive architecture, engineering (the very high ceilings especially) and artwork.

I commented to Robby how our civilisation probably no longer has the capacity, or the passion at any rate, to engineer buildings such as the cathedral and the intricate things that adorn the interior. Cardiff and Newport, where it seems everything is faceless and nothing is built to last, have certainly lost that. Everything is continually being knocked down and replaced with something more bland than what preceded it, making those places look like permanent building sites.

Food and Drink

This is worth mentioning, as there are a couple of things we haven't come across outside Cornwall.

The first is the famous Cornish Pastie. We bought ourselves a couple from the bakery in Truro, and that served as our main meal for the day because the pastry is so thick and it contained a generous amount of filling.

And there is the drink, mainly gin (of which I'm already becoming something of an experienced connoisseur). Tarquin's gin is sold pretty much everywhere around central Cornwall. Lacking the bitterness of the average cheap gin, Tarquin's goes down like water, and is probably best mixed with a high-quality flavoured tonic water.

I also bought Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin (which I happen to be drinking now, as I write this). It does taste a little like Bombay Sapphire, but there's a noticeable hint of pepper. I like it.

Perranporth

When the weather changed for the better, we headed to Perranporth again. What can I say? It has a large beach, though most of it's less accessible when the tide's in. It wasn't overcrowded this time. There are a few nice shops selling an assortment of tat and pricey hand-crafted items I’m sure I’ve seen in numerous other places. Still, I have a habit of impulse-buying things.

We did plan on setting up a tent, so we could stay on the beach longer, but that didn't turn out to be such a good idea. Instead we found another spot 200 metres further along, where a mini-cove shielded us from the wind.

Many jellyfish were left along the beach by the receding tide - I'd say one jellyfish for every two square metres. Most of them were dead - I did wonder why the jellyfish species hadn’t adapted to something that clearly is a common problem for them, given they have venomous testacles to deal with lesser threats. They really did have the weight and consistency of something made of gelatine, and the purple markings inside them appeared to be internal organs.

Robby and I carried several of them to the largest rockpool to see which survived. One or two did.

Mevagissey

Andy and Tony happened to be staying at Pentewan site, some miles east of Carnon Downs, and we picked them up on the way to Mevagissey.

Mevagissey itself is a pleasant enough harbour town. Actually it's very pretty, it has a lovely cafe and there's no shortage of things to see in such a small area. A few sailors were running boat trips along the coast from the harbour.

So, that’s what we saw around Cornwall this year. I’m looking forward to returning there in ~10 months.