A Cornwall Holiday (3)

Another beautiful sunny day again in Cornwall. Our plans were to go and enjoy a day at the beach and hopefully for me to be able to swim in the sea.

Porth Beach

We initially intended to go to Watergate Bay, but on our way came across the very beautiful Porth Beach. The beach is fairly narrow, but the tide goes out a long way, leaving a long stretch of really flat sand. A stream runs into it from one side. There are tiny coves and bays all the way down, allowing people to sit in what appears to be their own little area. It gives protection from the breeze(not that there was much breeze today) and also allows families to contain small children in a smaller area on a large expanse of beach.

We settled on the beach with our chairs, drinks and snacks. It was really hot and sunny just like a summer’s day. I was going to wait for the tide to come in a bit before going for a swim, but having looked at the tide times, realised it was still going out and low tide wasn’t until 4pm!

I made my way down the long stretch of sand to the sea. The lifeguards were there and there was only a small area between the flags that was safe to swim in. I headed into the extremely cold water, but once you were in, it was a great feeling and your body soon adjusted to the temperature. It was hard to swim in as it was really shallow for quite a way out, however there were some enormous waves which allowed you to swim with them as they came into shore.

It was a really great feeling and I spent quite a bit of time in the sea and went back in for another dip later on, even persuading my husband to join me.

We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and soaking up the sun, before heading back to the cottage

Pizzas and an Open Fire

Ruan Dinas, where we are staying has it’s own jetty, which has a fire pit. In the evening we cooked pizzas in the cottage, made up gin and prosecco cocktails, then made our way across to the jetty(literally 10 seconds from the house). It was dusk and it was so relaxing and enjoyable to sit by the open fire, drinking eating and laughing. We even did the obligatory toasting of marshmallows on sticks over the flames.

As it got dark and the tide was coming in we went back up to the house and played cards for the rest of the evening, whilst having a few drinks and snacks and proper belly laughs.

A Cornwall Holiday (1)

After all the ups and downs of the last few months and lots of “will we, won’t we” in relation to holiday bookings, we finally had our foreign holidays cancelled for this year (I thought I would be disappointed, but actually quite relieved). We were fully refunded for all of them, so a few weeks ago decided to book something in the UK.

We decided to book a week in a cottage in Cornwall. Pretty straight forward you would think, but not as easy as it seems. After lots of searching on the internet, most places being fully booked, we finally managed to find what looked like a lovely cottage in Coombe, near Truro.

An Overnight Stay In Bristol

As it is such a long drive from Yorkshire to Truro we decided that we would have an overnight stay in Bristol to break up the journey (in truth it was also because I had a voucher for a free overnight stay at any Village Hotel and Being a true Yorkshire girl, I didn’t want to waste it!).

One of the lovely things about the journey was that my husband had put some CD’s in the car just in case we got bored with listening to the radio. One of the CD’s was one that had been recorded by our daughter. It just said “The Jennings Family Favourite Music” on the front. It had so many great tracks on there that were linked to lots of events and memories over the years. We had a really good sing along and also reminisced about why each particular track was on the CD. Neither of us could remember when she had made it, but it was definitely a good way to pass some time on a long journey.

We arrived at the Hotel at about 4pm. The hotel itself is very modern and quite Hi Tech, well especially for us over 50’s. The room was clean and had a huge bed. Other than wearing masks in whilst moving about in the hotel and being unable to get in the lift with anyone else, it was very much business as usual. We had a table booked for the evening, so decided to have a quick coffee before getting changed and going for food. However, it was a lovely sunny afternoon and after sitting outside in the sun for a while, decided to order from drinks from the bar. Needless to say we never got changed before our meal, as it was just so lovely to be sat in the sun enjoying a drink and a chat.

The following morning I got up early and went for a swim in the pool before breakfast. I was in the pool on my own for the first 15 minutes or so which was lovely. A couple of other people got in soon after, but I was able to enjoy a nice peaceful swim to start the day.

We then went for breakfast, which was slightly different due to the current restrictions in place, so there was no ” help yourself”, everything was served to you. This didn’t alter the enjoyment and all in all it had been a relaxing start to the holidays (A bit like staying in the hotel at the airport the night before you fly)

An Afternoon In Polperro

As we couldn’t get into our accommodation until 5pm, we made a stop at Polperro along the way. This is somewhere I had not been before on my holidays to Cornwall. It is a picturesque fishing village, very quaint and pretty. We had a walk through the village and then stopped for lunch at the museum café. The museum itself wasn’t open, but the café was serving food outside and as it was another beautiful day, we sat overlooking the harbour eating delicious sandwiches stuffed with fresh crab.

We then had another walk through the rest of the village, then onto the beach and across the rock pools. By the time we had been to the supermarket for supplies, before going to the cottage.

Ruan Dinas

The cottage we had booked is called Ruan Dinas and is situated at Combe near Truro. We followed the directions given by the owners of the cottage, which took us down a small track. There were a few hairy moments or two along the way, but at the bottom of the track was a beautiful bungalow with an amazing view of the river.

Once inside we were impressed with the open plan layout, well equipped kitchen and comfortable seating. The bedrooms are large and lots of storage (always pack too much stuff!). We unpacked and had a coffee before walking down to the waters edge. It was high tide and there were young people swimming in the river, as well as people kayaking and fishing. It was such a beautiful evening and it really felt like I was on holiday at last.

We had a hearty home cooked tea, including a couple of glasses of wine and pudding and custard. The ginger sponge pudding had been made by my friend, who had been to the eye hospital for an examination and had to wear sunglasses whilst making it as her pupils were so dilated. As you can imagine, she got a lot of sympathy and from then on the pudding was renamed “one-eyed ginger sponge”.