camping in cornwall........ not quite glamping!

We went we saw but we didn’t conquer! We spent a week in Cornwall and it started out fine although the nights were cold in the tent!!

Drove past Stonehenge on the way down and snapped a quick pic out of the car window!

beautiful stonehenge

 We spent the time visiting all different parts of Cornwall from St Just to Penzance, St Ives to Liskeard, Padstowe to Bude……… you get the general idea…. Lots of pretty villages both by the sea and inland slightly but yes, pricey to say the least….. plus as the weather got worse………… and worse………….. and, yes, even worse……………….. it dawned on us that we were spending more time coping with camping in the cold wind and rain that we were with househunting!! Nonetheless, we were happy enough with our research on the West Country and did view some fantastic cottages……….. one even had it’s own bridge over the stream further down the garden…. We were sorely tempted as you can guess………………. So we’ll see what transpires as all options are open……………..

We visited Mevagissey on our journey into Cornwall and had our first Cornish pasty!!!! Such a pretty place again…………….

post pasty linzi!

pastied out justin!

at higher chellew

We loved our campsite at Higher Chellew nr Penzance, quiet and rural and had some delicious bacon and egg brekkies, yum!

Padstow (where we also camped for a few nights) is really lovely and, of course, famous for Rick Stein’s chippy! It was so busy that we had our fish’n’chips at another chippy down by the harbour and they were good enough for us!!

walking back to camp in padstow

So, anyway…………. When the weather did it’s worst we had moved on to Devon,Somerset and Dorset, criss-crossing back and forth over the borders and checked out some areas as we drove….. Nevertheless, we felt that the need arose for a night in a ‘real bed’ in a ‘real bedroom’ in a ‘real pub’!!! (she says, gleefully!!!) So we found ourselves booking into Waterloo Cross in Devon, a Marston’s Inn and had a wonderful night there, great food and a lovely room plus great brekkie, we felt fantastic after that!!!

We then decided to take a break and get back to the Dog and Duck, see the babies and spend a few days researching the Kentish Coast so here we are back in ‘the gutter’!!

Saw our beautiful ‘children’ yesterday and they are all fine and spent today visiting possible areas where we could also settle…………………….

testing the tent before going to cornwall!



justin hard at work!



plenty of room!




with mum & dad

We are now in cornwall but before we left we tested our new tent by putting it up at the dog and duck.
It's quite easy so that's a relief as we will be putting it down and setting it up plenty of times over the next few weeks!
Mum & Dad came and visited us before we left as we hadn't really had any time with them since our arrival!We got treated to dinner out at the dog and duck and set off to cornwall the next morning just after 5am.........
so far we've camped for three nights and have one more night left at our current site, then we move on to a new site up near padstow.
We've had lovely weather but it gets really cold at night........ brrrrrr! 
Re. the house hunt..... it's early days and we've registered with lots of agents already plus driven around and checked out areas of various houses and had a peek of the outside of a few but so far nothing suitable for our animals...... we'll keep at it!
must go for now as time is tight..... back soon!

babies and braais

parents, children & godparents at the font

at the font again

Caroline, Linzi, Jules & Lindsey!

and again, shadesoff!

So Sunday dawned bright and sunny and turned out to be yet another heatwave day! We’re getting fed up with all this heat, we left Zambia to get away from it!

We got ourselves ‘glammed up’ and headed off to the christening, as previously mentioned, did the whole business in the church, hymns, guitar-playing vicar…… gave us a bit of a chuckle that!, gathering round the font for the official bit – Holly and Adam were great!, etc, then back to Jules’ parents’ for a delicious spread and a very pleasant afternoon spent in good company with a great bunch of people, some old faces and some new, very enjoyable!

Visited Gaz, Kathryn and Charlie, freshly back from their hols in Cornwall, later on that day, for a great evening and lots of catching up over a delicious braai! (we’ll have to watch all these delicious spreads we keep  getting tempted by……)

our cute as a button nephew Charlie Nokes!

Gaz, Kathryn & Charlie



Booked in for a night at the Sealand Court B&B (in other words crashed at Mum & Dad’s!) and spent a very busy Monday sourcing odd bits and pieces that we needed to get in preparation for our first trip to Cornwall to begin househunting.

Today (Tuesday) we got up early and while I did the laundry (like, everything, bedding, towels, clothes,rugs, you name it…) Justin did the gardening (again, like, everything, cutting the grass, strimming the edges, turning the soil….) so we have been feeling very pleased with our efforts all day!

We then went to see our babies and had a great visit with them all with lots of chatting and cuddles!

Had hoped to get to Minnis Bay to join up with Jules, Daemon and tribe, if only for an hour or so, but we couldn’t make it in time and by the time we were ready to finally set off there they were packing up as the tide was rushing in!

So we spent time sourcing a few more bits for our trip and Justin also organised himself some weights as he’s missing his gym…….. I shall feel guilty now and feel the need to also do some kind of healthy exercise!

So that’s all for today! It was another hot one but we finally got a little rain tonight, not sure it was enough for the garden though……………

a new day.....

End of another lovely day weatherwise…….. sunshine all day so we decided to visit Broadstairs……. A lovely old-fashioned seaside town in good old British tradition and holding old childhood memories for me of trips here with Grandma and Grandad Carps!

Everyone was going mad on the beach, much to Justin’s amusement! He said he’d never seen a beach scene quite like it! It was total chaos! People getting sunburnt, kids splashing in the sea, surfoards, windsurfers, yachts, fish and chips, ice creams, funfair, amusement arcades, seagulls squawking when they found a chip packet, all mixed in with beautiful ancient buildings filled with Dickensian history………. A very pleasant little day out!

I should have taken a photo of the chaotic ‘Brits on the beach’ but forgot! I did, however, take a pic of the windfarm just off the coast – very surreal – hope it comes out in the photo…….

windfarm in the distance....

|We get visited by the wood pigeons each morning and they love to land on the roofof the van and clatter around making a right racket..... I'm sure they're female and all wearing stilletoes!

wood pigeon!

The moorhens keep visiting us at ‘the gutter’ and are very cute to watch….. they’ve all got little babies with them and seem to come up into the little garden for the birdseed perhaps…..  got a lovely picture of one little baby with it’s parents……

baby moorhen with parents!

We very nearly tried to get to the Hop Farm music festival not far from here….. great line-up…. 10CC, Bryan Ferry, The Eagles and The Human League…. Damn! We just couldn’t do it as we found out about it only the day before and couldn’t manage it! Maybe next time…..

Tomorrow (2^nd July) we have a christening for Holly and Adam, Julie and Daemon’s twins, our new God Children! So we’ll be responsible for leading them in the right direction in life, together with Amelia, their older daughter, also our God-daughter…… hmmmm…… leading them in the right direction eh?! Well, something like that!!

We now have four God-children as we won’t forget Donald and Michelle’s daughter Jessica back in Zambia and we do hope that they’ll all get to visit us over here some time in the future!

For now we will enjoy the evening sun with our wine……………………….