Sunday 28 July 2013

Cruising Cornwall...

Last week we went on our annual holiday to Cornwall to visit my Dad, which is something we always look forward to. As a bonus we are getting a proper summer this year, which made planning what we wanted to do so much easier, as all of Cornwalls beauty is outside!
It's always a long trip down there, but it is definately worth it!


Our trip coincided with the Stithians show this year, which is an agricultural show, so we got to see plenty of lovely animals.

On our first day we got to see a variety of sheep, including one which had, what looked like a rabbit head. So much lovely fleece!!
3 really adorable Alpaca's, one of which was only 7 days old. They had not long been shawn, which made their fluffy-topped heads look even cuter!! 


All breeds of cows. Watch where you step now!!
There was a marquee of Goats
A massive Poultry tent, with every shape and size of chicken. From the big plump rooster to the fluffy headed, fluffy footed chickens, and also the bare necked chicken, which was as ugly as it sounds!



There was a whole tent of pigeons, yes really! Muli-coloured, tiny, caged birds, and Cavies, the term used for Guinea pigs. But the highlight for me, which you don't normally see at Ag shows, was the rabbit tent! A whole space dedicated to cuteness and fluffyness, which definately had the Aaaaaahh factor! I could have easily taken a few home with me! My absolute favourite was the lion-head rabbit, the ultimate in fluffyness with its tufty mane.
After having explored all the animal areas, we stopped for some much needed refreshment, in the heat, before heading round to the rest of the stalls and displays. It was a long exhausting day, but well worth the visit.

On the Tuesday we opted to stay local, as we did need some rest days. There are usually some small changes to the village each year, but even if there wasn't I'd still enjoy re-visiting the little shops and galleries and you can never tire of the beautiful views of the harbour!!


It was great to have a garden to utilise too, something that we really miss, especially in this fine weather. It enables you to enjoy the full extent of the light, morning and evening, and can enjoy dining Al fresco too!


On the Wednesday, we had booked aboard the Scillonian3, to take us across to the Scilly Isles, this was somewhere that we hadn't ventured to before. It was a 2 1/2 hour trip away from the mainland.


Once we'd arrived at the biggest island, of St Marys, it was a hop onto a much smaller boat called Surprise, to take us to the Isle of Tresco, this was home to some stunning gardens, which Dad wanted to take us to. It looked so idyllic on arrival, with turquoise clear waters, white sandy beaches and palms, a tropical delight. We needed to make haste as we only had a limited time to venture round, as the travel does eat into much of the day.

Tresco gardens certainly lived up to its reputation, absolutely stunning, with a whole host of tropical plants, but giant sized.

All the plants were green and lush and the flowers were bright and colourful.


The trees loomed up into the sky


and the succulents spread out widely.


We stopped for a quick picnic lunch, where we had a little visitor. A beautiful chinese pheasant, with colourful plumage.

There was a gorgeous shell hut


and an amazing treasure house which had a whole collection of figureheads from various wrecks that had washed ashore.

Our time was up and it was a quick march back to board our boats. Both boats seemed more packed for the journey back, and finding somewhere to sit was quite tricky, and we were exhausted from walking around in the midday heat, but it was worth every moment as we have many visual memories to treasure.

On the Thursday, it was yet another new experience. Hubby is an enthusiastic freshwater fisherman, and we had the opportunity to go with a local fisherman to try sea fishing. Dad has had experience of this trip before, which he said was great fun, though I had to admit I was not totally convinced of this, but hubby was most excited to try. It was great to sail away from the harbour, and see it from a new angle.


The sea was totally calm and flat, and as it had been so hot in the uk, there was an unusually large amount of jellyfish in the water. We were handed our rods and shown how to attatch the weights and hooks. We put our lines out over the boat and reeled in and out of the water. We stopped for the boat to move position now and again, and then we changed from using a lure, to multiple feathers, and then we added bait, as the fish werent biting too much in the heat.


Dad was the first to land a fish, and the team went on to catch a mix of mackerel, pollock, ....... To my surprise I managed to catch not just one but 2 mackerel. Oscar the fisherman was a great tutor, and was helpful as most of us didnt really know what we were doing and he was always at hand to help out. It was a sweltering heat, being out on the water in the middle of the day, but surprisingly I thoroughly enjoyed the whole venture. I got stuck in and with the expertise of Oscar, it was a pleasant smooth trip for me.

On our return to shore, we went straight to one of our favourite pit-stop for a milkshake. They make milkshakes from chocolate bars or biscuits, and they are refreshing and yummy.We do have to try as many flavours as we can while we are there of course!! This time I tried peanut m+m's, mint areo and terry's chocolate orange.


We left the gutting of the fish to Dad, but we had the freshest and tastiest fish meal that evening. How satisfying to know you are eating what you caught!


After our last 2 adventurous days, on the Friday we again stayed around the village, with the morning spent relaxing and eating in the garden. In the afternoon we decided to tackle the Treasure trail that we'd brought along. This gave us the opportunity to have a nice walk around the whole of the village, whilst keeping an eye out for historic points and various images. This wasn't quite as difficult and the clues weren't so obscure as our previous one, and as Dad has quite alot of knowledge about the village it wasn't as tricky as we'd hoped for, but we still enjoyed our time scouting around the area.


Then before we knew it, it was Saturday and time to go home again, time always goes so quick. It's so restful and peaceful there, a relaxed way of life, that the thought of going back to the hustle and bustle of town and having to go back to work, was not a pleasant thought.
We had our last milkshake and stroll around the village.
It was lovely to unwind, and more pleasant to by the sea, in the heat, than a stuffy town. So lovely to spend time with family and enjoyable to play and cuddle up with the cats.


It's just a shame that we aren't able to do this more than once a year!!!

7 comments:

  1. It's always good to go away and have a bit of a holiday. Looks like you had a good time.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a lovely week you've had, its so much easier to relax when the sun is shining.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You had a lovely week judging by your beautiful photos. And you had gorgeous weather to go with gorgeous surroundings.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Your trip sounds blissful and the photos are amazing. I really like the alpacas and the Tresco gardens look beautiful. Thanks for sharing your trip.
    Ali x

    ReplyDelete
  5. You could not have had a better time if you went abroad. Such wonderful photos. Thank you for sharing it with us :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Beautiful photos - the Isles of Scilly are on my list of places to go :o)

    ReplyDelete
  7. I really enjoyed this post - looks like you had an amazing time x

    ReplyDelete