Cornwall Holiday
Cornwall Holiday
It’s been a busy year and we were definitely ready for a bit of a break. The Uni stuff has come to an end but it’s taking me a little while to decompress from being so busy and I think I was in need of this more than I had realised. That said, we’ve had a long drive down to our campsite and fortunately having paid for a double pitch, there is plenty of room for the dog to roam around on. She has a stake screwed into the ground to stop her running off when she gets a scent but as the kids explore they soon return with other kids who lavish attention on Ember, especially a little Dutch girl who just loves her to bits. Her English is patchy but it’s a million times better than our Dutch!
We aren’t far from the beach so we pack up the essentials and head off to explore, soaking in the afternoon sun.
One of the things we want to do is use our campsite as a jumping off point to explore the area. I was a teenager the last time I came to Cornwall and my memory is very hazy about the whole visit, with most of it spent in the pubs in and around Newquay or Fistral Beach. So, armed with a tank full of diesel, plenty of snacks and google maps off we went.
Somewhere Rachel had organised for the kids was a visit to the nut-free Kernow chocolate factory which, considering Adam has a nut allergy we were really excited about. Adam and Emily get to check out the whole place, test some of the chocolate on offer and as a special treat, Rachel gives them a ‘budget’ to splurge on the biggest selection of nut-safe flavours they’ve ever seen! As I was back at the site with the dog when they returned Adam was absolutely beaming. The fact Rachel has put so much time into finding the place and checked with them numerous times about nut-safety and the fact he got to choose anything he wanted, just like other kids in a sweet shop really meant a lot to him and we couldn’t have been happier for him. Emily was just happy to have come away with her own selection of chocolates but they were both kind enough to share.
So, far sooner than we would have liked our holiday came to a close and given the treck we knew we had ahead of us, we decided to head home and drive in the evening rather than face the traffic the following day which, turned out to be a massive mistake.
My plan was to set off around 7pm and break up the 5.1/2hr drive with two pit-stops to stretch and have a short break. On paper, we should arrive home around 1am ish and get the kids into bed for a good night’s sleep. What actually happened, is it was 8pm before we’d packed up and said our goodbyes to Andy, Lucy, Florence & Adelaide, the family we’d befriended shortly after arriving in Mawgan Porth, far later than planned. The roads looked clear right until we hit the motorway at which point, the whole plan went to the wall.
Arriving at a dingy service station five hours later and still three (sat-nav) hours from home, I completely forgot we had a roof box full of stuff and managed to calmly drive straight into a multi-storey carpark barrier. As I reversed out, what was left of the lid of the roof box landed on the bonnet but somewhat unbelievably, the contents stayed exactly where they were!?
Being a dingy services, we pulled up beneath the only working street light and began the slow process of wrapping the contents with our camping tarpaulin, whatever strapping we could find and eventually the dogs long training lead in an attempt to keep things from flying off during the rest of the drive. Something which didn’t help was the car full of dodgy-looking blokes pulling up right behind us, so as the driver stood pretending to read the sign right next to a sleeping Adam, we made the decision to get out of there! We were driving less than a minute before Emily woke up desperate for the loo which was now packed tightly somewhere in the back of the boot. And so, we ended our holiday holding a child’s legs up, weeing half-asleep beside the road.
Rach had a go at driving but the super-bright speed-restrictions and lighting on the motorway was sending her eyes into a frenzy so at the next services, we stopped, checked the strapping and I carried on the rest of the way. With even more diversions, we finally got home, utterly knackered around 5am!
The kids were totally oblivious to my night’s trauma and decided to wake me up at 8am, so deciding to write the day off (..and the chance of some sleep), I left Rachel in bed and got up to get everything unpacked and put away before she woke up at the crack of noon.
Note to self; never try to outsmart traffic, it won’t end well!