# A week in Cornwall and Dartmoor



## DABurleigh (May 9, 2005)

We had the last out-and-about week's holiday of 2007 last week and had decided on Cornwall in the main. It had been a toss-up between that and Pembrokeshire at Easter, which Pembrokeshire won:
http://www.motorhomefacts.com/ftopicp-162225.html#162225

There was to be no early Friday getaway, as neither Ali nor I could be free before 6pm or so. As I was returning home after 3 days away on work, I hadn't got the van in ready-mode, either. So it ended up a rather pragmatic on-the-road dinner keeping body and soul together but little more, as we blasted down the A303 from Basingstoke to Exeter and to a cheap overnight CL I had stayed at some 2.5 years ago when picking up the van from Murvi at Ivybridge, near Plymouth:
http://www.motorhomefacts.com/modules.php?name=Campsites&op=display_results&csid=448
At least the traffic had had time to subside. We had phoned ahead a couple of times, leaving answerphone messages, but had no human contact, so I was relieved to see exactly 4 caravans in the field on arrival, long after dark. Any more and legally it would have been no more room at the inn. I walked Zoe to the farmhouse to settle-up by posting an envelope and creeping away again, returned to the field, stepped in something squidgy and smelly requiring attention tomorrow in daylight, and we got our heads down.

*Saturday 23rd September*
Morning showed that one of our caravan neighbours was a fellow ham, G4NVO (close, but different, to a more local G3NVO), but we didn't get to chat as we had to get going for the Eden Project at St Austell. Murphy had been on form the previous evening as I clearly had found the only cowpat around. We blew Murvi a kiss as we cruised past it on the A38; that was the point of the van's closest approach since we took delivery. We arrived at the Eden Project as it opened at 10.00am Saturday morning:
http://www.edenproject.com/about/517.html

Some photos of our week are here temporarily:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/daburleigh/CornwallDartmoor/
I suggest you open it in a separate tab or browser to look at in conjunction with this report. I have retained the more scenic ones at full 7 Mpixel resolution. Just click on the photos to blow them up; often needed to appreciate them.

*Pics 1-8* are at the Eden Project, which I was frankly ambivalent about until I had been in the Rainforest biodome for a couple of minutes, when I found myself warming (literally, and getting clammy) to it. It really is very impressive, more so than the Mediterranean dome, even though we are Med fans. I'm told the weekends are quieter, presumably due to holiday changeover day, and generally it is better to get there early as we did. An enjoyable visit, which we recommend, though Ali did bang on about the mega-sized bendy buses to ferry people between carparks and the entrance (with a motorhome you get to use the bigger spaces closer to the entrance, by the way). I guess the Eden Project has had to tread a balance between eco-friendliness and commercialism.

We left mid afternoon and drove to The Lizard, to a campsite near Mullion where my sister-in-law works at reception:
http://www.motorhomefacts.com/modules.php?name=Campsites&op=display_results&csid=2932
and had a quiet relaxing evening catching up on some of our favourite TV programmes.

*Sunday*
A leisurely day visiting sister-in-law, niece and great nephew and enjoying Penrose Walks between Helston and the coast. For dinner we parked the van in Helston High Street for free. Strangely it seemed to have a river running down an enlarged gutter, which the electric step neatly bridged, and with a single step onto the pavement the next was into the pub for drinks and dinner. Very civilised! I can't think of many towns I could manage that in.

*Monday*
*Pics 10 - 13.* After sampling the pool because it was there, we walked around The Lizard, parking in the large donation car park in the town before heading out to Kynance Cove and then on the coastal path around. The pictures say more than I can. After deserved cream teas in the café next to the carpark, we moved 20 miles as the crow flies to the CC site at Godrevy, Hayle, just 4 miles East of St. Ives:
http://www.motorhomefacts.com/modules.php?name=Campsites&op=display_results&csid=2933
> CC Godrevy <
*Pic 20*
Now as I mentioned in a previous thread, I'm not sure where CC wardens are trained/ brainwashed, but they ought to send them here. Whether they were the wardens or associate wardens I don't know, but they were both so lovely you feel like you want to go back again just to be uplifted in their presence. Eddie & Leigh if you see this I think it must be due to the Kubota mower; he rode it like a man possessed but grinning from ear to ear.

*Tuesday*
*Pics 14-16. *We visited St Ives. Aim for the Leisure Centre car park and you'll be fine. Later we did see some motorhomes parked even further on, but that would have been a longer walk into town. Unfortunately the Tate St Ives:
http://www.tate.org.uk/stives/
was closed for rehanging for weeks, but at least that gave us more time to enjoy a crab salad lunch in the café across the road overlooking the surfing beach. Alison further compensated by buying an Andrew Potter framed print (#17 Deep Green):
http://www.andrewpotter.net/prints/small.html
to match the theme in the smallest room in our home. I bought a pasty for tomorrow's lunch …..

*Wednesday*
We had a lovely long dogwalk from the site. All of
*Pics 17-22* are under 15 minutes' walk from your van pitch; zoom in on 17 to see real windsurfing. I presume this is the standard mode of travel for lighthouse engineers; clearly those two are swapping shifts.

Then it was off to Dartmoor, to a site just East of Tavistock:
http://www.motorhomefacts.com/modules.php?name=Campsites&op=display_results&csid=447
*Pic 23*

*Thursday*
*Pics 24 to 30*
A lovely 7 mile walk on Dartmoor, starting at the large free car park in Princetown, and covering a rectangle to the south and west, touching Burrator Reservoir. One of the best things we keep in the van is the AA book of 1001 walks in Britain, where you can select a walk then detach the loose leaf map & description to keep in a waterproof transparent cover around your neck:
> AA 1001 Walks in Britain <

Then a too-tedious-a-drive from there, across Exeter, Honiton, Dorchester and Poole to the MHF meet at Setthorns in the New Forest:
http://www.motorhomefacts.com/modules.php?name=Campsites&op=display_results&csid=1402
http://www.motorhomefacts.com/ftopicp-282538.html#282538

*Friday - Sunday*
A bit of a disappointingly grey weekend after the sun forecast, but the company was good 

Shopping in Waitrose in Lymington is handy for motorhome parking, now they have moved to what was previously Morrisons. We don't have a Waitrose that near us, but after a good look around, I told Alison that should I end up single again, I'd definitely go out of my way to shop at Waitrose ….

A walk from the site into Sway and back for the paper is a pleasant 3 mile round trip.

On Sunday we biked along the disused railway line, with the dog running freely alongside. It was a handy 100m from our Oaken Bottom pitch, with electricity and satellite OK:
*Pic 31*
A carvery for lunch at the Filly Inn
http://www.fillyinn.co.uk/
but we opted for an outdoors ice-cream dessert at Hatchet Pond:
> Google Maps Hatchet Pond, Beaulieu, NF <
where invariably there is an ice-cream van parked at the entrance, before a quick blast home up the M3. I must have been revitalized because within the hour the van was emptied, hoovered, put to bed with sun-shielding sheets at the windows and the holiday detritus was either put away in its proper place in the house or it was spinning merrily in the washing machine. That's a first.

It was a cracking week of scenery, coastal, beach and moor walking, family, motorhome friends, eating, drinking and TV vegging. Shame it had to end really!

Dave


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## Grizzly (May 9, 2005)

Oh Dave ! I do wish people wouldn't do this to me. I'm a suggestable soul and your pictures and descriptions have got me scrabbling through the maps to follow your journey and possibly duplicate it. We've always had second thoughts about the van and the west country but you make it seem so easy. We want to see the Eden project too.

Thanks for sharing this.

G


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## johnandcharlie (May 2, 2007)

If you go to the Eden Project with a dog, watch the height of the covered parking for dogs. My TV aerial almost scraped the roof, but the attendant who guided me in was very good. Must go back before next summer while I can get in free.


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## ruthiebabe (Aug 16, 2005)

good tips, thanks, sounds like a good trip.


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## DABurleigh (May 9, 2005)

"got me scrabbling through the maps to follow your journey and possibly duplicate it. We've always had second thoughts about the van and the west country but you make it seem so easy. We want to see the Eden project too."

G,

The biggest kick I get out of MHF is when someone PMs me to say they have just followed part of one of my trips and how much they enjoyed it. That's what makes me continue to post them. More positive than advising on technical problems ;-) The bigger mystery is why so few do a similar write-up, as it doesn't take long. I don't take any notes during a trip up to 2 weeks and just rely on the photos to jog the memory, plus any campsite leaflets in case it helps the database entries.

As for taking the van to the west country, the only thing I would change in that trip if I drove an RV would be I would have given the £3 CL on the first night a miss, simply because the access roads were narrow and I wouldn't want to have gone onto an unknown field at night. Even Helston High Street would have been OK 

Yes, some roads in Devon and Cornwall have short stretches with passing places, so you would have to be comfortable with reversing using your mirrors if necessary, not that I ever had to. If so, just take it slowly.

Dave


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## tokkalosh (May 25, 2006)

*Where are the piccies?*

Hi Dave,

Just watching a programme about Dartmoor and it has got my feet itching :roll: so did a search and found this thread.

Are you pictures still available for viewing - if so where are they?

Hope you are all well.

Cheers.


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## DABurleigh (May 9, 2005)

Now resurrected, Tricia.

Dave


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## tokkalosh (May 25, 2006)

Cheers Dave, viewed and bookmarked


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