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Published: January 9th 2012
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Given the success of our camping trip to Pembrokeshire, Wales last August Bank holiday, we thought we'd try it again! This time we decided on Cornwall.
...Though we did learn slightly from last time and booked us into a camp ground a few months earlier!! On arrival, for some reason once again we were shown to our campsite down the back away from other campers by a friendly guy on a quad bike. We were pleased to be away from the rest and hoped we'd be able to repeat our open fire trick from Wales (having specially brought portable BBQs with us from London!), carefully placing our tents and car in a semi circle with the surrounding bush as background.
A drive into nearby Newquay meant we could stock up on supplies.... and a night of drinks around the fire commenced that was quite a bit warmer than last time... though this may not have been all good because it put Fe and Bunny to sleep after a few hours curled up in sleeping bags around our makeshift fire.
The following day we headed down country to the surprisingly beautiful spot of the Minack Open Theatre. The Minack Theatre looks
like it was built by invading Romans, but the truth is far from it and quite interesting! The open air theatre was built into the craggy cliffs between 1931 and 1983 by one determined woman, Rowena Cade. Rowena had been involved in theatre from a young age and after the war, her mother and her moved to the nearby area. She discovered and bought the Minack Headland for £100 and built their home using granite from a nearby quarry. The Minack House and it’s garden became the setting for many small productions. In the early thirties, Cade had the idea of building a stage right into the cliff by her home. In 1932 they had their first simple production. The setting was so idyllic that Cade decided it had to continue, and from a pile of tumbled boulders she literally cut granite seats, wedged stones into place, created terraces in the rocky slope above a sheer drop. But after World War II the theatre was reduced to a pile of rubble and so Rowena set about bringing the theatre back to life. Through the early fifties, she worked with a friend to separate the theatre from her house with granite
walls, then built an access road, car park and a flight of 90 steps up from the beach - all through hard physical labour. Unable to afford granite she used cement and etched designs and lettering into the cement with a screwdriver. Rowena worked on the theatre right through to her mid-eighties, looking at the result today, it was an immense strength of wills and physical labour to create what she has done. And to make it even more magic is the setting, as we walked down the steps to the theatre we were all completely awe struck. It didn't look like anything you would normally picture of England, there were soaring cliffs, white sandy beaches, turquoise water, and the sun came out to shine on it all. What a spectacular and magic setting!!
After that we followed some country roads and stumbled on a cute village called 'Mousehole' – we all saw that village name and just had to tikki-tour!! It was a pretty coastal village where we stopped for a pub lunch and bought some cool picture frames in an art shop.
The following day Doug and Fe had relatives to visit so we had a
few hours to kill We first stumbled across Trevaunance Cove in St Agnes which was great, had a really laid-back surfy vibe. We had MASSIVE scones and hot choco's at the laidback 'Schooners' restaurant right on the beach.
After this we went for a drive through St Ives, which looked like an amazing place to holiday also, sadly we were working to a bit of a timeline and didn’t have time to stop, but our drive through was a nice taster of the coastal town which cradles the pretty harbour. Arriving a bit early to pick up Fe and Doug we detoured to a shopping mall to buy jeans (mmm bizarre but hey, grab the time while you can!!) and then it was off to pick up Fe and Doug and head back to London. We were dreading the traffic because we didn’t leave Cornwall til 2 or 3pm but actually got a pretty good run through.
Cornwall is yet another amazing place to visit - England is really full of them and the more we explore the more we like. London is certainly not England!! ha ha Sad to have the last of our camping trips in
the UK with Doug and Fe though as they head to Aussie to live in a few months time.
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