With summer upon us, we decided it was time to hit the beach England style, so we loaded up our little Audi and headed to Newquay, Cornwall on the south west coast of England. As usual we filled the car with a support team, with Kalem, Ryan and Philly making the grade this time, and we began the casual five hour drive down to the coast.
The drive down flew by as we were not held up with the usual ferry break and instead of the usual three lane motorway we were on a nice country road, reminiscent of State Highway 1 in NZ, with just a few more sights such as Stonehenge on the way. With a token McDonald’s dinner stop, we arrived in Newquay in no time at all.
Our hostel was right in the thick of it and straight away what we saw set the scene for the weekend... We literally had to slow down to 5 miles per hour as the roads were covered with drunken revellers consisting of hens crews, bachelor parties, and some token surfers all staggering about, falling over themselves, with the occasional spot of fisticuffs! We felt right at home. When we finally found our hostel it was situated above one of the larger bars, and we were blessed with great views overlooking the sandy beaches and cliffs of Cornwall. To top it all off the hostel owner seemed stoned out of his head, with dreads down to his backside.
After a few drinks and a quick stroll around the streets to check out the nightlife, we headed back to our hostel for a group chit chat before being kept awake all night by drunken party-goers. We didn’t mind at all though as you can’t help but be swept away in the Newquay atmosphere!
The next morning, after stuffing ourselves on free toast and cereal, we set off on foot for some exploring. We headed down to the beach, where one end had been separated off with concrete walls to make a small harbour, which is where all of the fishing and crabbing boats are based. Here, after hearing an old local chap chattering away about it, we saw our first seal – a sight that would become very familiar over the course of the weekend. It turns out that each day seals come into the little harbour and eat the small bait fish from the boats, and off the sea floor they love a free lunch as much as much as we do. We all rather enjoyed watching the little guy collecting fish from the bottom and bringing them up to the surface to tear apart, whilst being bombarded by a crazed flock of gulls that also seemed to know the ritual. Who needs Auckland Zoo when you get this wildlife show for free? We all stood there riveted for a good hour, before strolling off to investigate the rock pools, pushing the little British kids out of the way to get a glimpse of the crabs. We also saw an ominous looking Bikie gang whooping and cheering as they splashed around in the tide in their leathers. A very funny site!
The boys picked up a cheap rugby ball and caused havoc by throwing it around the streets, while the girls explored the shops. After a quick lunch we split up as the boys decided we would go for a two hour fishing trip, whilst the girls tucked into a traditional Cornish afternoon tea, complete with clotted Cornish cream scones and an ice-cream sundae the size of Kylie’s head. But when we (the boys) got back down to the harbour we realised it was low tide and thus there was no fishing trips until a lot later in the day. Instead we hit the beach with our Frisbee and rugby ball and spent the day playing on the beach and swimming in the rather fresh ocean. At one stage we were even visited by our little seal friend, slightly creepy but fun looking back at it. The ladies enjoyed there Cornish tea, but unfortunately we forgot to tell them we didn’t go out fishing so they spent a good hour waiting for us back at the harbour. They kept themselves entertained by watching the seals come in, flock around the fishing boats like greedy little beggars. When we cottoned on and headed back to the harbour to meet them, we found them staring at the fishing boats, watching them come back in with countless spider and rock crabs, as well as the biggest black lobsters you’ve ever seen. It was really interesting watching how it all happens and we were amused when an old man told us the crabs were going straight to France, as they weren’t good enough for the British, but the French eat anything. After our experiences in France, we wholeheartedly agree!
That night we hit the Cornish cider and hit the town, Newquay style. Great fun.
We made an early start to our Sunday and headed around the coast to Padstow, home of famed chef Rick Stein, who seemed to own half of the town with a fish and chip restaurant, a cooking school, some more restaurants and apparently four places to stay. It was a lovely little seaside village with cobbled streets and Cornish pasties as far as the eye could see. So we all soaked up the night before with different types of pasties, whilst watching the local children catch crabs and release them, only to keep repeating the process.
On our way home we pre-planned a detour to Axminster, where we went to the River Cottage restaurant, which I was personally looking forward to since my days of sitting in front of the heater with Mum and Dad, watching Hugh live off the land in his little cottage. It wasn’t as great as we had hoped but it was still very nice and we will definitely head to the closer Bath restaurant in a different season to see what is on offer.
All in all, Cornwall more than lived up to the hype. It’s a great place and with so much to see, we’ll definitely be back again at least another few times!
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