2010 summer holiday
We’ve just come back from our summer holiday in Cornwall. We rented a self-catering cottage on a farm near Coverack, on the Lizard.
Coverack
http://www.heath-farm-holidays.co.uk/granary.html
We’ve had a truly wonderful time there with our little Yogi, who loved the spacious cottage and enclosed back garden from where he could watch the mad guinea fowl and chickens safely. We can recommend this place whole-heartedly. Great for starting out on lovely walks along the coastal path. He was the model dog, always came back and walked and walked even though he was so tired in the end that I had to carry him for a little while (which did my lower back in and causes me still to be in pain, but it was worth it.)
Cadgwith is the most pretty secluded fishing village, just wonderful.
For the first time ever I had a freshly baked real Cornish Pasty, it was amazing!!!!
We also went to the National Seal Sanctuary in Gweek: http://www.sealsanctuary.co.uk/ Besides of seals they also have the most adorable Otters and Penguins and a very nice lady explained Cornish rock pools to Ian, Yogi and I.
Afterwards we stopped in Helford, a very pretty village by the Helford River. After a drink in the pub I ran into my former colleague Pete, which was funny, a case of this world being quite a bit smaller than we like to think. We also managed to meet our German neighbours from the cottage in Coverack there.
Pretty Helford
We did a tour to Marazion, from where you can see St Michael’s Mount, but this was the most dog unfriendly place, with signs and fines, awful, there is nobody at the beach, there is lots of stinking seaweed and rubbish from all those people without dogs that are allowed to walk there. And they don’t even allow dogs on the paved promenade we had to use a narrow pedestrian path next to the busy road to get back to the car park. I couldn’t wait to get out of there. Given how many people with dogs go to Cornwall on holiday, they are shooting themselves in the foot, in my view. Penzance, where we went afterwards was quite chavvy and I was glad to get back to the Lizard. Much nicer friendlier place.
St Michael's Mount
On the way back we stopped in Cadgwith and bought some lovely fresh monkfish and I found some nice souvenirs. I would definitely love to stay in this village, it’s magical.
On the last day, we were lucky again with the weather and went to Lizard Point. It’s very stunning there. The views are fantastic, we spotted lots of seals in the sea below the cliffs sunning their noses, it was brilliant.
They have some cute little shops and a restaurant with sea views. There are some men left that make souvenirs from serpentine. I’ve got a lovely paperweight. We also joined the National Trust who run the site and had a little hut there. Unfortunatley, when we arrived and I went into the souvenir shop where the lady had a cocker spaniel, Yogi got tangled up, I bend down and my lower back went. Trapped nerve again or somegthing equally evil. I was stuck kneeling on the floor and the lady had to run out trying to find Ian to help. Slightly embarrassing, so I felt I should share it here with everyone…
We then had a lovely lunch (I had a medley of 4 different fresh fish) in the restaurant looking out at the sea.
Lizard Point
On the way back towards home we stopped at the Healey Cider Farm, as my brother has told me about Rattler Cider before I went down to Cornwall and it’s rather tasty. We didn’t go straight back to Cambridge though, we stopped over in Kingham, Cotswolds, for two nights in the Tollgate Inn: http://www.thetollgate.com/
Very recommendable, the people are very friendly and very dog loving. Guinness their Labrador wasn’t keen on Yogi, but that didn’t stop Yogi from pestering him. We had a wonderful room, very clean and comfortable. We had dinner there in the evening, Yogi is allowed in the bar area, where there are tables for diners as well. It was to die for. Wonderfully cooked Scallops followed by Guinea Fowl (in honour of the noisy gang at Heath Farm), and a lovely desert, delicious. All dealt with thanks to Ramazotti, I was amazed as I’ve never seen it anywhere here in the UK before.
The village is very pretty and we did a walk to Bledington on Sunday, it was very hot though and combined with my bad back and not being prepared with maps, we didn’t do too much. Drove to very beautiful Stow-on-the-Wold (http://www.cotswolds.info/places/stow-on-the-wold.shtml), where Yogi even was allowed in some shops. Sorry, he is so important to us, that things like that make a huge impact.
I seriously think that in a country where 8 million people have dogs, there should be more of a campaign for places to become more dog friendly. I wish Cambridge was more like those great places we’ve now visited and enjoyed. So few pubs here allow dogs, with no real reason, just the totally rubbish excuse that they “are not allowed dogs as they serve food” which is clearly not right.
Anyway, we’ve managed to get home safely today at lunchtime. Yogi went bonkers and seems most happy to be home and I think so are we. All in all a fantastic break.
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