Tag: Cornwall

A Return to Cornwall in October 2025

Staying near St Ives

During our last tour of Cornwall back in 2020, we managed to follow the coastline westwards from Dorset along the south coast and ended near Lands End. This trip was a continuation of that tour for 10 days along the Cornish north coast. We have two camp sites booked, the first near St Ives and the second near Tintagel.

We arrived at the St Ives location yesterday afternoon after a trouble-free drive from Southampton. The weather looked promising for a sunset during most of the trip down so a brief outing back to Godrevy point was planned. We got the cameras ready and managed a few photos as the sun disappeared behind some low cloud on the horizon. But as photographers, we get used to these setbacks.

The following day we had a lunch appointment with one of our relations, so we decided to take a morning walk from the campsite over the sand dunes and down to the beach. However, before this trip we’ve been very concerned with the health of our 14 year old dog, Holly, as 2 weeks ago she suffered an episode of Vertigo with eyes flickering around and completely unable to walk as her balance was completely compromised. The vet advised this might take a 5 or 6 days for her to recover, but then after not eating for 3 days, she’s been quite weak and shorter walks have been planned to ease her back into better health.

The walk through the sand dunes was about 1.5 miles and Holly managed this with a few short carries on some uphill sections. There were loads of wind surfers on the beach but this time we didn’t take our cameras. On the return journey Holly hitched a lift in a special animal ruck sack that we bought 2nd hand.

After lunch the wind had picked up significantly so we returned to Godrevy Point to capture a few stormy sea images. It wasn’t as rough as we had hoped, but here’s a few shots.

Weather forecast deteriorates tomorrow, so we’ll have to see if we get more opportunities with the camera.

Excursion to North Cornwall

Firstly this isn’t one of our usual motorhome photographic adventures. We are now down in the Newquay area with our son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren. But we did manage to venture out for a few days before they joined us.

We travelled down on Wednesday arriving late afternoon at the holiday camp. This one has some all inclusive on-site activities which will help keep the grandchildren amused.

On Thursday we headed off to the beach at Holywell Bay which was a few miles west of Newquay. Starting from the National Trust car park which, lucky for us was free to members, we headed off up the cliff path to the west of the beach.

The view of the beach was spectacular….

We quite liked the face in the shadow on the beach. Heading back we thought it might be worth a trek over the cliffs on the opposite end of the beach.

On route we tried a bit of bird spotting as Vanessa had her long lens ready, but this was the best I could manage with my little Sony DSC-HX99.

Unfortunately, due to a missing footpath sign I took a wrong turn which led us into the dunes. About 20 minutes later we managed to get back onto the path.

Photo opportunities weren’t as good from this side, so we headed over the peninsula to the next beach – not really the right conditions here either.

We headed back to the car (the short way) – unfortunately the conditions weren’t ideal for hiking with overgrown paths with either brambles or long grass.

After 2 hours we finally made it back to the bar near the car park. We stopped for a pint and shared some loaded nachos.

The plan for the rest of the day was to end up at the Bedruthan Steps for a sunset photo. That was still 5 hours away, so we headed north-east past this location to Boscastle. The idea was good, but the sun was reflecting off the sea and we couldn’t find a good vantage point. There weren’t enough clouds to give us any shade either. Never mind, we’ll try it again in the future. I’ll miss out the wasted trip to Tintagel Castle (as it was closed), so we headed back to the Bedruthan Steps for the 1930 sunset!

Unfortunately this was the only reasonable photo with the direct light on the subject. Some idiot got the sunset time wrong – by at least 30 minutes! So when we moved down for the next shot of the rock – the light had virtually gone. I won’t make that mistake again.

But there’s always an opportunity to try black & white.

Friday, the family were arriving after lunch, so we headed off to Port Isaac, or Port Winn (as it’s known in the Doc Martin series). We arrived around 10 am in a near empty car park and walked around the headland into the town.

This is a very interesting little town (even if you haven’t seen the TV program). However, it is very hilly, so be warned. We wandered around many little alleys and narrow lanes taking several photos. The following photo I quite liked, but maybe it’s better in black & white…

We will return another day and take in the local tour of the Doc Martin filming locations.

After buying some cornish pasties, crab, cockles and fudge we headed back to the car via a cafe. Note; at 12 O’clock when we returned to the car park it was nearly full. So arrive earlier if you visit this little port.

Then back to the motorhome to meet up with the rest of the family.