Tuesday 15 February 2011

Our Cornish Holiday....

The Sunday 6th February saw us heading west to Cornwall for a weeks holiday. We stayed in a cottage at Hilton Farm, Marhamchurch which is just south of Bude...very convenient for the north Cornish coast.

We arrived mid-afternoon & so were able to start exploring a couple of the local beaches, Summerleaze & Widemouth, straight away. They are so typical of North Cornwall beaches...vast expanses of "proper" sand, rugged cliffs & BIG waves...perfect for us & our red boys!!

Summerleaze Beach

Widemouth Beach

Monday 7th saw us heading west again...this time to the pretty village & fishing port of Boscastle. You may remember hearing about the flash floods that devatated Boscastle in 2004. It's amazing that the village survived at all, but it did, & those buildings that were lost or damaged have been rebuilt in the orginal style.


Water raging through the fishing village of Boscastle in 2004

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Tuesday 8th saw us heading south to the lovely village of Rezare, Near Launceston where we spent the day with our good friends Martine & Andy & their two Vizslas...Rudh Kai (meaning "Red Dog" in Cornish) & Rudh Maw ("Red Boy"). Kai is actually Radar's nephew (like Rio!) even though he & Radar were only born 2 days apart!!

In the morning we went for a lovely walk through the fields & woods of the Tamar Valley. Our ginger boys had a brilliant time including playing in the River Inny as you'll see on the Smilebox below. After lunch (yummy, homemade, chicken & sweetcorn soup...thank you Martine!) we headed out again but this time the two-legged boys took guns with them so that we could do some proper gundog training...! It was the first time Radar & Rio had actually trained with guns & we were delighted that they weren't fazed in the least & on the "seek on" command were off quartering like the proverbial bullet from a gun! Unfortunately, the rabbits must have heard us coming & stayed firmly underground - John & Andy blamed Martine & me coz we were chatting but we reckoned the rabbits thought it was too cold to venture out!!


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On Wednesday it was time to head west again! We stopped off in St Tudy so that I could see my old primary school - it had hardly changed at all apart from now having about 60 pupils...when I was there, there were only 20!!! The other big difference was that the current Head Mistress doesn't sit with her back to the fire chain-smoking...times change...thankfully!!


St Tudy Primary School

Our next stop was Port Isaac a picturesque fishing village, again on the north Cornish coast.You would probably recognise this village as it was used for the ITV drama "Doc Martin"...though it was known as Port Wenn in the series!!!


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After we left Port Isaac we went to Polzeath...a beach I have fond memories of from childhood! It's absolutely enormous with proper caves & huge rock pools that are deep enough to swim in! There wasn't any swimming today though...far too cold...even Radar & Rio only paddled! Mind you, they were far more interested in playing "fetch" again, & again, & again, & again!!!


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Radar felt a bit left out so I gave him his own bandage!!!!

The final full day of our holiday saw us at Polzeath (again!) & also, in the afternoon, at Rock...this time, however, we were joined by Martine, Andy, Kai & Maw...fantastic! Unfortunately the weather in the morning was absolutely atrocious...we were all soaked through...luckily the only cafe open at Polzeath had a big log burning stove...the ideal place to let our coats "steam"!!!!

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After drying off, we left Polzeath & headed for Rock which is situated on the east side of the Camel Estuary - Rock has a lovely, long sandy beach that stretches from Porthilly Cove to Daymer Bay & much of it is backed by sand dunes...a real favourite with the dogs! We had a lovely lunch at a restaurant right by the beach (great home-made burgers!)...it was quite "posh" but, despite this, the dogs were allowed in as long as they behaved...which of course they did! Though Maw & Rio did manage a surreptitious play fight that probably looked, to the uninitiated, really vicious!!!

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And so our holiday came to an end...we all had a fantastic time...thank you John/Dad!!

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