The Campbell Cousins Come to Cornwall, Part 2

We had a great time at the beach at Lantic Bay with the Campbells and we decided to continue our day with a visit to Bodinnick, one of our favorite villages on the coast. This is the same village that we visited with Kevin and Michelle back in April and during our first trip to Cornwall seven years ago. We were a bit tired after the beach and headed straight to the Old Ferry Inn for a snack.

The cousins all had some tasty Cornish ice cream

while the parents enjoyed some Cornish ales and ciders.

It was still early, too early to eat at the Old Ferry Inn, so we decided to take the ferry across to Fowey for a little exploration prior to having tea. We took the ferry across and walked around the quaint town. Spencer was a bit tired at this point and got a much-needed ride from Alistair.

Rebecca, playing the role of the Pied Piper herself, kept Gwendolyn and Lucy enchanted with a story all of the way through Fowey,

waiting for the ferry

and on the ferry itself. This story must have gone on for an hour.

Another priority for the Campbells was to get an English breakfast while they were here. They were staying in a self-catering cottage in the village of Albaston and didn’t have access to any cooked breakfasts, so they headed to Tavistock and the Café Liaison joined by Christine and the girls. Here’s what they ate – a classic start to the day.

Jenny and Alistair were also favorably impressed with Country Cheeses, an excellent cheese shop specializing in local cheeses.

They were able to sample a wide variety of cheeses and brought some home with them.

I was at work on this day, so Christine brought Alistair to ride home with me and visit a few pubs. I took the Tamar Valley Line to Calstock,

and then met Alistair at the Tamar Inn, where he proceeded to destroy me in darts.

We then rode DAC Bus 79 to Metherell where we visited the Cross House Inn

and Carpenter’s Arms before walking home. It was a mini pub crawl and it was a nice way to explore rural Cornwall.

I skived off work for the Campbell’s last day of their visit. They had heard about celebrity chef Rick Stein, who has many restaurants, cafes, and boutique hotels in the coastal Cornish village of Padstow, and they wanted to go to one of his restaurants. He owns so much of Padstow that it is frequently referred by locals as Padstein. We were able to get babysitters for the kids, so it was just the adults on this trip. Christine and Jenny planned a 5.5 mile hike to get us to Padstow, leaving from Trevone. Here we are, about to embark on our coastal walk.

As just about everywhere in Cornwall, it was a beautiful coastal hike. About ten minutes into our walk, we came upon a large hole in the middle of a pasture. It appeared to me to be a small mine, but as we approached we realized that waves were washing into the bottom of the hole. It was a sinkhole connected to the sea. It made more sense to me geologically once I saw the rocks later in the hike – layered limestones and shales (see picture further on in the blog). In typical British understatement, it is called Round Hole on our Ordnance Survey map.

The coast was beautiful.

Here are the layered rocks that I referred to earlier. I was completely happy with the geology of this hike.

The limestones have dissolved throughout this section of coast. Here is a tunnel dissolved in the coastline.

Here is another view of this stretch of the north coast of Cornwall and the Atlantic Ocean showing a variety of Queen Anne’s Lace, which was growing all over the place.

We were, of course, hiking along the South West Coast Path.

This stretch of the trail is quite varied, from rocky coastline

to dunes along the Camel River Estuary (could this be the etymology of ‘Camelot’?)

to the legendary Doom Bar at the mouth of the Camel River.

After 5.5 miles we ended up in a crowded Padstow

and arrived just in time for our lunch at Rick Stein’s St Petroc’s Bistro.

This café is in a lovely old building in the heart of the town.

We relaxed with a quick drink in the lounge before heading into the dining room. Padstow is right across the Camel River from the Sharp’s Brewery, makers of Doom Bar Ale. I celebrated our hike and the view of the Doom Bar with a Doom Bar Ale. The map on the bottle has our hike route on it. Christine had some of their Eden Ale, named after and served at the Eden Project.

We began with some excellent starters. Jenny is clearly enjoying the crab tart with garlic, tomato and tarragon in the picture below. In the foreground are scallops with pumpkin seeds, chilli and coriander sauce. We also had crisp lettuce, anchovy, egg and crouton salad with creamy vinaigrette. All were superb.

For the main course I had hake a la plancha with caramelized garlic and potatoes a la pobre. It was delicious.

It’s always fun to go out to eat with Jenny and Alistair. We’ve dined all over Europe and the US with them and have had some memorable meals. Thanks for treating us, Jenny and Alistair! We arrived home to four very happy children. Sarah and Charlotte did a great job with the kids.

That was just about it for our visit with the Campbells. We ended our visit with them by having a big football match on our garden football pitch. This was truly one of the highlights of the visit.

The girls are looking forward to seeing the cousins in Duck, NC, this Thanksgiving.