Slightly over 12 months on from renting a classic VW Camper Van and exploring Cornwall, we were back. This time in our own van and looking for new adventures. Although our van isn’t complete we’ve decided to make the most of using it whilst we are hanging on to the last of our British summer, at least I think we are still in summer, it seems to be getting harder and harder to work out when summer starts and winter ends these days.

We travelled 2 hours to our first destination, St Mawes a small fishing village which lies opposite Falmouth on the south cost of Cornwall. We agreed to meet my parents here who were on a two week vacation on there boat and anchored off the coastline. Although St Mawes is a small village the car park here is huge and actually very reasonable (£6 for 24 hours). However, it was busy, in fact I still can’t understand how there were more cars than people in the village. The pay machine seem to have a language all of it’s own which meant everyone paying for parking took at least 5-10 to decipher the code and part with their money.
We grabbed our bags and headed straight for the harbour and boarded a small dingy and headed to our accommodation for the night clinging on to each other and our possessions tightly in the hope we wouldn’t fall in. We sat and relaxed on the boat and watch St Mawes going about it’s daily routine, observing a stream of ferry’s coming and going into St Mawes mostly arriving from Falmouth. It takes about 20 minutes so many people visit St Mawes for day trips or even a lunch destination. There are two separate ferry boat companies but found it bizarre that one boat always seem to have less people on it. My Dad explained of the new rivalry between the older, long standing ferry boat and there new competition who is under cutting them and taking the custom. Every time we saw them pass each other I imagined the captain of the empty boat hurling abuse or the middle finger at the boat who stole their passengers. There was also a much smaller passenger ferry heading in the other direction to a place called… well, Place. This was hidden from view as the river Percuil flows around the headland opposite St Mawes we were keen to explore so left the boat on paddleboards and headed up the river to discover a beautiful manor house looking back down the river towards St Mawes and a small church sat along side it. We were drawn towards it by some lively music coming out of a marquee, clearly as wedding was in action but with the tide out the river turned into mud before we could get close enough to join the action instead we paddled around the shallow waters on our own wildlife safari where we discovered a stunning star fish, small fish and a couple of crabs which Lucy refers to as ‘Spiders of the Sea’. As the evening drew, we sat back on the boat and watched St Mawes begin to light up in the night sky with a glass of fine wine before retiring to bed and being gently rocked to sleep by the water. In the morning we headed back out on the paddleboards before breakfast, the tide was now in so we were able to get much close to Place Manor House and see all it’s beauty. After breakfast we boarded the ferry taxi back into the village to explore St Mawes on foot. We strolled passed countless exquisite homes trying to chose which house we’d hypothetically buy, from quaint thatched roofed cottages painted pink and green to grand houses which large drives and huge bay windows with stunning views. I know it’s only hypothetical but choosing the right house seems a huge decision, you have to consider all aspects; parking, tourists, flooding, will the cats be safe?! This game can become stressful.

We left St Mawes around mid day and travelled 20 minutes east back long the coast to a car park outside the small coastal village of Portscatho, we then headed on foot along the coastal path to Porthcurnick Beach to the home of what was about to become one of my favourite meals ever. The Hidden Hut is a small wooden shed which stands on the cliff over looking the beach it has a small outdoor kitchen and a handful of outdoor benches to sit. I started following The Hidden Hut on Instagram about a year ago and love seeing the simple but mouth watering meals they produce from locally sourced ingredients. They only have small menu of 5/6 options which is always a good sign and we were both instantly drawn to the Cullen Skink. We found an empty bench, took obligatory photographs of our food and then dived in… I’m not a writer and I’m certainly not a poet so nothing I could write will ever portray how incredible this food was but let me try; Holy F###!! The flavour of every single mouthful was sensational, the smoked haddock, the potatoes, the leeks, the croutons and spring onions adding a crisp crunch, the portion size, the warm bread roll. I expected this to be good but it was way above any expectation I had. After devouring our lunch and peeling myself off cloud nine we headed back to van and onwards to Mevagissey.

I recently read ‘If you haven’t been to Mevagissey then you haven’t been to Cornwall’, this naturally sparked interest and required an investigation. Using park4night we learnt that in the main car park before you head into the centre of the village you can pay to stay overnight and sleep in your camper. This was perfect, naturally there was no facilities here but there were public toilets just a 1 minute walk down the road, these aren’t open 24 hours but still very useful. It cost £9 to park over night from 6pm - 10am which is very reasonable and the staff working in the car park were very friendly and helpful. We headed on foot to explore the village and fishing port with our first destination being the book store, this is always the first destination when travelling with Lucy. We walked through a maze of narrow streets instantly falling in love with this little village however it was short lived as we soon realised we had to compete with cars and vans on these roads which made walking anywhere a struggle and we spent most of our time hugging buildings so people who I can only assume were tourists who didn’t want to pay to park or that had never driven before could navigate the narrow streets in the aim of removing a coat of paint off the sides of the vehicles. We escaped the roads by heading to the harbour only to find the tide was out, and boats sat on a base of mud and seaweed which always puts a downer on the aesthetics of a beautiful coastal village. Instead we decided to take comfort in a local pub but this also proved difficult. Being a Monday night in mid September we figured we would avoid most tourists… we were wrong. Most places had signs in the door way informing foolish people like us that they were fully booked and to not even waste our time. We tried to enquire into one pub to see if we could even be on reserve for if someone doesn’t show up but was greeted by an extremely rude member of staff who’s face and gestures screamed ‘Piss off and never return’… which we’re happy to never do. We tried the same enquiry at the Fountain Inn, a 15th century Inn covered in beautiful green ivy and the response was vastly different as they allowed us to hide away in a small corner enjoy a drink whilst we patiently waited in hope. After an hour and a couple of drinks we were upgraded to a fabulous table in the main bar where we enjoyed a few small board games we’d smuggled in, a few more drinks and a flavoursome meal.

The morning after I left the van around 7am with Lucy still fast asleep, in search of a different view of Mevagissey where the streets are empty, the shops are shut and fisherman are preparing to head out to sea. With the harbour full of water and the sun still slowly rising, casting a warm glow over the village my love for Mevagissey came flooding back. Houses overlooking the harbour are painted in pastel pink, blue and yellow are lit with sunlight and the only movement through the harbour is the boats heading out to sea with a colony of seagulls circling and squawking above them. I sat on the cliff watching Mevagissey come to life for almost an hour before returning to the van for a well deserved cup of tea.

We left Mevagissey with one more destination to tick off before we headed back across the county border. Charlestown, is place you perhaps might of seen on TV without even realising as it’s been used as a filming location for Poldark, Doctor Who, Alice in Wonderland, Apocalypto and The Three Musketeers. We learnt this as we discovered a filming crew were present in the village during our visit. Charlestown is another small village and port but situated just 2 miles from the much larger town of St Austell and was filled mainly with restaurants, pubs and cafes. It’s a beautiful little place and we enjoyed our walk around the port but there wasn’t much to keep us here. We decided to sit under a group of trees out of the suns glare and take a little time to read before hitting the road and heading for Tamar Bridge and saying farewell to Cornwall…. for now.