Widemouth Bay in the sunshine!

Gosh, we were so lucky with the weather down in Cornwall, we arrived (after a rather early start) in the middle of a heatwave -

- so we spent the first couple of days just mucking about on the beaches (Widemouth and Bude), rock pooling (Thomas actually caught a little fish - in his shoe!  Other finds included millions of limpets, mussels - which Thomas wanted to eat there and then, sea snails and parts of crabs - no whole ones on the beach - must have been visited by seagulls before we got there) -

- Stonehenge recreating (after glimpsing it through the early morning fog on the way down) -

- and sandcastle building... ;)  Plus obviously a bit of splashing in the sea (and eating plenty of sand - accompanied by tiny bits of Cornish pasty from time to time)... ;)

Views of Widmouth Bay 2010

This one was taken from the top of the cliffs, just off the little car park up there (near the Bay View Inn)...

Some of the *excellent* surf (it was pretty much this good all week)...

...and Thomas itching to get in the water... ;)

Playing in the sand...

What's this noisy cold stuff?

The new RNLI lifeguard hut -


...(check out the "Conditions"!)...

...and some of the amazing sunsets we enjoyed during the break...


...brilliant...

...sunsets just don't *do* that over London!

Next stop the Witterings!

Tuesday morning dawned (barely) and Flyingpops was up right at the crack of it (as it were), feeding Thomas and heaping objects at the foot of the stairs for me to try and squeeze into Poppy the Beetle (which I managed *somehow*, despite being rather fatigued after the wine tasting the day before)...anyway, petty difficulties aside, by mid-morning we were already unpacked in the (borrowed) caravan in Itchenor, had already done some emergency pie, crisp and drink shopping in East Wittering, and had paid our money (£5) for the pleasure of going to West Wittering beach - but boy was it worth it -

- the weather was absolutely *stunning*, 27 degrees (so we were forced to shelter in the shade next to one of these groynes) -

- the water was incredibly warm (probably one of the reasons this waterway is one of the busiest in the country), people were merrily swimming out 500 meters from the shore, although I contented myself with walking up and down in the surf, letting my feet sink into the sand and the waves wash over my legs (even once surprising me by soaking me and my camera up to the top of my t-shirt)...!

Even tiny Thomas came for a little walk (although we didn't give him a dunking on this occasion)... ;)

West Wittering beach

What a wise week to take as holiday, twenty four degrees and bright sunshine! It's like being abroard! :) Thomas is loving his first trip to the seaside...

Horse Riding in the sea, Kalamaki, Corfu

Ah, now one of the real highlights of the break, horse riding over the hills at Kalamaki beach (and actually riding the horses into that crystal clear ocean, like something out of a movie!)...we decided to compare prices between the First Choice offerings and the local agent (pictured above), it's really easy to find, just leave the Blue Bay resort by the gate just at the side of the pool bar, turn left, walk about 100 yards and it's just to the left of the little supermarket (it of the inflatables), be warned though, it's only open for a couple of hours in the morning and a couple of hours in the evening (but it's so near the resort it's not like you will have wasted much time if you find it closed)...anyway, suffice it to say, the trips were all *considerably* cheaper from the independent place by the beach, so if you are going to be making any trips out, this is definitely the place to come-

At the pre-arranged time, Flyingpops and I walked down to the travel agent and sat waiting to be picked up (it's quite normal, by the way, for any form of scheduled transport you are expecting in Corfu to be anything up to twenty minutes late) but we were more than a little suprised when a guy turned up in a tiny, battered white hatchback (forget a coach, we weren't even afforded a taxi for this trip!) and waved to us from the window yelling "Horses!", at which Flyingpops gave me a Spock-type look and muttered "You *have* to be joking"...

Anyway, he was a nice chap, and we quickly warmed to him, largely thanks to his English being excellent, and the fact that his smile was infectious, the place itself was actually nearer the resort even than Kassiopi, so within ten minutes flat we found ourselves in a narrow wooded valley, leaving any sign of apartments behind, and then pulling into a beautiful, ancient olive grove-



- fitted out with the appropriate headgear -

- allocated to horses (it *could* be my imagination but I thought mine looked back at me with a bit of a "put out" sort of face at having to carry quite so much weight) -

- and we were then given a crash course in horse-steering (I've been riding before, but many, many years ago and as part of a stable (so the horses just kind of automatically followed the one in front without you having too much say in the matter), this was different)...it was really interesting to have an animal just do exactly what you wanted and just when you wanted it, we were the only two people on this particular trip, well, us and our guide -

- a really friendly Brit ex-pat who had married a local, explained that one had to "be firm" with the horses (as they understood very well when someone didn't know what they were doing and would take liberties), but also make sure that we kept a safe distance between each other (so they didn't feel under pressure), we set a leasurely pace, climbing to the top of one of the local peaks, our guide pointing out local flora and fauna and when we had spectacular views, he pointed out the landmarks, then we made our way down to the beach, just as the sun was starting to set, and we urged our horses into the ocean, where we sat, listening to the gentle sound of the waves hitting the shore and watched the sun creep behind the mountains -

Perfect...

Cornwall 2007 Holiday

Okay, here we go, took *loads* of pictures (as I already mentioned), getting happier with the new camera now (even though I am missing the Mavica), still, this has to be the first time I have ever got anywhere near 2Gb of pictures on *any* shoot (urm, holiday, sorry)...

...took this one at stupid-o'clock in the morning on the M25, shortly before I fell back to sleep with my head on the passenger door window, and at the first stop (for fuel) I woke up (feeling most uncomfortable) and clambered into the back...

...and the rest of the journey (even though my head was over the bass boxes under the bed during "Starlight Express") I slept until Flyingpops awoke me in Launceston...I caught some shots of the glorious sunrise...


...we got set up nice and quickly, then helped out Flyingpops folks with their rather challenging caravan awning...

...got our electrics set up and after a bit of trouble with the fridge in the gazebo (just needed levelling up), we got the fridge working in the camper (for the first time ever) after a little burning smell from the dusty workings, which was to prove to be a real life-saver, staying freezing cold even after 7 hours unplugged in the blazing sunshine on the beach...very happy with that... ;)

...and the beach was packed and hot, and wonderful...

Goring Beach, West Sussex

So on Saturday afternoon we packed up Colin (after a bit of an out-of-the-blue invitation from Flyingpops old friend Dawn) and zoomed down to the sea-side at Goring (just outside Worthing) to enjoy some of the (continuing to be) fantastic weather -

- I took the opportunity to walk around and get a feel for the place, following the hedge tunnel into the distance and gazing out through little gaps towards the beach -

- to the other side is a large green, sporadically studded with small groups, either sunbathing, playing gentle sports or picnicking, all covered by the haze from countless charcoal BBQs -

- others enjoyed the ocean swell, ignoring the blatant warning signs -

- or just gazed out to sea -

I managed to score a couple of bottles of cold beer from a small shop at the end of the grass area (£2.50 each though, so bring your own if you come along!), then had a little snooze on the grass, really relaxing place...

Shoreham Beach and Nature Reserve

So Sunday (after I spent about an hour painstakingly scraping off all the spots of blue paint from the wood panelled floor in Colin), we loaded up with supplies and headed out for a little drive, deciding initially to go to Hove, but there was nowhere to park, then Portslade, but it turned out to be an industrial estate, then littlehampton, but the traffic was a nightmare, and finally found a little gem in the form of Shoreham beach...

...it was extremely busy for the time of year (and weather, it being absolutely freezing), amazingly the car park was T25 friendly (height-wise and width-wise), so we parked up, went and bought 2 portions of chips from the busy little shop, hurried back to Colin and boiled the kettle, then had a wander around the wildlife reserve (which was full of gulls and swans) -

- took a walk along the cycle-way (might be a nice thing to do to bring the bikes next time and cycle to Worthing for a pub lunch or something like that) watching the planes coming in to land at Shoreham airport...I suppose we walked about a third of the way there in the end...would have taken quite a long time on foot... ;)

On reflection I think we will probably make a return visit, when the weather improves a little though... ;)

Playa de la Arena - onto the beach - Holiday Tuesday

So, after another infinite orange juice, buffet-style breakfast in the hotel we decided that today was the day to go and lay in the warm volcanic sands on the Playa itself...

...the coastline is rocky, but the sand is wonderfully smooth and warm (being black it absorbs so much more sunlight than white sand, must be a nightmare in the height of summer!), what the photographs don't show is the way it glittered, and it glittered like every ounce of sand was rich with tiny flecks of gold and diamonds -

- and the shore was peppered with rocks thrown out during the islands violent volcanic birth (they looked like they belonged on the moon!) -

In the evening we ended up in Los Gigantes after a long walk (which terminated with us giving up and hailing a cab) -

- where we wandered the alleyways until we found a nice looking place on the corner of the square by the church...Flyingpops and I shared garlic king prawns for our starter, which were jolly good (must try and replicate this at home) -

- and I had a "so-so" bit of steak for my main (which was a disapointment, as it looked absolutely fantastic(!) -

After dinner we wandered around the shops, found an amazing supermarket, which was extremely small - spead over two floors, the lower ground floor was almost entirely cigarettes and the ground floor had a bigger selection of alcohol than a Threshers megastore...

I imagine, had I looked really hard, I might even have found some food around there somewhere... ;)