Pete’s words as we drove off into the sunset (rainset) were “chill out and relax but you will swear about the gears”!! He was right! Only the Dave-Sue combination would decide to hire a camper van in England in the middle of February. Yes it was cold, yes it did rain and yes we had great fun. We did a circuit of Devon and Cornwall with much help from the Good Pub Guide. On Zoe’s advice The Drewe Arms at Drewsteignton was our first night stop for good beer, food and a good camping spot. Then on over Dartmoor towards Plymouth where we visited the Aquarium and then to Lanlivery for a brilliant night in the Crown joining in the quiz. A pit stop at the pastie shop at Par (the one on the corner diagonally opposite the veg shop – this may be one of the contenders for the “best” Cornish pastie) put us on (as they say in Yorkshire) for a drive down to Truro. Decent weather allowed us to visit the gardens round Falmouth – Trellisick being our favourite. Then off to the Sticky Prawn at Flushing – the best night of the week on their carpark on the jetty (picture attached). We then headed over to the North coast to look at the surf at Fistral, stopped briefly to look at 15 and then had a swearing match with the gears as we headed out of Watergate bay towards Padstow where we arrived in heavy rain at our one and only real campsite of the week – and very muddy it was too! We succumbed to a taxi into Padstow that night. Took great interest the next morning in having a full tour of a Mazda bongo conversion which had parked up next to us – it had been so windy the had had to retreat to the ground floor and lower the roof. Uma had had a few creaks and groans during the night! Tintagel was the next stop after which we made for Devon and arrived quite by accident at Putsborough Sands – excellent cook up in the van the first night and then the Lower House in Georgeham (complete with live music) the second. A brilliant place to stay and what a view to wake up to. The drive up the Taw valley was magic and even better was the lure of the Duke of York at Iddesleigh where we arrived at 3.00 pm to sample half a pint to suss out the dinner menu in advance of a long walk in the sun and found ourselves still in the bar at 10.00 pm with Uma parked up for the night in ,shall we say ,a convenient local carpark!! Best pub we have been to in ages and good grub. You don’t need many clothes we had far too many but you do need wellies and waterproofs. The heater was great and much used. It’s good fun being able to get away with being “cheeky” and other road users being understanding because you’re in this amazing old campervan…………
