Our accommodation for the next five nights, arranged through Airbnb, is in a gatehouse by the name of Tregut Cottage - a 250 year old house made of slate, near Wadebridge. Our hosts, Viv and Ash were fantastic. Very welcoming, friendly and oh so easy to talk to. We actually spent several hours chatting and putting the world to rights, found that we had a lot in common and were made to feel very much at home in this little corner of England.
The house was unique and quirky - in a good way. It's a delightful home and well positioned for day trips to just about anywhere in Cornwall. I loved the slate floors downstairs and our room had lovely views over the garden and fields. The thatched roof summerhouse in the garden made a great place to eat breakfast each morning.
If anyone fancies a trip here, do NOT trust Google maps. You'll end up in the wrong place and on the wrong side of the road. Modern technology such as GPS is not all its cracked up to be sometimes.
There's a little single lane bridge that we became very familiar with whilst trying to locate Tregut Cottage. I think we went back and forth over this little bridge five times, before we gave in and phoned Viv to confirm the right directions.
(phot above - the single land bridge we became very familiar with)
The country lanes in Cornwall are completely mad. Some are just wide enough for two cars to pass one another, others are pretty much single car lanes so if you meet another car coming in the opposite direction you have to find a wide part to allow the other to pass. As you can imagine this becomes more compounded when the other vehicle is a tractor or a bus! My regular comments to Liz when driving in Cornwall went along the lines of "F**k - surely he's not going to try to get that through here!" But somehow, with a little patience and a bit of give and take, it actually works.
It had been a 4 hour drive from Oxford, plus another half hour searching up and down the same stretch of road so by the time we arrived at the cottage I for one had had enough of driving for one day. We did however need supplies (particularly beer and wine) for the next few days so a quick trip into Wadebridge was required. As well as a number of small supermarkets I'm delighted to say that Wadebridge has an Army Surplus outlet called Bunkers. Everything you could possibly need for the next Zombie Apocalypse can be sourced here. I popped my head in for a quick look and ended up buying some camo t-shirts and a cap. So now when I annoy Lizzie I can pop on one of my camo shirts and she'll never find me!
Our first full day here we stayed fairly local and had a short drive to the rather charming fishing village of Port Isaac. For all you watches of British TV programmes, Doc Martin is filmed here (staring Martin Clunes).
There are the usual gift shops, tea rooms selling cream teas and some nice old pubs.
We had a wander around the little harbour area and up the hill to Doc Martins house. A few photos (obviously) were taken.
We bought a nice little print of a painting showing the little harbour from a gallery on the way down the hill into the village. It'll look great on our bedroom wall when we get home again and will be a reminder of our time here in Cornwall.
We also found a nice little shop selling Cornish Pasties......since we're in Cornwall it'd be rude not to try one.
Next stop was Padstow, another picturesque fishing village, nice harbour, the usual tourist shops and cafes and Rick Stein's Seafood Restaurant. We didn't go in, but the menu looked great. Rick Stein is very big here and well represented not only with his Seafood Restaurant but also with a Bistro, café and take away fish and chips. And also a little pastry shop.
Part two to follow soon......
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