The Eden Project
We got up early and packed away our wet tent for our a very long drive to the Eden Project and later to the tip of Cornwall.
The Eden Project should have been Charlotte's favourite part of the first leg of the Cornwall trip, but she found it too busy and commercialised to truly enjoy it.
As it was £65 for the both of us to get into the place, she found that it didn't have that... niceness that she found with Kew Gardens, and although there were similar plants and, for lack of better words, vibes, the Eden Project just felt a little underwheiming. The weather was truly awful for this leg of the trip too!
There are two main biomes within the Eden Project, the first being the Mediterranean Biome showcasing plants around Spain, Greece, Italy, California, South Aftica and Western Australia. This was presented really well, themed throughout, including the restauraunt in the middle of it, which overwhelmed the smell of the flowers throughout and did dampen the experience slightly. The queues to look through small sections of the biomes also made the experience lessen slightly, but it was half term.
The second biome is the Rainforest biome, of which included several waterfalls, plants from South East Asia, West Africa and South America. This was, of course, a humid place filled with birds and insects and more queues - the time to the viewing platform to the top of the biome was a 30 min queue! We observed larger versions of our house plants (some were also spotted whilst in Sri Lanka) and noted they'd never grow that large in the cold, soggy UK.
What made Charlotte's day through invoking her inner birder was spying the Roul Roul Partridge - they looked like small sentient mangos!
What added to this trip was Lee's reminiscing about the time he and his younger brother went in their early teens when they drank cumquat together. Just something two bros do when they hang out.
It is expensive but worth seeing at least once just due to the unusual creation of the place!
Lands End
After one hell of a big drive got us down to SeaView Holiday Park, just a few minutes from Land's End. £18 per night. Very remote, beautiful scenery with Sennen Cove and Land's End within 20 minutes walk.
The Holiday park appeared to have a breakfast bar yet it was unfortunately and inexplicably closed despite it being May half term.
As one might imagine - being surrounded by sea at most sides led to some blustery nights and days. But, fear not! The Cairngorn held down well.
In the evening our only shot at food was the First & Last public house a short walk away from SeaView.
Huge queues for food, unavailable food, pricey drinks and not a lot of choice if you had irregular dietary needs.
We felt like the pub knew it was the only place within short walking distance for nearby holidaygoers. It could have been worse but certainly wouldn't recommend going for the peculiar pub name.
On the theme of greed, we moved down to Land's End. After 3 different patterns of weather within 20 minutes we bear witness to a bizarre tourist trap with odd attractions and the infamous Land's End signpost attended by a man who put a price on standing next to the sign. Unless you are particulary stuck for something to do, a huge fan of Wallace and Gromit, or are visiting as part of a larger day around the tip of the Cornwall - I wouldn't waste time or patience on it.
As part of our stay we attempted to visit the Minack Theatre. Minack Theatre opened in 1930 and is an open air theatre on the cliffs of Porthcurno.
The carpark for the theatre attaches to a small beach also and quite the incline up the theatre itself. Parking at the theatre proper is reserved for those with tickets as members of staff were very keen to remind visitors.
Sadly, this was all fully booked on the day for an event and even so, the charge for the privilige of walking down to the Minack Theatre would've been an eye-watering £11.50 a person. A small hike ensued and we managed to witness it from an a nearby cliff alongside some spectacular Cornish scenery.
We did visit Penzance on the second evening rather than attempting the First & Last again. We went for an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet since we were hungry and options were limited. This wouldn't normally be worth a mention in our travel blog if not for the completely bizarre fellow diners. A group were celebrating a 16th birthday party, which wasn't too out of the ordinary until they paraded a cannabis-themed cake around the restaurant for said 16 year old. Later, in defiance of the 16 year olds needing to pay full adult price - one of the diners put a maggot on their own plate to attempt to net themselves a discount. Arguments followed and a clearly 'seen-it-all-before' hostess was having none of their silly ploy. Who brings their own maggots to a restaurant?!
On the sum of it all, though, there wasn't much in Penzance to witness. It's close to St. Michael's mount, but aside from that, comes across as a forgotten fishing town not too dissimilar from those in Northern Scotland.
After packing up, there was a quick drive to Sennen Cove - and what a beauty of a location it was! Long sandy beach surrounded by cliffs, complete with nearby pub! We really should have visited and exploited this gem - my biggest regret of this trip was no doubt not priotising this over Land's End.
Oh well, maybe next time!
St Ives, Newquay and Healeys Cider Farm
As the journey progressed towards St Ives and later Newquay, we 'accidentally' found ourselves at Healeys Cider Farm which Charlotte hadn't realised was the company behind Rattler!
It had been a over a decade since Lee had visited this location and was delighted to find a large alcoholic drinks tasting experience above the 'learning about cider making' below. Rattlers, Flatters and gins - Oh my! It turned out they had also starting making wine, but, to Lee's dissapointment the sparkling wines were not for tasting.
The highlight of this visit for Charlotte was a horny Peacock, which almost certainly wanted a bit of Lee! (Which was the second animal this holiday to feel this way.)
We continued onto St Ives as all of this was a first time for Charlotte, as she spent a lot of her youth in the North East UK, the South West wasn't in their list of places to visit. St Ives is a picturesque town, reminding Charlotte of Whitby due to the similar harbor styling (it was missing an Abbey and Dracula themed entertainment). We sat watching the oceans for a hour or so, observing a terribly designed traffic system and enjoying the delights of a new belgian bar that had just opened up. They had a basket on a pulley system where your shoe was placed as a deposit for one of their rarer glasses been used.
Newquay was another first for Charlotte, and it was nice to hear stories and see the places Lee and his family visited through the many years they camped in Cornwall during childhood. Sun was shining and the weather reached highs of 26C. We stayed at Trencreek holiday park, which was a quaint little holiday park about 30 minutes walk outside of Newquay. It was cheap, had an arcade, a breakfast place and it's own pub (which unfortunately only took cash.) Their bathrooms did contain strong warnings about charging devices there
If you were lucky on the path into Newquay, you would come across a cat which gave you riddles three to allow you to pass, the pitches were relatively wide and plenty of space for at least a 6 man tent and a car.
