We’ve been members of the Caravan Club since we bought the camper van and have enjoyed their sites and facilities in the UK and France. You know what standard to expect at a site and it suits us well as we don’t have our own WC and shower facilities on board. As camper van, rather than Motorhome, owners we’ve tended to be in the minority at these campsites and perhaps looked on as the poor relations but we noticed on our two stays away in May that there we were in the company of far more camper vans, no doubt due to their increase in popularity in these ‘staycation’ times. Here in Cornwall every car park seems to be full of VW campers.
The Caravan Club also has a huge network of smaller sites or ‘certified locations’, often on farmland or linked to pubs, some completely ‘off grid’ and others with simple WCs and showers. We decided to try one of these smaller sites in Cornwall, mainly because all the main sites were booked, but also to try a different area. So we arrived, after the usual slow slog past Stonehenge, in sunshine at our campsite just outside the village of Coverack in the Lizard peninsula area. This small site has about 10 pitches spread over several large fields so everyone is well spaced out. The owner is a Cornish lobster fisherman with a boat, currently being refurbished, based out of a nearby small port. He bought the land some 25 years ago and set it up as camping pitches to supplement his income. We had plenty of space to set ourselves up with the best orientation to suit the prevailing wind and sunshine. UK sites tend to be far more restrictive and regimented about how you position your caravan, awning, etc, supposedly to meet fire regulations, whereas in France it’s pretty much set yourself up how you want with everyone at different angles.
We were set up in good time so hopped on our bicycles to explore the village of Coverack, a charming and very unspoiled fishing port with a pub and a fish and chip shop. What more could we need? The steep walk/cycle back to base will hopefully negate the alcohol calories. An overnight downpour tested the integrity of our setup but we were pleased to report no drips or leaks and the breeze soon dried everything off.
For our first day, with sunny skies, we decided to discover the local area on foot with a circular walk from Coverack via St Keverne, Porthoustock and the Lizard coastal path. Coverack beach is a Site of Special Scientific Interest as it is one of the few places in the world where the ocean crust and the mantle are exposed on the earth’s surface and it is possible to see the ‘moho’ – the boundary between the earth’s crust and mantle – laid flat across the beach. A board at the end of the village explains that much of the Lizard Peninsula represents a slice of the ancient ocean floor to the earth’s surface, when two former continents collided.
The walk covered a variety of scenery including woodland, agricultural land and stunning coastal views. The stiles in the area would not be good for the less sure-footed and we certainly didn’t want to get our legs caught in them. St Keverne is the nearest village with shops for supplies and a large church whose tall spire served as a landmark for sailors. The path took us to the small fishing village of Porthoustock – not particularly attractive as the beach is marred by a large slab sided concrete building, not the vestiges of WW2 but of former quarry works which are still evident in a working quarry on the other side of the cove. From there we climbed to the coastal path where the views really opened out and we passed the Giant’s Quoits a single granite tor that has been shaped by weathering into what is now a pile of separate slabs. The stones were originally located elsewhere at Manacle Point and relocated due to quarry works. The path back to Coverack looks out over the Manacles, an area of treacherous rocks where over 100 ships foundered in the past with the loss of over 1,000 lives. The area is littered with wrecks and is now a popular diving area. The pub in Coverack is named after SS Paris which went aground on the rocks in 1899.
Hi Claire and Joe
So pleased to see you are back on the road again. Lovely to see your blogs and where you have been staying. We have just got back from a week in Derbyshire with the six grandchildren. So lucky with the weather and all went well. Off in another couple of weeks to Ludlow with our friends from Liverpool. So nice to get out and about again.
Wait for the next blog. Sue and Ken x
Hi Sue and Ken hope all is well with you. Ludlow is one of our stops as well so would love to hear what you recommend in the area. Fingers crossed for sunshine. Xx
Hi Claire & Joe
Lovely to see you on your travels again.
Followed Kim this week, Glastonbury to Cheddar Gouge to Cotswolds.
You have all waited for the sunshine, let’s hope it continues.
Look forward to the next ……
Love Wendy xx
Hi Wendy lovely to hear from you. We hope to see some of the same places on our travels and definitely hoping for sunshine! Claire and Joe xx
So interesting Claire. Hope you get to Newlyn which I knew well having spent the month of August there in, I think, 1943 and again in 1944.
My Uncle – Alan Carle – owned a cinema there, the Gaiety but which was also known as the ‘first and last cinema in the U. K’. You had to cross a bridge over a small stream to enter. I remember feeling SO important because we were always seated in the middle of the front row of the balcony! I believe it is now a supermarket.
On hot days (yes, hot) we used to walk along to Mousehole and get a lolly shaped piece of ice, to suck on the way home. Gosh, you have brought by so many happy memories.
On the train journey from Leicester to Penzance we changed trains at Crewe. Looking back it must have been so hard for my Mum on her own, I was 12, John 7 and Alan 5. There were many occasions when the train had to stop and be in
total darkness when an air raid was on.
Sorry not to have replied to your email – am in a bit of bother. On May 13th, late at night, I put my weight on my right leg which gave way, and I fell. Ray took me to hospital the next day, and after X-rays, a ct scan and ultrasound it was discovered that I had ruptured a tendon in my groin- treatment? Total bed rest until a callous forms to join it back to the bone. You can imagine how I feel! It is so boring, I’m reading 2 or 3 crime novels a week, doing crosswords on my iPad, playing Boy Howdy’s Double Deck Solitaire etc. Also I am bothered about the stress Ray is under, doing everything (meals have been a bit of a hit and miss! 😂😂), without a word or sign of complaint. I am so very lucky. It was our 47th anniversary in April – jeez, where does the time go? We have been over here for 19 years and it’s 6 years since we left the Quinta! Enjoy the remainder of your trip, we so enjoy reading your diary. Hope you get some decent weather- it’s 28 on our balcony at present, so curtains closed and shutters down until late afternoon. We feel like Troglodytes!
Much love from us both
Mary xx
Hi Mary lovely to read you memories of this area – it certainly is beautiful. So sorry to hear that you are in the wars and hope bed rest will do the trick for you. I’m sure Ray is looking after you wonderfully. Very jealous of your temperatures! Take care and much love to you both xx