The camping trip worked out beautifully. I always get cold feet before we go and think it'll be too cold or too wet; luckily for the kids their father is made of sterner stuff. We camped at Tintagel, and were able to explore quite a bit of the coastline.

I was amazed by how beautiful Cornwall is. Stunning cliffs and green-blue water; really gorgeous.

Our campsite, at Tintagel. We didn't have high expectations of it, since it is basically just a field. But the green grass and the sea views made it work.





We took a soccer ball and a frisbee along and the kids played pretty much non-stop. Why is it that they don't do that at home?

View of the fields from the campsite ..
And view of the farm and the sea.

We were able to walk to Tintagel from our campsite. The castle ruins are on top of a hill; to get to it we scrambled up one hill and down another, went across the beach (a beach with both a waterfall and caves, what more could one ask for?) and up the next hill.

Walking up the hill through the gorse (it prickles)
The beach from above
Family checking out the rock on the beach
Steve bouldering
Family photo on the beach
Looking out of the cave
View from the top
Enjoying the sun in a sheltered spot on top of the hill; it was very windy up there.
Overview of the ruins
Climbing down from the ruins
Bobby making me nervous on the way back home.

It was pretty cold at night but everyone slept fine anyway. It always surprises me how soundly we sleep when we're outdoors.

One can walk for miles along the cliff tops along paths like these; it is stunningly beautiful.

You can see views pretty much like this all the time. I could walk forever there.






We walked from our campsite along the cliffs and picnicked at this beach a few miles away.

Girls with apples
I finally got to walk along a non-pebbly beach. Have been desperate for this for months now, and feel much better for it.

We drove to Penzance one day; had to see the place Steve and Emily's old primary school in South Africa was named after.

The harbour there.

Sunset walk

We also all (except Bobby) felt compelled to eat Cornish pasties. Not bad; certainly a lot nicer than the ones we used to buy from Checkers when we were students. And some of use ate ice-cream, which was supposedly also Cornish. (Marketing run mad if you ask me; we could also have had Cornish pancakes and Cornish fudge, but not, oddly, Cornish hens.)

We were amused by the blatant attempts to capitalise on Arthurian stuff in the little town of Tintagel; anyone fancy a bite to eat at King Arthur's Bistro, for instance?

I think we were quite lucky with the time we picked to visit; the weather was still cold enough to deter most visitors, so it was pretty empty. I suspect that the touristy bits must be absolutely packed during the summer, and probably feel quite different.

Land's End. More gorgeous cliff views; more wind.





Stunningly beautiful, though some bits of the path are a bit dodgy to say the least, and made me rather nervous. The rest of the family seemed to get a lot of enjoyment out of mocking my pleas to them to be careful; much mirth and bonding over discussion of warning signposts that they thought I'd like to erect. After a bit of this I realised that, after all, it would be no great tragedy if we were to lose one or more of them over the edge. And, fewer kids would mean fewer constraints when it comes to house buying.

Oh, and the car trip was quite pleasant; we listened to Douglas Adams' The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul on CD, which kept everyone in the family amused.

All in all, a great trip. I think we'll be visiting Cornwall again in the summer.