After yet another wild and very windy night we finally woke up to almost clear blue skies so decided to walk from the site to the pretty bay at Trevone, approximately 2.5 miles from the site. We chose to walk down the small country lanes, that were very wet and flooded in some places but it was well worth it for the beach and wonderful waves alone!
We had pre-booked our taxi for that evening, New Years Eve, and spent the evening in Padstow, enjoying a meal in the Harbour Inn and a few drinks and a sing-song in The Old Custom House, before heading back to the campsite to see in 2014 with our friends. A great time was had by all.
We decided to head home in the afternoon on New Years Day, instead of early the next morning, so that we could catch up on some sleep as there seemed to be no end to the constant battering we were taking on site.
We had been incredibly lucky with the weather during the daytime but nightime was a different matter. As much as we love our time away in our camper it was nice to be home in bed and to be able to catch up on some missed sleep! We have also pre-booked a New Year break for 2014, on Exmoor this time, so we look forward to doing it all over again!!
Our next booked trip for 2014 is Easter, which is very late this year, so I have no doubts we'll be heading away long before then!
Our friends were due to arrive on Monday afternoon so as the weather was mainly dry again we thought we'd make the most of the morning and get out for another walk. We walk down into Padstow via St Petroc's Church and up to Prideaux Place to see their herd of deer, who all seemed to be enjoying the relatively warm sunshine.
We knew the weather would change and on arrival back to the site the heavens opened, producing a fabulous double rainbow over the site.
We spent that evening with our friends in their motorhome where we enjoyed a Chinese takeaway for four delivered to the site!
On Sunday morning it was time, all too soon, to pack up and leave lovely St Ives for another year. Before doing so we booked our favourite pitch for next Christmas!!!
Our next stop, for the New Year festivities, was Padstow. We arrived on site to lovely sunshine so after pitching up and sorting Paddy out we walked from the campsite down into Padstow for the afternoon, where we enjoyed a lovely Sunday roast in the Harbour Inn. The harbour area and town was packed, just like St Ives had been all over Christmas. The weather was stunning, although it was obviously the calm before the storm. That evening the torrential rain arrived again along with more gale force winds. We spent most of the night and early morning sat up drinking tea, hoping it would pass!
During Boxing Day night and into Friday morning the weather was horrendous. They had predicted 60 - 80mph winds and they were right. We also had torrential rain and hail for most of the night and into the early hours so didn't sleep particularly well. When you're situated on a cliff top overlooking the Atlantic and there's a gale blowing it's certainly not a time to sleep! Hence, we didn't do too much on Friday. We did manage to get out for a short walk in between showers but that was about it for us that day.
Saturday was our last full day in St Ives and even though the weather was predicted to be bad again it was dry when we got up so we decided to risk it and walk into St Ives again, fully waterproofed up!! We walked down via Porthmeor Beach and up onto the headland to the chapel and coastguards look-out point. There seemed to be a crowd gathering and the coastguard came out to tell us that there were dolphins in the bay. Wow, what a fantastic sight! I cannot believe how lucky we were to see them, it certainly made my Christmas. There was a small pod of six or so dolphins swimming fairly close to the coast and we stood and watched them for some time, as the weather closed in! We did manage to get down into St Ives via Porthgwidden Beach and the harbour before the heavens opened luckily! We enjoyed a few hours in St Ives, did a bit of sale shopping and had a lovely lunch in the Lifeboat Inn.
