We were lucky enough to have our friends Kate and Jacks met up with us for a few days in Cornwall. Kate and I worked together at a camp just outside of Ely, MN for a couple of summers about 18 years ago. Kate and Jacks live just outside of Bristol and made the trek down to met up with us. When I saw Kate a couple of years ago, she and her friends were talking about how great Cornwall is and she was the inspiration for this portion of the trip. They planned a really fabulous day for us all and the weather cooperated perfectly.
Kate and Jacks
We started out at Polzeath Beach which is well known for surfers and body boarders. When Prince William and Prince Harry were younger, they would have surfing lessons here. One of the cool things for our family is that we got to park on the beach, not at all typical for us. We walked on the Coastal Path towards Padstow. There were stunning views of the Atlantic along the entire way.
The girls really enjoyed getting down onto the beach and walking in the water. The bird watching is really great here, we saw a kestrel riding the airwaves.
We wouldn’t have known about this if not for Kate and Jacks, but there is a ferry you can take to get across the estuary to Padstow, so that saved us about two hours and it was fun.
Padstow is a charming fishing village that is a foodie destination. Rick Stein has a lot of restaurants here as well as a cookery school.
Padstow
In Padstow we walked around, ate Cornish Pasties, and rented bikes so that we could bike to Wadebridge. The bike trail goes on even further (into Bodmin) and would highly recommend making a day out of this if biking is your thing. You can even rent tag-a-long bikes for younger kids as well as Burleys and baskets if you have your dog along. The trail goes along side above the estuary and at low tide there are boats resting on the exposed sandy bottom. In Wadebridge there are shops you can visit or a great place to grab a snack. Back in Padstow after biking, Gretchen had her English Cream Tea and some of us enjoyed a pint. The Cornish way of enjoying Cream Tea is to first spread the jam than the clotted cream. In Devon, you first spread the clotted cream, than the strawberry jam. Of course there is a big debate about which way is the right way to do this.
We took the ferry back across and it was getting to be high tide. When we walked towards Padstow we were walking on the seabed, now it was filling with water so we had to walk higher up. You really need to pay attention to high and low tide times.
When we arrived back at Polzeath Beach we braved a dip in the water. We had to make it a quick one because there was a red flag and the undertow was really strong. Hanna needed to warm up with a hot drink. Most people, almost everyone, wear wet suits to stay warm but we didn’t have them. You can rent them but we were too late.
This was such a perfect day and would recommend this area and activities to those who enjoy the outdoors.
Mama With Wanderlust 