Cornwall in a motorhome

After our long drive from Devon to Cornwall in our motorhome, we were happy to stop for a few days, so here we are in Truro. We're here because it’s where Marg’s Grandfather on her Dad’s side came from. The family left Truro in 1874 and sailed to New Zealand.

Truro Cathedral

We began our Truro sightseeing while travelling through a maze of residential streets on the local bus. We were headed for the city centre for a look around and immediately spotted Truro cathedral. With its impressive spires, you can see it from almost everywhere in the city.

Truro is a small city in Cornwall with a population of around 20,000. It's reasonably compact, with some quaint cobbled streets and historic buildings, which we were enjoying on our sightseeing expedition.

After walking around for a while, we stopped at the historic Coin Hall. The Hall has been transformed into a beautifully decorated tea house called Charlotte’s Tea House. 

Marg at Charlotte's Tea House

We treated ourselves to a Cornish cream tea there. It was delicious and we walked away with very full tummies.

Truro is a seafaring city, sitting on the estuary of the River Truro, with a safe harbour to the sea. We walked around the harbour boardwalk but it was very quiet, and the tide was way out.

Leaving Truro after a few days, we headed to Falmouth. We drove through some steep, interesting streets there, that took us down to the harbour.

A street in Falmouth

Falmouth has a lovely harbour, and its narrow winding streets are full of beautifully decorated shops and well-tended pretty houses.

We enjoyed a look around Falmouth, then moved on through narrow roads, to the seaside village of Marazion. From there we could see nearby St Michael’s Mount, a small hilly island with a castle on the top.

St Michael's Mount and castle

We could only view it from the shore as it was high tide and it’s normally reached via a causeway at low tide. Unfortunately, the tide times didn't work in our favour.

Leaving there, we arrived in Penzance, another seaside town. Penzance has a very busy port with all types of vessels moored in the harbour. The drive round the harbour is lovely.

Our next stop was Mousehole, a tiny (670 people) fishing village a little further around the coast.

Our GPS tried to take us through a very narrow lane to get there, but we are wise to it now and continued on the main road. Luckily we found ourselves a parking spot not too far from the village, then it was a mile-long walk along the pretty coastal road, before entering the village proper. 

A street in Mousehole

Then suddenly, we were there, in this cute little village with extremely narrow streets, and lots and lots of small quaint stone cottages fronting onto the harbour.

What a charming place to wander around.

There are several theories as to how the name “Mousehole” came about. The most credible one from our point of view, is that it is based on the cave or hole in a nearby cliff.

Mousehole is known historically, as one of the centres of the Cornish fishing trade, with pilchards and mackerel being the main catch.

We bought sandwiches for lunch, and sat on big rocks along the waters edge to eat them, before walking back to our campervan VTee.

Leigh at Land's End

Then we drove back through Penzance and found our way to Land’s End.

This is the western-most point in the UK, but we found it to be very commercial, with slot machines, and rides etc. However, the views were great.

Leaving there, we headed north following the coast road to St Just, another village that lies within the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The St Just settlement has a strong mining history and was, during the 19th century, one of the most important mining districts in Cornwall for both copper and tin.

A reminder of the Cornwall & West Devon mining history

We could see evidence of this mining history in the remains of many ruined engine houses and their chimneys, that used to ventilate the mines. The Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscapes are now UNESCO World Heritage sites.

We then moved on to St Ives. Along the way the scenery was stunning, with beautiful green pastures highlighted against a vivid blue sea and sky.

Beautiful scenery on the way to St Ives

Every so often, the road narrowed down so much, that only one vehicle at a time could travel along it. Such a challenge in our big van!

We had more than a few nervous moments, but the most interesting was when we met a bus coming the other way. However, the nice driver reversed for about 300 yards to let us through, then when we drew level, he leaned out his window for a wee chat. 

So typical of the lovely and friendly people we have met on this route.

With such winding narrow roads, we thought we would never get to St Ives. 

St Ives beach

We final did reach it, to discover it was a very confusing town with a one way street system. After getting stuck down at the waterfront, we just wanted to get out of there, but had huge trouble finding our way. 

Eventually we did, and decided we needed a bigger road to get us to the next place. So we headed for the A30 and trucked north to Padstow.

We found a great campsite there which was really well located as there was a walkway directly to Padstow village. It took us through farmer’s fields, then along some steep streets that led down to the village harbour.

Padstow street

Padstow is a busy little tourist town built around its harbour, and there were many people wandering around its colourful, wee streets.

But, everywhere we looked, there seemed to be things connected to Chef Rick Stein – a restaurant, a café, a fish and chip place, a fish bar plus others. We wondered how Padstow would survive without him.

We gave into the moment, and decided to have lunch at Rick Stein’s fish bar, where we enjoyed a yummy meal of crayfish, prawns and cockles with a nice glass of wine.

Padstow harbour

Later, we strolled around the town and harbour before heading back up the hill to our campsite. 

The weather has been cold and wet here for some time, but today the rain held off, thankfully. Padstow proved to be a nice and relaxing layover for a few days in the better weather. But tomorrow we move on into Devon.

This is part of a bigger blog on our travels around England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Belgium and Luxembourg. The first blog is called "Off to do the UK in a motorhome".