My travel & days out diary

Watergate Bay to Mawgan Porth, South West Coastal Path walk

Published on July 2, 2022July 4, 2022 by VictoriaLeave a comment

Since walking from Perranporth to Newquay and also from Porth to Whipsiderry to Watergate, I’ve really wanted to explore the next stretch of the South West Coastal Path walking from Watergate Bay to Mawgan Porth.

I finally ticked it off my to-do list this week as I enjoyed an amazing 10km walk from my home in Newquay, past Whipsiderry and along the South West Coast Path at Watergate Bay to Mawgan Porth… where Ben greeted me with a lift home and a warm pasty! Yum! (Cauliflower and onion bhaji from The Cornish Bakery if you’re wondering… vegan-friendly!)

Read on to see my thoughts and photos from this glorious stretch of the coastal path.

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Glendurgan Garden, National Trust, Cornwall

Published on June 27, 2022June 27, 2022 by Victoria1 Comment

Last Sunday we visited Glendurgan Garden in Falmouth, Cornwall. It’s a National Trust site and so we had free entry and parking with our membership. Glendurgan is around a 50-minute drive from our home in Newquay through some lovely leafy country lanes around Falmouth.

The weather had looked a bit iffy on Sunday and likely to rain, so we looked for something to do that might be slightly sheltered or indoors on the National Trust app. Glendurgan looked great as although outdoors, perhaps sheltered with large trees and they had a couple of activities for the kids and a cafe if needed!

Thankfully, the weather stayed dry for our visit, but it was freezing! After a week of warm 20 degrees celsius, it was around 15 degrees on the day we visited and we really felt it, even in coats and trousers!

Since living by the coast we have really found the weather so unpredictable, especially with the coastal winds which can really cool down the temperature if they are cold!

Anyway, here are some photos from the Glenurgan gardens and a little information about what to expect if you decide to visit yourself.

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Bristol Botanical Gardens review

Published on June 8, 2022June 27, 2022 by VictoriaLeave a comment

If you’re looking for something calm and peaceful to do whilst in Bristol then I recommend a visit to Bristol Botanical Gardens. Here are my photos from our recent trip and my review.

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Eden Project Cornwall review, photos + helpful visitor information

Published on April 15, 2022April 20, 2022 by VictoriaLeave a comment

The Eden Project is an amazing place we had visited a couple of times in the past when the kids were dinky, but we have returned twice in the last month with the children now being 9 years and 7 years old. They couldn’t remember it from before, but Bella had a school trip recently and since moving to Cornwall last year, we decided it was great value to sign up for their annual membership so we can visit regularly throughout the next year.

Read on to see our March and April 2022 photos from the Eden Project and some thoughts on our two recent visits so you know what to expect. Discover some answers to some common questions about the Eden Project Cornwall and how you can save money if you are local, or if you regularly visit Cornwall and love the Eden Project.

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Beautiful 10km Newquay coastal walk: Whipsiderry to Watergate Bay along the beach, and back along South West Coast Path

Published on February 25, 2022July 2, 2022 by VictoriaLeave a comment

This is probably one of my favourite walks so far since living in Newquay. It was the first walk I did by myself: a 5km walk from the far end of Whipsiderry Beach to the far end of Watergate Bay. The first time I did it, Ben and the kids picked me up from Watergate Bay as they stayed and played at Whipsiderry. Just this week, we returned and we walked as a family to Watergate Bay and then back along the cliffs taking the South West Coast Path from Watergate Bay to Whipsiderry, back to where we’d parked the car.

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padstow lifeboat station rnli cornwall st mother iveys bay

Trevose Head Lighthouse to Mother Ivey’s Bay headland walk

Published on February 22, 2022April 20, 2022 by VictoriaLeave a comment

A couple of weeks ago we explored Trevose Head, a headland managed by the National Trust towards Padstow in Cornwall. We parked towards the tip of the headland not far from the lighthouse in a National Trust carpark. Check out my paragraph at the end to see how you can save money on a National Trust membership!

From Trevose Lighthouse we walked around Trevose headland to Mother Ivey’s Bay, passing the Padstow lifeboat station on the way, before walking back to the carpark via Booby’s Bay with Constantine Bay in the distance and past a rather incredible blowhole known as Round Hole.

Read on to see our photos from our Cornwall walk and more about what we saw.

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South West Coast Path from Perranporth to Newquay 17.7km walk! Stunning beaches!

Published on January 27, 2022May 14, 2022 by Victoria5 Comments

Wow, what a walk. 17.7km and 28,756 steps from Perranporth beach all the way to Newquay town! Ben had wanted to do this walk for a while, so we decided to postpone working one morning when we saw blue skies and the sun shining and take the South West Coast Path in Cornwall from Perranporth back to our hometown of Newquay!

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Pentire headland walk 7.2km via Rump Point, Pentire Point and Pentireglaze Haven!

Published on January 16, 2022May 14, 2022 by Victoria2 Comments

Yesterday we had an amazing 7.2km walk along the National Trust site known as Pentire Headland. It’s in Wadebridge and is different to the Pentire headland in Newquay! It’s by Pentireglaze and Polzeath Beach.

If you’re looking for a walk in Cornwall with amazing views then I recommend the route we took. Our kids were in tow too! Some of the paths are right near the edge with sheer drops down to the sea, so be careful with very young kids!

We took a slightly longer route than the recommended walk on the National Trust map at Lead Mines. We parked in the Lead Mines car park.

See the route we took in purple here:

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Wheal Coates to Chapel Porth coastal walk

Published on January 9, 2022May 14, 2022 by Victoria4 Comments

Today we went for a short walk from the historical tin mine site Wheal Coates to Chapel Porth beach near St Agnes in Cornwall.

We parked at the National Trust car park at Wheal Coates to begin, staying in the car for a while to enjoy some vegan Rowes pasties we picked up on the way!

And to stay out of the rain for a while longer, as typically it started chucking it down just before we arrived!

Not wanting to waste our journey, we braved the elements and got pelted in the face with icey wind and rain as we walked down to see the ruins and remains of this famous UNESCO World Heritage site.

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Holywell Bay to Porth Joke coastal walk with kids

Published on January 9, 2022July 2, 2022 by Victoria2 Comments

On Boxing Day we had an amazing family walk from Holywell Bay to Polly Joke over The Kelseys. It was a very mild day for late December and felt very warm at some points in the sunshine. The kids even had their shoes and coats off for most of the walk!

We took this route to find a seal cove near Polly Joke. We also hadn’t taken the coastal path to the right of Holywell yet, so it was a new adventure for us.

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Seal spotting at Godrevy and Porth Joke in Cornwall in winter

Published on January 3, 2022May 14, 2022 by Victoria4 Comments

I didn’t even realise until a few years back that there are seals in the sea in the UK! I guess I’d never seen one before whenever I was on holiday and so I never thought about it. When we went on holiday to Brixham in Devon I saw a seal in the sea for the first time and I was amazed!

Since then we stumbled upon Mutton Cove when exploring the north coast of Cornwall on a holiday last year before we moved to Cornwall. We were amazed to see a few seals on the beach in the summer as I documented in this Instagram post in July 2021:

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