Author: 2jsworldofadventure

When Jenny and John met in 2012 it soon became apparent that they shared a love for learning about different cultures and travelling on a variety of different forms of transport. It was at this point that ‘2J’s’ was born. The 2 lovebirds quickly embarked on their world of adventure, which has now continued for over a decade and it would seem that they have no intention of stopping their adventures anytime soon….

Day 6- Wednesday 15th May 2024-Par to Newquay- Cornish Staycation.

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John went to the station at 7.30 this morning, although we can see the trains from the front room and bedroom of the house, he wanted to take some photo’s on the station platform. So Dad and I had a slow start, made the picnic and picked him up at 11.00am. We headed off and through St Austell then turning right across what we call the downs, stopping briefly at Quintrell Downs station for a photo….

……before carrying on to Newquay. Newquay is a town on the north coast of Cornwall. The town is known for Sandy beaches at both Fistral and Watergate Bay. The waves from the Atlantic Ocean create strong surf. The town is bordered by several miles of Sandy beaches which make it one of the UK’s favourite holiday destinations.


The Fistral Bay is perhaps the best known surfing beach in the UK. As a consequence of this, in the summer it’s probably the most crowded! In fact at the height of the holiday season you might have to share a wave with another 300 people, but it’s worth it because Fistral can provide some class waves and holds swells up to 8ft. We didn’t stop at Fistral Bay today because we couldn’t find a car park where we could sit in the car and enjoy watching the surfers. It was very windy again today and there were some quite heavy downpours.


We eventually found a nice car park overlooking Watergate Bay…we counted 25 surfers along the bay. A leisurely picnic lunch was taken in the warm car, whilst watching the surfers ride the peaks, drop off, snake and carve, twist and turn. I always love watching them, knowing the excitement and adrenaline rush they will be having….it’s a long time since I had that feeling during my windsurfing years, but it’s one you never forget and you feel it in your gut every-time you watch others succeeding….I could watch surfers all day.

After lunch we drove further up the coast in the direction of Padstow. We went through some lovely seaside villages/towns.

We stopped for a view of the Bedruthan Steps. It is a National Trust car park with a Cafe, shop and toilets. We had decided not to do the walk to see the steps as Dad had previously done it with my sister, but it is a nice view point and we did need to use the toilet. We were told we would still have to pay for parking…John headed off to get a ticket..£2.50 for 1 hour, £5 for 2 hours and £9 for the day…..Johns reaction was ‘How Much!!’. The Lady said “IT IS National Trust’ !!!! ….No wonder there was plenty of room in the car park. To appease John I bought him a tub of rum & raisin ice cream……When the lady told me the price I just managed to refrain from saying I only wanted a couple of scoops not the whole container….and they were certainly quite small scoops…..talk about rip-off Britain…75p for a wee!!!! End of Rant !!

We continued up the coast a little further before heading back across the Cornish peninsula. After zigzagging through the Cornish lanes, with John saying the mirror at his side was brushing the bank of wildflowers, then he looked and saw it was the same on my side!!!….

……we made it back to Par. A quick stop at the St Blazey CO-OP to replenish the milk and fresh fruit supplies was required before we shut the rainy grey sky out for the night….. would you credit it no sooner had we got back the sun came out…Sod’s law !!!
We are eating in tonight, Fish pie, asparagus, spinach and ginger cake with custard….

Tomorrow we hope for a better day weather wise so that we can go to Looe on the train…we love the quaint fishing village and the fish market will provide us with a nice supper…..but it’s all dependant on the weather because it’s quite a long walk from the station to the main town centre.

Day 5 – Tuesday 14th May 2024- Bodmin Moor – Cornish Staycation.

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After a nice lazy start to the day we set off about 10.30 am for a day out exploring Bodmin Moor and surrounding area………it’s definitely the right time of the year to be in Cornwall, it’s quite quiet, with not too much traffic on the lanes. Driving the Cornwall lanes is not for the faint hearted…they are very narrow with passing places every 50/100 yards or so, steep sides, which although are very pretty, they don’t allow you any chance of seeing oncoming traffic. The locals know the lanes and travel at high speed looking surprised when tourists crawl towards them.

We set off towards Lostwithiel and then turned up left heading for Bodmin town. The hedgerows were really colourful …not just the wild bluebells, bright green ferns,campions, and cowslips but also some purple and pink rhododendrons, pink, magenta, purple, red, orange, white, and yellow bougainvilleas, pink and orange Azalea Japonicas and even a bottlebrush in flower… what a horticultural show.

It appeared that we were definitely on a ‘Jackson’s Mystery Tour’ , or as John called it today a ‘lost in the middle of nowhere tour’!!! It’s great when you come across small caring communities.

Arriving in Bodmin we went to the preserved railway station. We didn’t intend to go on a steam train today as we had done it the last time we were down…but we did intend to have a wander around the station but there was absolutely no where to park, so we gave it a pass

…..more about it at the end of the week when I’ll post a page of sights and things to do.. We drove up to the Keep which houses The Cornish Army Museum.

……..it looked interesting and we hadn’t been before but once again the parking defeated us and as it was just starting to drizzle we didn’t fancy the town car park and the quite long walk…so on we went….John routed us through more little lanes, small communities before we arrived up on the moors.

They were absolutely beautiful…the yellow gorse, lambs, sheep, highland cattle, calves, and a few ponies all wandering wild…what a picture.

We stopped at Colliford Lake for Coffee, before meandering on. A while later we returned to the lake for our picnic lunch.

With the gale force wind it was not the sort of day to find an big bush!!! so John very obligingly routed us via Jamaica Inn located high on Bodmin Moor by the A30 about midway between Launceston and Bodmin.

The Inn is a traditional inn which was built as a Coaching Inn in 1750, and has a historical association with smuggling. It has been made famous when it became the setting for Daphne Du Maurier’s 1936 novel  Jamaica Inn which is about the nocturnal activities of a smuggling ring. She evidently was inspired into writing it during her stay at the Inn in 1930. Many of her books were set in Cornwall She died from heart failure in her sleep on 19 April 1989, aged 81, at her home in Par, Cornwall.

Jamaica Inn is also referenced in “Jamaica Inn”, a song by Tori Amos…. she is said to have written it while she was driving along the cliffs in Cornwall, and was inspired by the legend she had heard of the inn. Today the Inn includes a gift shop, farm shop, hotel and restaurant…..it’s name has certainly made it into a very viable business. John treated me to a new Teddy to add to my collection…. We have called him Will, after the Duke of Cornwall !!!!

After leaving Jamaica Inn we headed back to Par, only managed to get lost once….again a lovely day out, seeing some new, old and unexpected sights and scenery. Another night in today…I’ve had to move ‘Stirfry Monday’ to Tuesday this week !!! And yes for once I did remember to bring the wok!!

Day 4 – Monday 13th 2024- Par to Exeter – Cornish Staycation

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After 3 magnificent days of dawn to dusk sunshine we got up today to find the weather forecast, for once, was correct…drat…. It was chilly and pouring it down with very heavy rain….. but it’s ok because our Entertainments Manager – John ( I am the planner, booker and driver and Dad is the navigator!!), had it all under control. He decided that today was a good day to take the train through to Exeter and back via a stop at Plymouth. It’s a great sightseeing trip even in the rain and it kept us warm and dry.
We took the car to Par station… lazy yes!, as it’s only 0.5 miles away from where we are staying. However it was definitely the dryer option. I dropped John and Dad at the station and went in search of somewhere to park…. Rather crazy most of the parking spaces are ‘Staff Only’ and the little carpark at the end of the road is also ‘Staff Only’ … that leaves a couple of disabled parking bays and 8 bays for rail users!!! (There are 3 times more than that for Staff!!). Every available bay was full except of course the staff and disabled bays which were totally empty …. Rant over!!!… so I drove out and parked behind another rail user in the road behind the pub, I then followed him down the footpath to the station… so I did manage not to drown !!! John had purchased the tickets at about £24 each and his was around £16 with a rail card … day returns were cheaper than Rover tickets on this occasion.
We took the slower stopping train to Plymouth. There were some lovely views albeit through the rain splattered window.

We were a few minutes late getting into Plymouth but the connecting train to Exeter was being held. So we dodged the rain and boarded it. The next part of our journey is fairly spectacular, even through the wet train windows. From Teignmouth along to Dawlish the train runs parallel to the sea front. We were fortunate that the tide was in and the spray was splashing over the sea wall … lovely sight.

On arriving in Exeter Dad and I bolted for Starbucks.. a coffee was required… pleased to say we both gave it a 8/10 … so very acceptable.

We stopped about an hour at St David’s Station, Exeter, before retracing our train rides back to Par. Somewhere around Lostwithiel it finally stopped raining, but most the beautiful scenery had been passed. It was nice to get off the train and all of us walk in the dry back up to the car. The good thing about renting a house is that tonight we are staying in. Supper will be lasagne with fresh spinach, followed by Ginger pudding, which was kindly given to us for our trip by a good friend in Dads village. We will probably play Rummikub, and try to get our own back on Dad who won both hands last night, and watch quizzes on the TV and look forward to more exciting adventures tomorrow.

Day 3 – Sunday 12th May 2024- Par, Cornish Staycation.

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Big shout out to Pendeen Holiday House….lovely comfy beds, windows which open to allow air in and heat out and a shower powerful enough to easily get shampoo out of hair!!!! The former and later are rarities in many holiday home rentals……so a great nights sleep and a slow leisurely breakfast. After which we drove around to Snowlands fishing lakes……we were walking down memory lane as John and I used to bring the motorhome/RV here. We had a nice walk around one of the lakes, seeing some Canadian goose goslings, late bluebells and lovely yellow irises.

We had already decided to have a slow day. So after our walk we dropped John at the Roselyn Bus garage so he could take some photos for his flicker transport site, and we nipped to the CoOp to get Dads paper and a small bag of sugar for his coffee, as I’d forgotten to order it. We drove on around to the St Blazey level crossing so John could take a photo of an unusual working….it was a little late but both Dad and John enjoyed seeing it.

Then it was time for the beach…..we parked up at Par beach and walked over the dunes onto the beach…it is always good seeing the sea and people enjoying the sand, sea, paddle boards etc makes you realise that Summer is well on its way…we’ve had 3 marvellous days of sun.

We stopped at the Cognitive Coffee bar in the beach car park……we all had Americano Coffees….unfortunately the warm brown water scored very lowly on our usual ‘how many out of 10’ coffee tasting….. Dad gave it a generous 4/10 and John gave it 1/10…I refused to be drawn because you can’t give a negative score !!!!! At £9.30 for 3 cups of dishwater we defiantly felt had!!
We had booked Sunday Lunch at The Welcome Inn in Par….it’s diagonally opposite to Pendeen House and we soon learnt that they are the owners of the Holiday Rental. I was delighted to see a whole array of ciders on tap…..I don’t usually drink but I occasionally have a nice cider and their Thatchers Gold Cider was delicious. We had a choice of 3 different roasts…Lamb, Turkey or Beef…we all opted for beef….Dad had what was called a small plate for £9.00 and John and I had Standard plates at £11.00……it was a real feast…I think I counted 10 different vegetables plus the meat, Yorkshire pudding and stuffing…..all beautifully cooked. Absolutely full to bursting we waddled back to the house for a lazy, sleepy afternoon and maybe a game of Rummikub later…if we can be bothered!!!

What a lovely relaxing day we have had ….more planned for tomorrow.

Day 2 – Saturday 11th 2024 – Arriving in Cornwall

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We woke up in The Premier Inn Frome after all of us having a hot and sweaty night……don’t start me off about the legislation which prevents hotels from having windows which open to let air in…..grrrrr….anyway at 8.30 John had walked to Gregg’s Bakery and purchased 3 ‘bacon butties’ and we were all sat in our room eating them and drinking coffee……we don’t go to restaurants for breakfasts when we have a long drive ahead of us…we prefer a light bite and off we go.

We decided to stick to the ‘A’ roads as much as possible and only use the M5 to scoot around the edge of Exeter. It was a very scenic drive…we took the road towards Glastonbury before branching of to Bruton, small town famous for its Private Schools. It has two longstanding secondary schools- Kings School founded in 1519 and Sexey’s School founded in 1889. The later was named after Hugh Sexey who was born locally and attended Bruton Grammar School and was Royal Auditor to both Queen Elisabeth I and King James I. We off course passed the usual crude jokes with regard to the name of the school !!!. On entering the town one is struck by the splendour of St Mary’s Church which dominates the centre of the town.

Following this town we joined the A303 into Devon, and went on the infamous Honiton bypass. We then detoured off the A30 ……Devon and Cornwall don’t have motorways traversing their counties but the A30 is of a motorway standard in all ways except name.

Our detour took us into the village of Ottery St. Mary. Here we visited the garden centre. It’s well know to Dad who often visits it when staying with my sister who lives in Devon. We had a nice coffee and stretched our legs, before carrying on.

As we left the village a long convoy of assorted cars in all shapes and sizes.

We continued on through some typically Cornish lanes….very narrow, with passing spaces and high banked sides…the banks at this time of years are filled with beautiful wild flowers……so a very picturesque trip.

We stopped in Liskeard to pick up a picnic lunch and sat at the station to eat it. The station is always a pleasant place to be….the mainline trains arrive on the two main platforms with the branch line train to Looe departing from platform 3 which is at right angles and across the road from the main lines.
After lunch we continued to Par. We picked up the keys of the house from a prearranged point and found it easily enough (might have been easier if I hadn’t mixed up my 6 & 9 !!!!). The house is very nice, it could easily sleep 6 …..it consists of a lounge, dinning room, well equipped Kitchen, 2 bedrooms with King Size beds and one with twin beds and two bathrooms, a conservatory and a garden. I booked it through http://www.sykescottages.co.uk. This is a company we have often used to book holiday accommodation . It was £800 for the week. The welcome pack was very nice. We had arranged for a Tesco food and household goods delivery an hour after our arrival. So we are now all set for a very comfortable week.