After the misery of going abroad for the summer holidays for the past few years, I’m now happily back in Cornwall. Caroline took some persuading. We used to come every year, but the combination of bad weather and cramped accommodation became too much for her. After a bad experience in a mobile home three years ago, she vowed ‘never again’ and we spent a week in Portugal in 2014 and then ten days in France last year. That was purgatory. The last straw was being un-able to order fresh fish at a seaside restaurant in the Languedoc.
To get Caroline to reconsider, I had to splash out on a luxurious ‘chalet’ overlooking Gwithian Beach near St Ives. I say ‘luxurious’ but in Cornwall that translates as furniture from Ikea rather than MFI and, in truth, it’s more of a hut than a chalet. Still, there’s enough room for all of us, provided the youngest sleeps on the sofa, and its proximity to the beach means we don’t have to faff around looking for somewhere to park each day.
The other factor that persuaded Caroline to return to Cornwall is that it meant we didn’t have to put our dog in kennels for a week. I was rather dreading Leo coming with us — he’s a one-year-old Hungarian Vizsla with the temperament of a show pony — but it has turned out to be a blessing. Dogs are only allowed on Gwithian Beach before 8 a.m., so he’s forced Caroline and me to get up at 7 a.m. every day to take him for his morning walk. Watching him run around with the other dogs in the lovely dawn light, jumping in and out of rock pools, has been a-heartwarming sight.
As we’re on the north coast, the main leisure activity here is surfing, and three of my four children have enrolled at Gwithian Academy of Surfing.
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