As I was filling our water bottles this morning a friendly caravanner at our campsite asked me where we were headed. I replied, "in the direction of St. Ives, but we're not sure yet!" He asked where we were coming from and when I explained a bit about our trip he was absolutely floored. Immediately shaking my hand he introduced himself and called over his wife(?) to tell her about what we were doing. We started chatting and shortly after, Tara came by on her way back from the dishwashing area to join the conversation. Before we knew it John and Linda were offering us breakfast, coffee, conversation and just about anything else we'd be willing to accept. Being a bit low on breakfast food (and uninspired by our gross cocoa rice cereal or fried potatoes) as well as becoming better at accepting hospitality, we happily agreed and shared a wonderful chat over ceareal, toast, orange juice and coffee! Thank you John & Linda! Our unexpected breakfast and conversation was a great way to start the day!
Feeling cheery after meeting yet another nice couple, we packed our things and headed into Tintagel to poke around the shops before setting out. The last time I was in Cornwall was six or so years ago; most everything except major events from the trip have faded from my memory (would that I could go back in time and tell my young self a thing or two about journalling and not being an idiot). As we walked around I saw many things that triggered old memories. One such memory: I purchased a tiny glass bottle to put ocean water/sand in to take home last time. I had completely forgotten about this until it returned to me like a flash when I saw the shop that I purchased it in (now closed). It is amazing how much of our daily lives becomes nothing more than background noise in our memory.
After my trip down memory lane we headed out on what would be a short-lived idea of following B-roads along the coast to our next camp. Three miles and what was probably an hour later we decided to bail out on the endless string of 20%+ grade hills. The views were beautiful but the terrain was ridiculous and we weren't getting anywhere!
Quickly making some distance and time after seeking refuge on one of the only A-roads in Cornwall we started hunting for a place to eat. We'd planned on picking up our first proper Cornish pasty somewhere along the road today but instead wound up at a wonderful farm shop in St. Kew where we purchased a delicious round loaf of fig and black pepper bread with a chunk of mild cheese wrapped in wild garlic leaves. We wheeled into the shade and absolutely devoured our fresh finds exchanging twenty minutes or so of "mmmmms" and smiles. Tara tells me we'll be doing a lot of this in France. I can't wait!
We rode away from St. Kew with the intention of heading just south of Newquay and then cutting out to the coast to find a campground. Along the way during one of our rest breaks by a beautiful forest, I started hunting through the brush beside the road trying to find something tasty and edible. I've been nonplussed with the book Tara bought for identifying plants because we can never seem to locate anything so I just started tasting various stalks until I stumbled upon one that tasted a lot like an apple! Very excitedly Tara looked it up and found that I had discovered wild Sorrel! We picked tons of the tasty leaves and saved them in Tara's handlebar bag to make a potato and sorrel soup later on for dinner.
As we were approaching camp I spied a field of llamas and quickly hopped the fence to take a few photos. They were remarkably relaxed about my being in their field and I was able to get very close for some fun photos. The whole time I was thinking about a running joke with some friends about how llamas always looked stoned.
After returning from the llama field we pulled into our very busy campsite. This weekend is a bank holiday AND the national camping and caravaning weekend in England; we were treated to loud and drunken campers all evening talking about everything from painkillers to being stabbed in bar fights. I felt very suddenly like I was in America and if it hadn't been for their accents and a heated debate about the merits of various teas it would have been indistiguishable!
While I made camp Tara prepared a simple potato soup with our sorrel and we had our first free-food assisted feast! While we were eating I realized that everything in our dish was grown or found locally (we had purchased potatos and onions from the end of someone's drive in Tintagel the night before).
After dinner we hit the showers and then fell soundly asleep to the din of bad techno and parents yelling at their kids. Tomorrow we're off to St. Ives!