The Cornwall Report The plan was for Mum, Pam, Cheese and I to spend 6 days doing nothing but chilling. That’s not exactly how it turned out and Cheese got to have a whole pile of new experiences so I’ll break it down into days to make it easier to read. Overall, he was SO well behaved and so many people stopped to make a fuss of him or just to comment on how calm/obedient/well behaved he was and, inevitably, amazement at how young he was. As per usual, he took absolutely everything in his stride and he had a wonderful time. Photos will follow but there are currently 1,700 of them to sort through so they’ll be along in a few days!! Monday: Cheese spent the morning fretting as I put things in the wrong places and packed the car, so did his usual thing of moving my shoes around. I then made it worse by leaving him at home with Sophie whilst I went out to collect Mum and Pam and their luggage. However, once he was in the car and sure that he wasn’t being left behind, he relaxed. We had a smooth drive from Bristol into Cornwall and stopped for lunch at a cafe, where Cheese very quickly worked out just how well he was going to be able to manipulate Nanny and Pam for the rest of the holiday with the poor, starved, drooling puppy dog look! We arrived at the campsite and quickly unloaded the car, then, whilst Mum and Pam had a rejuvenating cuppa, I took Cheese over to the dunes for his proper introduction to Cornwall. His little puppydog brain was blown at the feel of sand under his paws, the grassy dunes against his fur and the scent of copious amounts of rabbit poo filling his nose! We bumped into a lady with her collie who told us all about how she was picking up a rescue girl who looked just like Cheese later in the day. Once the unpacking was completed, we all set off on a route march (according to Pam!). We walked through the dunes and the nature reserve - where Cheese launched himself into the lake - and up to the Red River (more swimming done!). A short set of steps later and we reached Godrevy Cafe - home of the best cream tea with the bestest view in Cornwall. Using his newly gained “soft touch” talent, Cheese got to have a little taste of cream tea - he liked it! Back to the caravan for a little rest, then Cheese and I headed down to the beach. He loved swimming in the deep rock pools, splashing in the sea and watching the evening surfers. Bliss! Tuesday: Tuesday dawned bright and early as Cheese awoke and wasn’t sure where he was, then realised that he could get to Nanny and Pam so went off to snog them awake…………..at 5.45! Despite attempts to go back to sleep, we ended up staying awake. Cheese was thrilled to find that his holiday days start with a walk over the dunes and a swim in the lake! After a leisurely breakfast, we headed off to Marazion to take a trip over to St Michael’s Mount. Pam decided to wait on shore for us once she spotted the number of people in the queue, but Mum and I took Cheese on the ferry boat (bovvered? Not him!) across to the island. We had a little pootle round, then sat to have an ice cream (Nanny shared hers with Cheese) before heading back for lunch. Whilst waiting in the queue for the boat back, Cheese entertained everybody by randomly trying to leap a 7 foot wall from a standing start! He didn’t know that the 7 foot wall had a much deeper drop into the sea on the other side but, thankfully, he ricocheted off some way from the top anyway. Numpty boy!! Once we were safely back on the mainland, we met up with Pam and headed off to the Godolphin Arms for lunch. Cheese was FAR more interested in the couple behind us as they were having much meatier meals and had a gorgeous vizsla boy accompanying them. Quick nap on the return to the caravan, then Cheese and I paid the dunes a quick visit for him to burn some energy offlead. As soon as we passed through the gates, he made a new friend - a young vizsla girl called Roxy. Her mum wasn’t far behind us and we stood and chatted whilst the youngsters blasted their way across the dunes, having an absolute ball. A little while later, Cheese and I set off on a new route that involved walking across the dunes, through the nature reserve, alongside the river, along the beach, around the rock pools and then back over the dunes to our temporary home. Being braver than I’d ever seen him be, Cheese opted to start leaping off of the surrounding rocks and into the deepest rock pool to fetch his ball!! I think it’s safe to confirm that he is most definitely a water baby now. Cheese slept very well that night! Wednesday: Wednesday morning brought a rain shower. Both Cheese and I got wet on the morning dune walk. And I wasn’t swimming! Our plans to head into Rosudgeon for the boot sale were delayed as we huddled beneath a duvet and waited for the weather to decide what it was doing. Eventually, late morning, it stabilised into “cloudy but dry” and we set off. We eventually arrived at the boot sale as most people were leaving so had to fight through the traffic. No exciting bargains were to be had and, sadly, the planned fish and chip lunch couldn’t happen as the van had shut up shop by the time we reached it, so we made a decision to go into Penzance instead. Excellent decision! We had a delicious lunch at The Dolphin then took a stroll along to the harbour. We saw our first real-life golden postbox. Cheese met a fish statue that frightened him and a large fisherman statue that didn’t. He tried to chase every seagull that he saw so was utterly exhausted by the time we got back to the car! Evening route march as per night before, but, as we hit the beach, we spotted Roxy and her mum again so the pups got to have another big run together. Soggy dog slept well again. Thursday: We had a quick stroll over the dunes, before heading into St Ives. To get to St Ives, we took the Park and Ride which involved a short train journey. Cheese was bored by the long wait in the queue, although perked up with the amount of fuss and attention that he got from fellow queuers. Once on the train, he lay down and snored! Totally underwhelmed! St Ives was busy and hot, but Cheese had a little paddle in the harbour whilst Mum and Pam had a look at an art exhibition. We walked along the front (more seagulls to chase!), bought the boy a skull and crossbones bandana so that he could morph into Pirate Pup, then found a spare table - with shaded space for a tired pup to snooze in - outside The Sloop Inn. One delicious lunch later and Mum and Pam decided to go for a helicopter ride around St Ives Bay! Cheese and I forced ourselves to sit and eat ice-cream and watch the seal playing in the harbour whilst we waited for them to return. The return train journey was rather nightmareish as the platform was already packed when we were told that the due train had been cancelled and the following train was planned to be heaving as it was the last connection train for people travelling out of Cornwall that day. We didn’t have much choice but to wait and take our chances anyway. Cheese, utterly stressed by all this, snored on my feet until the train arrived. We managed to grab some seats and, stressed again, Cheese sprawled across all of our feet to continue with the snoring! Once we got back to the campsite, I took Cheese off for a much needed - and well deserved - run and swim with lots of treats. Friday: Friday morning dawned ridiculously early again! Fortunately, we all managed to get back to sleep for a few more hours after Cheese’s early morning awakenings! At a more sensible time, the morning’s first trip to the dunes saw us bumping into the lady and collie from Monday, along with their new addition! Ruby is actually a golden retriever but she is the same colour as Cheese and seemed very happy and content with her new family already. I was really pleased that we’d got to see her. After breakfast, Cheese and I set off across the dunes and the nature reserve and up to Godrevy Cafe car park, where Mum and Pam picked us up before driving on to visit Seal Cove. Initially, it looked like there were no seals to be seen but we were eventually rewarded with a few sightings. Cheese was underwhelmed with this visit! He perked up once we headed back to the cafe for another cream tea though! We took a slow walk back to the caravan, whilst Mum and Pam headed into Hayle for a little while. We were both snoring when they got back!! The next few hours were taken up with taking down the awning and starting to pack things away ready for our departure the following morning. Cheese seemed to be quite happy to snooze in the sunshine whilst we got on with the work! A quick shower and change and we set off to The Old Quay House for late lunch/early dinner. Initially, we sat outside, but the breeze blowing across the estuary was a tad nippy and we moved indoors once the manageress kindly organised a table for us. Cheese darted under the table and was quickly upside down and snoring on the comfy carpet. He woke up when the food arrived and of course I didn’t notice when he was snuck bits of steak or chips! I left the table to fetch more drinks and Dollop made his way out from under the table and got tangled up in the spare chair’s legs so Mum and Pam had to sort him out with the assistance of the nice lady from the table beside us, who was surprised that there’d even been a dog there as he’d been so quiet. Back to the campsite and Mum decided to join us for our evening walk, so we went straight down to the beach. It was nice to have some extra company and Cheese found more dogs to run and play with, including 2 border terriers who succumbed to his favourite game of “Provoke the Terrier” and chased him whilst yapping as loudly as possible! Exhausted, and knowing that we had to be up early to pack the caravan up before heading home the following morning, we all had an early night. Saturday: Worried by the packing and moving around of stuff again, Cheese took to moving shoes and humping his duvet. Very useful behaviour! We only had time for a quick run on the dunes on our final morning and no swim, but it was soon time to get into the car and set off for home. However, it was a Bank Holiday weekend and the traffic was diabolical!! It took us over 3 hours to travel what should have taken less than an hour!! We took what should have been a quick toilet break, but the service station toilets were terrible and only one out of three toilets was working so the queue was huge and we were there far longer than intended. Back on the road. Pockets of bad traffic, but mostly easier, and we eventually stopped at Exeter Services for lunch. Cheese got to watch the Red Arrows fly over. Back on the road. Home! Puppydog was upside down and snoring on the rug until it was time for bed and he moved his snoring to the bedroom. Safe to say he enjoyed himself, I think.
Posted on: Sun, 24 Aug 2014 09:38:10 +0000
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