The Cornish winter

Living in a van in winter is not everyone’s cup of tea. We have had strong winds, rain, hail, freezing temperatures and bright cold sunny days. Eight weeks exploring Cornwall through December 2019 to January 2020 has been a blast. We have been wild camping on cliff tops, car parks and other random places. We can usually manage for 4 days and nights before we have to fill up with water, empty our facilities and charge up our leisure battery. We love wild camping, however at campsites we can enjoy a hot shower, full electrics for our fridge and heater and a washing machine, if we are lucky. Our budget means we would struggle in England with this lifestyle if we dont mix up our accommodation to have at least three free nights a week. Saying that we enjoy the sense of adventure and don’t feel we are doing without. When our fridge is full, we have fuel for Daphne and gas to use the oven, fridge and heater we feel rich, even though our income has been cut by a fifth to live this lifestyle.

One of the highlights of this lifestyle is getting out on our push bikes. Otto has learnt to sit in the basket on Janes bike so when he gets tired from running alongside he has a warm and cosy place to sit and watch the world go by.  In Cornwall an old disused railway track has been made into a cycle/walkway and it runs alongside the river Camel. It’s called the Camel trail and is 17 miles long from Padstow on the north west coast to Wenfordbridge on Bodmin moor   https://www.visitcornwall.com/things-to-do/cycling/north-coast/padstow/camel-trail. This felt like perfect trail for us.

We picked our days carefully as although Cornish winters are generally milder than most January can be tough in exposed areas. The Camel trail is traffic free and mostly flat gravel or tarmac so an easy ride.  Feeling a bit unfit we broke the trail up into three sections of around six miles each, working out that we also had to cycle back to our motorhome Daphne and so twelve miles there and back is plenty.  Having time to stop and enjoy the landscape, explore the river sights and the towns on the
way is part of the fun.

Bodmin moor has also been a favourite this winter with a mixed variety of landscape including grass, bog and moorland down to rivers and wildlife.

We have been lucky to have friends who are local to Cornwall who have been showing us some warm Cornish hospitality as well as family who live in nearby Somerset and have been able to come to stay.

We are finishing this blog on pictures of Cornish beaches. In winter they are hard to beat. Windy, wild and beautiful they range from sand dunes, tiny coves to small harbours and vast expanses of sandy beaches with a range of rock pools superb for exploring. Our pup Otto has been in his element and has loved every one of the beaches we have visited. Its definitely a dogs life. Although van life is not for everyone it's been a great upbringing for our tiny pup and he loves this life as much as we do.

We are looking forward to exploring North Devon. Stay safe and see you soon 🙂