Cornwall at it's very best

Old Runningfox cooling off by the sea

So, what else happened in Cornwall? In truth, not a lot. We were there to relax, to forget about the world and it's goings on, to cut ourselves off completely (particularly from World Cup football) and to enjoy all  that this beautiful bit of English countryside around Crantock has to offer. There wasn't even any phone reception on the campsite. A weather forecast on the day we arrived said that summer was about to begin in earnest with high temperatures and sunshine throughout the coming week, at least. Just for once, they were right. Hot sunny days were followed by cold, brilliantly starry nights that caused quite a bit of condensation in the tent.

Water lilies

We ran on every day bar one, sometimes twice and, in spite of hundreds of jellyfish, swam in pretty rough seas on a couple of occasions. It was coming up to full moon and some very high tides were roaring onto Cornwall's beaches and crashing onto the rocks. The surfing fraternity and body-boarders were having the time of their lives.

We indulged in Cornish fare, Cornish pasties for lunch, Cornish Cream teas mid afternoon, besides barbequed chicken, battered Whitebait, fresh herb salads straight from the garden and a fortifying rib-eye steak before our 10 mile race. Oh, and some beautiful bottles of wine to enrich our evening meals!

So much colour

There is so much colour in Cornwall, a rare quality of reflected light that enhances the whole landscape and blue shimmering seascapes. Hundreds of orchids adorned the Common where skylarks sang their hearts out from a clooudless sky. By the camp gate pads of bright water lilies floated on a pool alive with fish and nodding moorhens. We watched a female Kestrel regularly hunting, and catching, voles and mice in a newly mown field. 

The campsite we've patronised for the last six years was much busier than usual for the time of year. On occasions we've been the only ones there but this time it was more than half full over the nine days. Every other tent had a dog, all of which were suitably behaved, so it seems people can no longer afford to put their pets into kennels whilst they fly abroad and are opting for the cheaper alternative.

Holywell Bay

We'd booked for two weeks but sadly had to leave after nine days on learning of a death in the family. However, our departure was made easier by the weather breaking on our very last day. Just ten minutes after we'd packed away our big tent with all its accessories it rained! Until then we couldn't have ordered better weather.

We refer to it as our 'warm weather training camp'. Altogether this year, we clocked up 45 miles of delightful running including two sessions of 15x150m fast repetitions to sharpen up for the Lanhydrock 10 mile Trail race. It obviously paid off, as you'll have gathered from my previous post. Roll on next year's camp!