Cornwall: The Roseland Heritage Coast.

dogs - lots of dog friendly beaches | tide times | info

Checking the handbrake was properly on, I finished parking the van on a big slope overlooking a beautiful beach on the Roseland Heritage Coast. I always like to arrive at a park up in daylight to check it out and usually go off exploring and come back later but I’d just caught sundown and there was another motorhome there but no-one else. So Monty and I went to explore the golden beach and enjoy a big of rugged wild after the more pruned aesthetic of Mawnan and St Mawes.

The Roseland Heritage Coast was to be my last leg of my epic Cornish road trip and I have to admit I was ready to go home back to running hot water and a bed to myself (rather than sharing a small one with a huge Labrador). But as lay back and listened to the sea lap on the rocks outside the van I had such a sense of ‘what will be will be’. The plan was to just enjoy this corner of Cornwall for a while in the morning and then head along to wherever caught my eye en route to St Austell.

My first stop after leaving St Mawes was Pendower Beach where I just loved the expanse of sand and the little rock pools. There were some buildings by the beach including a cafe that had shut for the day but the residential buildings looked abandoned and a bit creepy!

On to the park up and watching the moon over the water while I truly relaxed for the eve (not an easy feat for someone with ADHD) was moment to remember and cherish. These are the moments that you built a van for. In the morning we walked on Pendower Beach again and then I regrouped, explored around my Maps screen a bit and decided to head to a little spot called Gorran Haven.

Fate had another idea for me that day. Turning a corner to be greeted by an impressive beach stretching out in front of the windscreen, I pulled into what I found out was Porthluney Bay. I grabbed the camera from the passenger seat and framed up an image through the open van window of a mother and a child digging in the sand. Breathing in the warm, sea air, I reviewed the image only to find I had just taken a photograph of Millie, a pal from a spell in wedding photography some years back. On an incredibly off the beaten track beach in a quiet part of Cornwall, nuts!

Once over the ‘this is SO weird!” exclamations (mainly me), I joined Millie and wife Jo as well as their two kids for a catch up and a tea in the sunshine and it turned out they were off to a sea shanty festival in lovely Mevagissey, a harbour town to the East of the Roseland Heritage Coast. We spent a delightful day in the warm sunshine singing along to sea shanties and browsing the indie shops as well as a non negotiable portion of amazing fish’n’chips. As the afternoon ticked on I spotted another familiar face among the crowd - a fellow co worker from Brighton who had moved to Cornwall during lockdown. It was like I was meant to finish my trip with beautiful souls after all the time with just me and Monty.

I planned to stay in St Austell that evening so I left the gorgeous faces at Mevagissey and headed to find a park up in the daylight but when I got to St Austell I wasn't feeling it and it a moment of quick decision making called my go to campsite in Dorset to see if they were open and if I could arrive at 10pm. It would serve as a perfect halfway point between Cornwall and home and meant I got my little slice of Dorset I’d been so missing these recent years. Not before I dropped in on the Poldark set town of Charlestown - I’m glad I did!

If I was to go to Cornwall again soon I would definitely make more of the Roseland Heritage Coast and explore places like St Antonys Head and there are some beaches that look gorgeous: Porthbean (including the hidden hut), Kiberick Cove, Portloe, Hemmick Beach and Dodman Point looks pretty enticing.

I felt so sad leaving Cornwall behind and while I had been driving round the entire coast for 10 days I felt I had only scratched the surface. As I took the road out and Dartmoor was signposted I vowed to get some dates int he diary to get back down to Kernow - but that hasn't happened yet in the interest of getting a few new places ticked off. The Cornish Road Trip rounding up all these posts will be coming very soon, sign up to the newsie to get news of it being published.

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