Cornwall

So....we finally made it on the road. After a hectic two weeks of packing-up and disorganised moving we said an emotional goodbye to our home of four years. To all those people who had asked when we would actually realise that we were leaving our jobs and house for good the answer was definitely the morning we left, only then did it really register. We did a last circuit of Salisbury on our bikes, dropped off keys and jumped in the van to head to Cornwall.

The drive down to Gwithian took a good five hours and we both had the opportunity to get to appreciate the sheer speed that is possible in a fully loaded (more dinner sets than really was required) Fiat Ducato 1.9 TDI motorhome. After all those years of swearing at the caravans that had slowed us down on frantic weekend trips to the beach we took pleasure in the fact that we were now one of those arseholes who can only reach a max speed of 24 mph on steep hills on the A30. We didn’t care, we weren’t in a hurry; we had the sat nav to guide us and the friendly community of motorhomers to wave at as they passed in the opposite direction. The sat nav was particularly great on this occasion, Steve had usefully loaded it with every single point of interest he could think of so we knew when we were passing banks, supermarkets and of course most importantly gay bars, the fact that this slowed down the system so much that it kept crashing didn’t really matter especially as we’d put in the wrong postcode for the campsite.
After some interesting u-turns we finally got to the campsite and pitched-up. We watched the sun set over the water whilst enjoying a lukewarm beer, had a good meal at the local pub and then crashed out. Next day we met up with the other kiters who had come down for the competition and Nick and Pips arrived to enjoy the weekend. Unfortunately there was a total lack of wind and sun for the majority of the day so we spent most of it mooching around, drinking hot chocolate and sitting. Luckily in the evening the weather cleared and a reasonable breeze picked-up so we were able to get an evening land session in as the sun-set.

The next day the wind was a little more promising and as the tide went out the comp zone and kiters set-up. The freestyle buggy and landboard comp was run. There were few competitors with 8 kiters in total in the top-flight board and only two women competing. The 3 buggiers decided to do only a single best-trick heat and Craig Sparkes took the title. However, Hank was particularly good in the heat and definitely gave the most throughout the heat. The ladies competed with the men, which made for some interesting heats against Lewis, Joe and Diarmuid. The conditions weren’t great and low wind and soft sand made it a bit of a struggle. In the men’s competition it was a close call, however Lewis took the title in the end with Diarmuid second and Joe Hockley in third.

That night we had a bbq (fanned with a kite pump for more heat!) and a few more beers. A couple from across the campsite gave us 2 freshly caught mackerel in exchange for some salt. We stuck in some sliced lemon & taragon (a van full of household items can be useful) and stuck them in the bbq. Best fish supper of the trip so far.

The comp came to a close and many of the riders packed-up and headed home. However we stayed on an extra night and were treated to a clear sunny day with light wind. We made the most of the conditions on the Bluff, kitesurf spot number 1 on the trip, and managed to work on our upwind abilities. After a good session we said our goodbyes to Nick and Pips and made our way to Truro to take care of the final preparations before we sailed to France. We stayed at a campsite near Looe Bay for our final night in the UK; it had a beautiful view but was a bit on the desolate side with characters that wouldn’t have been out of place in Royston Vasey. Steve managed to innocently pick-up a couple of guys only ten minutes or so after stepping out of the van.