Thursday 8th July – We were due to continue the journey West, but the continuing grim weather (still very windy but not raining) made us reconsider, and decide to stay at Treveor for another night. We booked a few nights at a campsite near St Just, down by Land’s End for our next stop.

Wednesday 7th July – We awoke to grey cloudy skies, completely different to the previous two days. We headed off to the Eden Project, just the other side of St Austell. The traffic through St Austell is grim, which didn’t bode well. Strangely though, the traffic eased as we got closer to Eden, so it must just be St Austell that has traffic problems.

We parked the van in the camper section (coincidentally, next to the same German vehicle we had parked next to at Heligan!) and got on the Park and Ride bus to the actual project entrance, marvelling at the architecture of the “biomes” as we got closer. As we joined the queue, it started to rain, but the queue moved fairly quickly so we didn’t get too wet.

We headed for the “Temperate Biome” and found it to be very crowded, to the point where all the visitors were shuffling along in a sheep-like manner. The plants and information weren’t as interesting as those at Heligan and we emerged a little disappointed. By this point it was 2pm, so we went to get lunch. The system in the main restaurant is pretty chaotic, especially when it’s raining outside and the site is busy. You have to first find an empty table, then order your food and wait for a waitress to bring it to your table. Sadly, when the outside tables are out of action due to the rain, there aren’t enough tables of the number of customers, so people end up wandering round looking for somewhere to sit.

After a slow, but good lunch, we went over to the other biome, dedicated to Tropical plants. This was more interesting that the Temperate area, with a wider variety of more interesting plants. The biome is kept very humid, and again was very busy. The humidity is maintained using rain water which falls on the biomes, and on the day we were there, there was plenty of it!

Following that, we started looking round the outside areas but the continuing foul weather forced us to catch the landtrain (tractor with some coaches) back to the entrance and shop. The weather didn’t help but we were a bit disappointed with the whole Eden Project, having found Heligan more interesting and better value for money. Maybe we’re spoiled having seen coffee, cocoa, spices and tropical fruit growing in their natural habitat while on previous holidays.

The weather didn’t let up when we got back to the campsite, in fact there was a severe weather warning issued for the South West of England. As we huddled in the van the wind grew stronger and the rain fell heavier. We had to wring out the Jeyes cloths soaking up the leak by the skylight. As the van rocked in the wind, we battened down the hatches and turned in for a rocking, windy night.

Tuesday 6th July. Another blindingly sunny day. We decided to visit The Lost Gardens of Heligan which are only a few miles from Treveor.

The gardens at Heligan were re-discovered in 1990, having fallen into disrepair after many of the workers were killed during the First World War. The restoration is an ongoing process but the excellent guidebook and information points give a huge amount of detail of the state of the various parts of the garden when re-discovered, their history and the current growing plans.

We spent many hours wandering the gardens, visiting the Jungle area, as well as the main Northern Gardens. The house at Heligan is now privately owned (and has been split into multiple apartments) so cannot be visited, but there’s more than enough to see in the grounds. Very definitely worth a visit.

The day had remained beautifully sunny, and we both caught a bit of sun, though a liberal coating of sunscreen earlier in the day had prevented burning.

On the way back to the site we took a detour to a nearby beach, parking at a car park at the top of the hill and walking down the steep slope to Hammick Beach. The beach is very quiet, being a bit out of the way, but is completely unspoilt.

Another barbecue under a clear sky and we headed for bed.

Monday 5th July – Time to move on again, down towards St Austell this time. We found a couple of possible sites , one right next to the Lost Gardens of Heligan and another (much cheaper) at Treveor a few miles away. En route we decided to visit the house and gardens at Lanhydrock, a National Trust property. The weather had improved immensely, with bright sun and cloudless skies. On arrival we discovered that the house is closed on Mondays, but spent some time looking round the gardens and grounds, including the parish church which is next to the house.

We ended up at the cheaper site at Treveor, a bit more exposed, but given the improved weather, that wasn’t an issue. We had a great barbecue that evening and settled in for the night.

Sunday 4th July – Close to Looe is a Monkey Sanctuary. It is home to thirteen Woolly Monkeys, some which were bred at the sanctuary and some which were rescued. The sanctuary is now also home to several Capuchin monkeys, all of which have been rescued. The Woolly Monkeys have a series of interconnected enclosures which they are free to wander between.

The Sanctuary has recently stopped its breeding programme as there is no longer any viable mechanism to release the Woolly Monkeys back to their natural habitat in the Amazon rainforest.

The monkeys seem to be happy in their social group and despite the damp weather were up and about keeping an eye on the visitors.

Saturday 3rd July – Up early and spent a few hours rearranging our gear in the van. There’s a lot of stuff that we won’t be using much, if at all, on the rest of journey, for example the tents, sleeping mats and additional camp stools. Putting those to the front or back of the hightop in the van means that the everyday items will be more readily accessible.

With all that sorted we drove down to Polperro to see what it was like. We really enjoyed it, though again it’s obviously aimed at tourists. The place was really pretty, set in a natural harbour with steep hills on either side. Once the coach parties had left by 4pm, the town became much quieter and more relaxed. The shops were more interesting than most of the ones in Looe, and we found a couple of good pubs. The Old Mill House Inn was the venue for our evening meal and we can thoroughly recommend it (good food and friendly owner).

One downside of living in the campervan is that I can’t really have an alcoholic drink if we go anywhere beyond walking distance from the campsite as I’m the only one who can drive. It doesn’t bother me that much but sometimes it’s really annoying to find a great real ale pub only to have to order a glass of coke. Still, I’m not a big drinker and the freedom the van brings more than makes up for a few ales. We’ll just have to find more camp sites within walking distance of real ale pubs.

Friday 2nd July – The next leap forward. Onwards and Westwards! The weather hadn’t improved and consisted mostly of bands of heavy rain and cloud with the occasional burst of sunshine. We decided to push on down to the Trelay Farmpark near Looe in Cornwall. That meant a 3 hour drive through intermittent torrential rain with visibility sometimes down to tens of feet. Very scary in places, but we managed it fine and the van handled the steep climb up some of the hills without too many complaints. The site is another good one. Not too busy, a few miles from both Looe and Polperro, excellent toilet block and friendly owners.

We popped into Looe on the way to the site, but found it very touristy and a bit run down. On reaching the site we set up a disposable barbecue and cooked up a fine meal of sausages and burgers. (Washed down with orange juice to keep the vitamin C coming in!)

Thursday 1st July – More rain. Drove down to Seatown near Bridport to get a meal and enjoy the views at The Anchor pub. The meal was okay, and the views were great, apart from the continuing rain. To be fair, it did ease off a bit later on and we had a quick cliff-top walk to blow the cobwebs away.

Wednesday 30th June – The first day of our post-Glasto travels. We had decided some time before that after Glastonbury we would head down to the South-West, through Devon and Cornwall, before turning back and heading towards Scotland.

Our first step was to drive down to Bridport in Dorset, were we booked two nights at Bingham’s Caravan and Campsite. A very well-run site with superb facilities (including individual shower rooms).

We had a look round Bridport, enjoying a meal in The Ropemakers pub as once more Tim Henman got knocked out of Wimbledon.

Tuesday 29th June – A day to consolidate in the van. We went and got a couple of new tyres for the van (the spare was looking iffy too), and some new hose for the gas stove. We also worked out why we couldn’t get the cooker to light and sorted that out. Provisions were gathered, we made sure that we were signed-off from our benefit claims as of the previous week and we rested and planned.

Vic started to come down with a cold, probably a result of the damp conditions and lack of proper nutrition at Glastonbury. Bacon sandwiches, and sausages in rolls are great for warming you up but don’t give your immune system much help.

Chatted to a couple who had sold their home after retiring and now lived in a 30 foot long Winnebago, travelling round the country and between their children in Chester and Brighton. They seemed very happy with the life (the husband had been a lorry driver before retirement, so handling the Winnebago wasn’t much of a challenge for him.