Coastal meanderings

After months and months passing without seeing the sea, it was time to rectify the situation with a few spring-time trips to the beach.

First, we headed down to Brighton for a night to catch a band in concert that Adrian really wanted to see and completely lucked out with the weather.  Adrian had cycled down, and I met him there after getting the train.  We visited the Brighton Pavilion which was quite incredible (George V's boy's weekend getaway palace basically) and walked down the pier and just enjoyed the sun.  We were staying right on the seafront too which was fun and made it really easy to get around.  Lunch on the Sunday was at a delicious restaurant called Food for Friends, a vegetarian place where the food was absolutely beautiful - and yum!

On the rollercoaster on Brighton Pier

 

Our second trip was to Cornwall for Easter, where we based ourselves at Holywell Bay, just south of Newquay, and spent five days exploring.  We covered a lot of ground, starting from Exeter, crossing Dartmoor, then visiting various towns including Polperro, St Ives, Fowey, Padstow (where we had Rick Stein's fish and chips - yum!) and right down to the bottom to Lands End, and then Lizard Point which was really beautiful - quite wild and untamed.

However, probably my favourite bit of Cornwall was the Eden Project.  It's basically a huge garden, half of which is under these huge biodomes, built on the site of an abandoned clay mine.  One of the biodomes is a tropical rainforest and the other is a Mediterranean garden.  I would definitely recommend clicking on the link to find out more - it was so cool!  We spent hours there, just in awe at what they'd made.  I loved it and would definitely recommend anyone to go if they're thinking of visiting that area.

And then the third of our coastal trips was to Guernsey and Sark.  I've wanted to go to Sark ever since I read about it here at the beginning of last year, and it absolutely didn't disappoint - I've never seen stars like it!  We were really lucky apparently, with Venus super bright, and then Saturn and Jupiter really yellow and red respectively.  The local astronomy society's president (the 'Star Fleet Commander'!) Annie was so welcoming, and spent an hour with us in her back garden explaning everything, and even pointing out the International Space Station going overhead.  

Sark itself is so neat - there are no cars allowed, so it's only bicycles and tractors, and the main street is tiny!  It's only about 4.5km from one end to the other, so we explored the whole island in one day, just cycling about and walking down to the sea at the edges.  We had beautiful weather, and really enjoyed camping under the stars after boogieing down at the Mermaid Disco - Sark's premiere night spot!  We also had delicious food, including some amazing croissants and a half lobster - so good.

Here's a really cool video showing the incredible stars :

 

Guernsey was also really interesting (you have to go to Guernsey to get to Sark via the ferry) and we were lucky enough to have friends there who we could stay with.  We walked through a beautiful bluebell wood, visited Victor Hugo's house, did a circumnavigation of the island to see all the bays, saw the Little Chapel and again, ate really good food!  (I'm sensing a theme here...).

All in all, I feel completely rejuvinated by our time at the sea - unfortunately it's yet to get warm enough to swim, but hopefully that's not too far away!

Click here for the rest of the photos...there are some good ones I promise!