A Cornish adventure trip report 3/22 - 3/26 About This Page:

[JaimeandChad]

Love the pics. Can't wait for more!

[WDWJAMBA]

No wonder you love Eeyore, Cheryl! They're just precious!

I'm looking forward to Tintagel. I'm hoping you took a picture of the "footprint" for us to see. Are we in luck?

[Colexis Mom]

Those are the cutest donkeys ever More please

[Cam22]

Such a place for the donkeys!

[chezp]

Thursday 22 March – part three: the biggest donkeys you’ll ever see!

It was starting to rain very lightly, but I had one thing I still wanted to see – the large donkeys called Poitouthat a friend had told me about. We set off there and the walk wasn’t too bad. We passed the donkeys who’d just arrived at the sanctuary, who were in isolation for their first few days and then found the Poitou. They were beautiful and quite a sight, although they were all inside, so you couldn’t see them in their full glory. To see them out in the fields must be quite something, as they’re huge! They stand at 14 hands high and were once endangered, with numbers falling to an alarming low – something like 13 males and 7 females. They originate from France and were originally used for mule breeding.



There were ordinary donkeys nearby and they were definitely inquisitive!



Having seen everything I wanted to, we headed back to the car. This is a superb place to visit. I found it hard to believe that it was free to tour and free to park here. There are very few places that you can say that about and there is just so much to explore. The grounds are beautiful and are really big. We were there a good couple of hours and we certainly didn’t see everything.



The rest of the journey down to Cornwall probably took another hour and a half, most of it on motorway or dual carriageways. Some of the scenery we passed was stunning and it was quite something to drive through Bodmin Moor, quite a desolate area.



Soon we were heading for our final destination, but decided to stop at Bodmin first. Bodmin is the county town (equivalent of the state capital) of Cornwall and is home to Cornwall’s biggest parish church and was also where the Crown Jewels were kept during World War I. It’s a fair sized town and the setting sun made for some beautiful photos.



Next: a huge room, but tight parking!

[mattnkatsmum]

Your donkey photos are amazing. Thanks for sharing

I love the pictures of Bodmin. It looks very much the quintessential English town.

[simbarel]

My goodness, I've never seen so many donkeys, you must have been in heaven. Those poor blind donkeys I'm glad there's a sanctuary for them. I could never look at enough photos of the English countryside, looking forward to more!

[Colexis Mom]

Great pictures of the countryside and Bodmin Can't wait for more

[lauren-roxy]

Great start Cheryl and beautiful photos!! Can't wait for more!!

[WDWJAMBA]

I love the close ups of the donkeys! Their faces are so cute!

Interestingly enough, I looked at Bodmin Moor and thought it looked a lot like northeast Montana where I live!

[JaimeandChad]

How awesome are your pictures? They are wonderful. It makes me want to get my passport and come over for a visit. Maybe when DH is done with culinary school. Waiting for more ***sigh***

[chezp]

Thursday 22 March – part four: a huge room, but tight parking!

Then we drove the final four or five miles to Lostwithiel, where we’d be staying for the next two nights. When we got there, the first challenge for parking at the bed and breakfast. We were guided on by Heidi, who runs the place and boy was I glad that Mark was the one driving and not me. Let’s just say the parking is pretty tight!

Heidi explained how everything worked, in terms of booking your breakfast and where you could find various things and then she took us up to our room – my goodness, it was huge!


The view from our room


Bed and breakfast can be great value for money. We were spending £40 a night here and you get breakfast included. When I looked at the few hotels there were in the area (most accommodation in Cornwall is bed and breakfast or self catering holiday homes), they were charging about £50 per person per night with no breakfast included. You’ll also find that you learn a lot more about a place, as the people who run these places are very knowledgeable. One of the first things Heidi told us was all about the places to eat in the village. I’d already spotted one I liked from their website – the River Brasserie and she definitely recommended that place, so after we unpacked, we headed down into the village and I do mean down, as the bed and breakfast was on a pretty mean hill!

Lostwithiel was once the capital of Cornwall in the 13th century and its church and bridge still date from that era.

Walking around Lostwithiel is like stepping back in time about 100 years. The shops you see here are unlike those you usually in towns in this country. They’re all very specialist, things like antiques shops and retro shops. Walking past every shop window was delightful, as you never knew what wonderful things you’d see next.



We finally got to the River Brasserie and were seated immediately and went on to have one of the finest meals I’ve ever had. Only about two other tables were taken during our time there, which was such a shame, as it was a superb place to eat.

For starter, I had the red onion and Brie tart and it was divine, absolutely perfect, while Mark had the purple sprouting soup. We had to ask what that was and apparently the purple sprouting bit refers to a vegetable that grows in fields and is purple and is a bit similar to cauliflower or broccoli.



For main course, I had the seafood compote, which was packed with scallops, prawns, salmon and red mullet, a fish I’ve never been much of a fan of before, but that’s obviously because it hasn’t been cooked properly, because this stuff was melt in the mouth. Mark went for the slow cooked lamb for his main course. The beauty about this place was that you could choose either small or large portions for a lot of the food, so you could pick what you had as your starter and what you had as your main course, an approach I really liked. It’s a shame more places don’t do that.



Once we finished those two courses, we couldn’t manage anything else, so we got the bill, which came to £56 (about $100) for the two of us, including a bottle of White Zinfandel shared between us. This really was a first class meal and got our holiday off to a great start.

Then it was back up to the bed and breakfast, up that hill, which wasn’t too bad, and straight to bed. It had already been a very long day with lots of travelling and we’d have another busy day tomorrow.

The weather today was in the low 50’s with snow and sleet around London, but cloudy and some sun later in the day.
The best thing today was was the Donkey Sanctuary.
The worst thing today was the weather driving down.
The funniest thing today was the donkeys chasing each other.
Today we tried the River Brasserie
And the result was it was one of the best meals we’ve ever had.
The most magical moment today was seeing the donkeys for the first time at the Donkey Sanctuary.

Next: a tight squeeze

[mattnkatsmum]

Oooh, that food looks yummy. And your B&B looks great! I must admit I've got into the habit of staying in posh hotels, but I think it's a mistake. Nothing beats a good old English B&B.

I'm REALLY wanting to head back to Cornwall now.

[Colexis Mom]

What a great room at the B&B, with great views Your dinner looked delish

More please

[JaimeandChad]

What a wonderful trip report. You B & B looks wonderful.