Little Winnick's Foodie top ten

We have had lots of friends visiting so have been enjoying Cornwall with them, which to be honest is a rare treat over the summer months.  We have been off enjoying breakfast at The Lewinnick Lodge- set on the edge of the cliff the stunning views are perfectly complimented with great food at reasonable prices.  There were thirteen of us and three babies so we opted for breakfast which was just lovely.  Most of the group had food envy for my waffles with bacon and maple syrup, whilst I looked on enviously at the hearty Cornish breakfast.  After we had eaten we headed on to Watergate Bay to enjoy the sun.  It was stunning as the tide was the furthest I have seen it out.

We also ventured over to Padstow.  The more energetic biked from here, whilst the more sensible biked from Wadebridge along the Camel Trail which is a brilliant way to get to Padstow.  We were rewarded with a pasty from the award winning Chough Bakery.  There are delicious with the addition of clotted cream making them extra special.  We then strolled around the pretty village taking in the lovely shops and in particular Rick Stein's small empire.  His cake shop is very good!  We then indulged in some Roskilly's ice cream.  I had cream tea flavour, which was divine and well worth every single calorie!

Finally we went for a stroll around The Lost Gardens of Heligan.  It is the best I have seen the vegetable patch and put my efforts to shame,  it was beautiful and despite the car park being full it didn't feel like it was full of people.  We were spoilt for choice at lunch with their delicious selection  - I opted for Marconi cheese which was a good choice.  Now it is back to work and back to the diet!

I have had a lot of people asking in reception about places to eat so I thought I would give you my top ten recommendations as we love food!

Little Winnick's Foodie top ten

1. Sam's on The Beach - Polkerris, PL24 2TL 01726 812255 - The funky, converted old life boat station has an amazing atmosphere, stunning views and food to match.  With fresh fish special and pizzas you will be spoilt for choice.  Book to avoid disappointment.
2. Lewinnick Lodge - Pentire Headland, Newquay, TR7 1QD 01637 878117 - A beautiful pub/restaurant offering food throughout the day, particuarly nice when the weather isn't great to be tucked up in the warm watching the rough sea.
3. The Kings Wood Bar & Restaurant, London Apprentice, PL26 7AP 01726 63780 - A lovely local restaurant, 2 miles up the road.  The food is good - great for a special occasion.
4. The Ship Inn - Pentewan, PL26 6BX 01726 842855 - A lovely proper Cornish pub serving local Ale and good home cooked food.  The pub is walking distance from the site along the cycle trail.
5. The Market Square, Mevagissey, PL26 6UD 01726 844422 - A small cafe offering quality food, freshly made to order.  The couple who run it are lovely and do fantastic breakfasts.
6. Austells - Beach Road, Carlyon Bay, St Austell, PL25 3PH 01726 813888 - St Autsell's only 2 Rosette restaurant Autsells is a foodies heaven.  We have been lucky enough to eat here a few times and the food is divine and worth every penny.  
7. Charlies Boat House - Charlestown Road, Charlestown, PL25 3NJ 01726 63322 - A small converted boat house in the heart of the picturesque Charlestown.  With great sharing platters and locally meat it is a great place to visit - especially if you like cocktails!  I had the steak the other day and it was delicious.
8. The Polgooth, Polgooth, PL26 7DA 01726 74089 - A really good, local Cornish pub, not to far away from Little Winnick.  The pub boasts home-cooked hearty meals and great ale too.  In the winter there are roaring fires to warm the cockles and great Sunday roasts too. 
9. Drift Wood Beach Bistro, Pentewan Sands, PL26 6BT 01726 844189 - Within walking distance this beach hut has stunning views out to sea.  Although part of the Pentewan Sands campsite non residents can visit the cafe and enjoy their great food and stunning views.
10. Alorada Portuguese Restaurant, East Quay, Mevagissey, PL26 6QQ 01726 842055 - A small family run restaurant, serving delicious Portuguese food, overlooking Mevagissery Harbour. 

Next week I will do our top ten walks

Bank Holiday Fun in the Sun

Well, despite it being a bank holiday it looks like the weather is not going to rain on our parade.  After a mixed day yesterday today it is bright with a slight breeze and tomorrow is set to get even better; which is fantastic news for our full camping field - and for our guests in the Rally Field.  On site we have the normal touring field but we are also very lucky to boast a Rally Field too.  The large field is a fantastic space for people to gather for celebrations, club events, reunions or just for a weekend away.  We already have a number of caravan and motor club rallies booked in for 2014, friends coming for a long weekend in the field, a possible football tournament and even interest in a wedding being held there.  If you would like to use the Rally Field please do get in contact with either Heidi or Richard who can discuss options with you.

As the bank holiday comes and goes we say goodbye to the summer season which has been just fantastic and welcome in our seven nights for the price of five which begins from Sunday 1st September.  That means over the coming weeks you could stay seven nights for as little as £40.  Please do give us a call or email us if you would like to make a booking with us.

September is a wonderful time to visit Cornwall, not only is it quieter but it is also often very warm too.  Dates to put in your diary include:

• 8th September - World Bellyboard Championships at St Agness
• 12th - 15th September - Heritage Open Days with free entry to
• Lanhydroch
• Gribbin Daymark
• Glendurgan
• Godolphin Garden
• Porthcurno Telegraph Museum
• East Pool Mine, to name but a few
• 14th September - St Ives September Fest, with exhibitions, poetry, walks and festivals
• 21st September - Roseland Fesitval - a community festival celebrating all local things.

New additions to Little Winnick

I know many of you have been following this blog since we started it back in the dim and dark months of the the winter.  I think it is fair to say we have experienced some pretty big highs and a couple of pretty big lows.  As you will have seen it has been a mammoth effort to get to where we are but last week we achieved what we thought was a long way off at the start of the season - we put out the full sign!  This is a huge achievement with all 90 pitches let the campsite was a hive activity.  You see taking over a campsite in January is not a great time to start marketing your new venture as all the camping books go to print late summer/early winter. So we literally have relied on word of mouth, pitchup.com,UKcampsites and our own website.  It was a lump in the throat moment seeing the sign full and knowing it has all been worth it.  So although I have said it before, thank you for helping us achieve our dream.

A busy site means we are busy people too.  Although Richard has spent seasons working at our other site, River Valley, this is my first season on a site - what an experience it has been!  We meet the most amazing people from all walks of lives who have interesting stories to tell about their adventures and travels.  At the moment we are working very long hours, along with Jessica, our one year old who LOVES meeting people.  She has perfected her royal wave and has a little frown when guests don't wave back at her!  She is on the verge of walking but we are hoping we can make it out of high season before she works it out as that could add a whole new dimension to having her at work with us! Between us we have had a variety of jobs - but this is by far the best one, of that you can be sure.

We now have 5 new additions to the site; Honeycombe, Vanilla, Strawberries, Chocolate and Lemon - they are the chicks!  Who are becoming little stars in their own right.  Sadly we have lost two of the big chickens, however we still have Shelia and Bernard - the proud parents of their five balls of fluff.  The chicks love bread if you have any going spare and they love seeing people.  They are so comical to watch as they dice under mum for shelter and warmth.  I am currently trying to persuade Richard they should come and live with us over the winter when the site shuts!

This weekend sees the very popular St Ewe Country Fair - although only a small near by village they put on a large family fair every year that is well worth a visit, with stalls, dogs show gun dog display, a  fair to name but a few - well worth a visit on Sunday.

Another must is enjoying the Mevagissey Male Voice Choir who perform ever Monday down in the village.  Their harmonic sea shanties gives you goose bumps.  While there why not enjoy fresh fish and chips.

Wonderful walks on your door step

Goodness me, we have had a wet 24 hrs, however I am very pleased to report the sun is out and it is looking bright and feeling warm.  Luckily the rain has drained away very quickly and left everything looking nice and refreshed now.  The outlook for the week is good too, so we are looking forward to a bit of a bright week now (fingers crossed!).  Which is brilliant news for the Charlestown Regatta and the Fowey Regatta.

I always think after a good dumping of rain is a good time to get put and go for a walk as everything is lovely and refreshed and looking at it's best.  There are so many brilliant walks in Cornwall it is hard to know where to begin but we we stumbled across one that strokes the edge of the site.  Why not start it from Little Winnick and enjoy a beautiful circular walk?  If you would like to explore a little more how about the Hall Walk - my all time favourite walk I have to confess; taking in a magical cove and the village of Polruan, with a river taxi back to Fowey at the end -  it is real adventure walk.  Or why not venture onto the North Coast with a circular walk from Rock.  The tiny village has become 'the' place to be seen in Cornwall with exceptionally high house prices.  The circular walk will let you enjoy some stunning houses.

As for our day off on Sunday; the rain stopped play so we didn't make our day out.  Instead we had our friends round for a big hearty breakfast and let Jessica play with her friends.  In doing so we got to eat whole heap of the Kittows Bacon I keep raving about that we sell in reception and eggs from the chickens we have outside reception.

Talking of chickens we have some news.  We recently acquired Joan to keep the others company, sadly both Joan and Doreen decided to sit on eggs and refused to eat, which is very common in bantams, so sadly they passed away.  However the very, very exciting news is that Shelia is proud Mum to 7 chicks.  We are keeping an eye to see how many are girls and how many are boys but so far mother and chicks are doing fine.  They are in a small run until they are big enough to walk the ladder up in the big pen.

Camping resets the body clock

I am not making it up, according to the BBC camping is good for you, so why not coming and reset your body clock!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23530408

a wall of ice cream

Many things happen in this job that make you have a smile, today it was the wall of ice cream boxes that I looked up to after processing a booking - 18 boxes to be precise, now I know I am short but I couldn't see over the top of them.  We stock the utterly delicious Callestick Farm Ice Cream, and despite my best efforts we sold out this week so I have ordered  a few extras to ensure that doesn't happen again.  I have also ordered in the weather to accompany the ice cream.  We also have daily bread, milk, and Kittows bacon, burgers and sausages. The smell of the bacon in the morning is so lovely!

I have to tell you we are pretty overwhelmed at the moment with the amount of bookings and people we have on site.  Obviously we had hoped we could make Little Winnick a success and had a few plans up our sleeves, but in our first season we never expected things to take off quite as they have, and to all of you who have come and stayed or who are coming, thank you, we really do appreciate your custom.  We are operating at all most capacity at the moment, which is fantastic and I can not put into words the atmosphere around the site.  It is heart warming to see how quickly children who have just arrived, make new friends and play together like they have known each other forever - nationality, language or age seems no barrier for children playing together.  The play park is being well used, and the box of toys, sports equipment and games field are proving hugely popular.

There is lots on in Cornwall in the coming days if you are coming to stay.  The Charlestown Regatta gets under way next week, with a children's sports evening on Tuesday and much more lined up.  If castles and knights are more your thing then head over to Pendennis Castle for Medieval Jousting on 7th - 8th August.  Or if your prefer admiring horses then why not pop along to the Tregony Heavy Horse show on the 11th August.  A particular treat coming up is the St Ewe Country Fair.  Despite being a very small village the Fair is a highlight of the local calendar and well worth a visit.

If you would like to have a care free holiday why not hire you bikes while staying from Pentewan Cycle Hire, they will deliver your bikes to Little Winnick so you can go off exploring.  Or how about walk the Coastal Path which you can access by walking to Pentewan - if your legs aren't up for walking back you could always walk a section of it and then hop on the bus back!

This weekend sees Richard and I have a well deserved (even if I say so myself) day off.  As our youngest staff member (our daughter) turns one on Saturday.  So despite making her work on her birthday we shall be  off on a family day somewhere on Sunday, our final destination is yet to be decided.