We are back from our second little camping trip, all unpacked and a couple of loads of washing down. It was chucking down with rain this morning so everything very damp and needs drying out and we had our worse journey back from Cornwall ever. A trip that normally takes two hours at the most took four hours due to roadworks and two different incidents of broken down cars. However, all that aside we have had a lovely time.

Tuesday we spent washing clothes and towels from the last trip and repacking making sure we included beach stuff and swimsuits.  We got away just before 10 on Wednesday and had a leisurely drive down to our campsite knowing we wouldn't be able to get on our pitch till 1pm. We stayed on a site we haven't used before called Parbola. I only booked about 10 days before we went and finding a pitch with electric and a swimming pool, as requested by L, was quite a tall order. We like the area around Portreath and Porthtowan as it's not far from where we once lived and so we know the area well. This site was a few miles from Hayle and although rather tired and old fashioned suited us fine for our few days. Our pitch was in woodland and as a consequence was serviced by a very elderly shower block, whereas the two more open camping fields were near the swimming pool and a newer block. There was no bar or anything on the site which we prefer as it makes for quieter evenings. It did, however ,have a games room for children with various 2p machines etc where the girls spent every evening , and a swimming pool which they spent a couple of hours in each afternoon once we got back from our trips out.

Wednesday started drizzly so we packed up a picnic and decided to visit some National Trust gardens we hadn't been to before called Trengwainton Gardens. We spent a lovely couple of hours there, finishing off with drinks in the cafe. From there we went onto Helston for a walk around and a poke around a couple of charity shops.We then came back to the site and the swimming pool.

Thursday, we again packed up a picnic planning to spend the day on the beach. We made our way to Porthtowan and had a lovely coffee sat outside The Unicorn Inn, which was derelict until a couple of years ago, but is now a lovely beachside pub serving great food. The only problem was that it was a very windy day and when we got down on the beach the red flags were up which meant no swimming much to K's disppointment. We still spent a couple of hours pottering on the beach and having our picnic before again coming back to the swimming pool at camp.

We awoke this morning to torrential rain so it wasn't much fun packing up and we have a lot of stuff to wipe down and dry out but that is part and parcel of camping in the UK. We had a great few days and we are just trying to see if we can squeeze another 3 night trip in before we go the Lake District at the end of August.