The Most Beautiful Place | Cornwall Day 3.

If you follow me on Snapchat (@lilyoliviablog) you might be aware that as I walked over the most stunning coastal path with gorgeous sunshine and sparkling ocean on Monday I was unable to capture any of it due to leaving my SD card in the hotel room. Yep, what an idiot I am. I can barely express how genuinely frustrated I was as I lugged my hefty DSLR along, knowing that I was unable to photograph any of the picturesque scenery. And in all honesty I didn't think I'd have a blog post at all from that day as we wouldn't be returning to the hotel until late afternoon. Oh how wrong I was, as I think this is probably my longest Cornwall post to date!

Around 6.30pm as the sun began to set, casting golden light everywhere we headed out to St Mawes for dinner. However along the way we made a stop off at one of my all time favourite places: the St Just churchyard. Now I'm aware that graveyards aren't really what comes to mind when most of us think of our favourite places, however if you've ever been here, you'll know what I'm talking about. Because this churchyard is beyond beautiful. 

ST JUST CHURCHYARD

Nestled along the banks of an estuary, as the river meets the sea, is a small haven of lush green plant life and serene pathways, winding their way up along the hillside and through the trees. In the golden light of sunset, everything is basked in an ethereal glow, warming the greens and illuminating the faded writing on the many gravestones that reside here. But the one thing that always resonates with me when I come here, is how tranquil everything is. You hardly ever see other people, the only noises being the wind gently rushing through the trees and the rippling of soft waves along the shoreline. It's like a secret garden, one that I would happily spend hours in. 

Whenever we come down to Cornwall - around once a year or so - we always make a beeline for this place. It never gets old, there's just something so lovely about coming somewhere so calm. If you're ever in the Falmouth / St Mawes area I would highly, highly recommend a trip here. It's completely free and I can honestly say, hand on heart, that it's up there with my absolute, all time favourite places. 

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DINNER AND SUNSET IN ST MAWES 

I briefly mentioned the small seaside town of St Mawes in my last post as the place in which we usually stay when we come down to Cornwall. In some ways, much like The Lake District, it's a home away from home as I've lost count of just how many times we've made the seven hour trek down to the south coast. And for me, St Mawes is just the epitome of Cornish coastal town. Everything faces onto the sea front and the constantly changing tide is a repetitive pattern that never changes. 

We headed down on the Monday for dinner at a lovely restaurant called The Watchhouse. (Would highly recommend, V good fish and chips) But as we were a tad early for our eight o'clock booking we decided to meander our way along the sea front and take a few photos of the setting sun. 

I'm running out of adjectives to describe just how beautiful it was here. The combination of the setting sun, the golden hour and watching people wander along the beach, paddling in the water (which was bloody freezing but then again this is England, we can't have everything) made for a lovely, relaxing evening. 

AND THEN THE SUN SET...

As we sat, gorging ourselves on fish and chips we looked out through open windows onto the bay, watching the sun finally dip beneath the horizon, casting a faint pinkish glow onto the water. As the light died the stars came out, and with no light pollution to hinder them, it was honestly one of the most stunning sights. I'm not joking when I say that one day I want to lie in a perfectly silent field and look at the stars. 

Unfortunately I don't have a great zoom lens otherwise I would have captured them for you, but take my word for it, there is nothing that makes you feel smaller or more insignificant that looking out into our vast universe.

I hope you enjoyed today's post, it is probably one of my all time favourites!

Portscatho In Pictures | Cornwall Day 2.

Aren't photos just so much easier to take when the sun is shining?! Alas today was not one of those days as we were utterly plagued by heavy cloud and the occasional rain shower that had me hiding my camera under my waterproofs. However as we dodged the rainfall we did manage to make it to the beautiful village of Portscatho for a little explore before heading out to a 'fancy barbecue' - more on that later. 

But isn't there just something so pretty about little Cornish fishing villages? Luckily, as we're staying on the coast it wasn't that far of a walk - maybe a couple of miles - before we arrived. As I've already mentioned, the weather wasn't really on our side however it was still fairly warm and we made it onto the beach to catch a couple of rays and look on in horror at the people swimming. 

We then headed up into the actual village and had a wander around the winding, twisty streets. As it's build onto a cliff there was a lot of climbing and narrow roads which to be honest made the whole thing way more picturesque. It's not like a town or housing estate like where I'm from where everything is regimented and pretty much in grid formation, it feels more like it's been there since the dawn of time, like an extension of nature itself. 

After a morning working off another huge breakfast, we returned to the hotel to get ready for a late lunch. This was something I was super excited about as we would be heading into St Mawes, another costal village, to experience the delectable Sunday barbecue at Hotel Tresanton. My family tends to visit Cornwall around once a year and usually we stay at this hotel however unfortunately we left booking too late and it was completely filled up. But they still had places going at their weekly lunch event so we booked ourselves in ready to indulge in more food. 

Now might be a good time to point out that my whole family is vegetarian so usually barbecues aren't really our thing (way to much meat!) but we've been to this one once before and can vouch that they do a whole host of amazing salads and fish dishes (if you eat fish of course) which more than make up for the abundance of meat. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get any photos of the food, but it was utterly gorgeous and since it was buffet style... Well I reckon I had about four courses?! 

Sorry this post was so picture-heavy! I hope you're enjoying my Cornwall daily blogs so far and if you're not following me on snapchat, I'm vlogging the trip too over @lilyoliviablog! 

Take A Look Closer To Home | Cornwall Day 1.

In a world of Instagram where gorgeous images of glamorous places are a mere click away, it's oh so easy to get caught up with wanderlust. The desire to see the far flung corners of the world encompasses us all even though sometimes beautiful locations are right around the corner... Well, a seven hour car journey but still. 

Over this glorious bank holiday weekend (Can I get an Amen?!) my family and I have driven down to Cornwall on the south west coast of the UK. Coming from someone who lives about as far away from the sea as it's possible to get in England I was certainly looking forward to a few days of relaxing in the countryside. The journey itself was pretty nightmarish - we'd predicted around five and a half hours of travelling - however it soon turned into seven and by the time we arrived, everyone was ready for some food and a good lie down. 

By this point everything was going swimmingly: the restaurant was lovely, the food fantastic and the company second to none. However around about nine of clockish I started to feel really unwell. I'm not sure whether it was something I'd eaten or just because I'd gorged myself on a lot of rich food, but I just didn't feel good. So I ended up going back to the room and having an early night. 

Thankfully by morning I felt a lot better and we headed on down to breakfast ready to sample my personal fave meal of the day. And thank god I did because they had avocado toast and poached egg on the menu. Sign. Me. Up! 

After a lengthy breakfast we donned our hiking boots ready to set out and conquer the coast line. Now if you follow me on snapchat (I'm vlogging @lilyoliviablog add me!) you'll know that I was dressed totally inappropriately in black leggings and a jumper (image above) even though it was disgustingly hot. I'm serious, there were people in bikinis swimming on the beach! 

However all complaining aside the Cornish coast is beautiful. It's crazy to thing we haul ourselves on thirteen hour flights, across oceans and continents, when some of the most beautiful scenery is right on our doorsteps.

After completing our walk we headed back to the hotel feeling very much in need of a cold drink and a cool shower. Thankfully the temperatures began to cool and we got dressed up to go meet some of my parents friends for dinner who happen to live in Falmouth. Unlike last nights crazy fancy meal, we had a simpler gastro-pub style evening coupled with copious glasses of wine. Seriously, I'm writing this at 11pm and frankly I'm not one hundred percent sure it'll all make sense come morning!! 

All in all we had a lovely first day here in Cornwall and I can't wait to bring you guys along with me on some more of our adventures whilst we're here, exploring the south coast!