Newquay base

Thur 30 Mar

Left Bath to drive to Newquay via Port Isaac - thought this would break up the 3 hour trip. Found a little parking area above the Port Isaac township and walked down the steep pathways to to main town and harbour area.

Port Isaac a.k.a. Port Wenn at low tide

For those in the know, Port Isaac is where they film Doc Martin and they call the town Port Wenn. A section of one of the streets was temporarily blocked as they were recording at that time. We only saw Ian McNiece (Bert Large) and John Marquez (PC Joe Penhale) as well as all the crew. They were recording a scene in the street and all the onlookers (us) had to keep quiet and out of the way as they did a take. We had a lunch in one of the cafés there before climbing up the steep pathway back to the car. I think Stephanie posted something on Instagram- stephatkingscliff.

Outside Doc Martin's house

Steph watching a scene

Drove on to Newquay and the Griffin Inn. We checked into our room then headed out for a look around the town and to check out the surf. This is a surfing town with lots of shops hiring out gear - boards, wetsuits, gloves, booties, headgear - all in thick neoprene. Not very encouraging. The shops not hiring out surf gear are selling pasties - lots of varieties, including "famous", "award-winning" and "world's best". Yes, we did try some. Burnt it off with 6.5km walking.

Pumping surf at Newquay

The same cove at high tide

"World's Best" pasties

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Fri 31 Mar
We explored Newquay further on for today, finding one of the coastal walks from the town, around the little harbour, then out to the headland and around to Fistral Beach. This is usually the best beach for surfing but over these few days it's been really blown out. On the sheltered side near the harbour, the surf is smaller than yesterday but there's still some locals heading out - they're crazy.
Found a little shop owned by a Kiwi girl and her husband who did a great salad box for our dinner - very tasty.

Overlooking Fistral Beach

Newquay harbour and sheltered surfing beach

Walked 10.6 km and 49 floors! according to the app. Must be all those steep paths.