Flybe / July 2019

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48 / Flight Time / JULY 2019
Inspiration
Our evening stay was at Watergate
Bay near Newquay, a surfing hotspot
with a two-mile-long sandy beach. The
campsite manager told us about a great pub
a mile or so inland, The Travellers Rest at
Trevarrian ( ).
I’d recommend this friendly, family pub – it
was lovely inside and my dinner of hake fillet
with garlic and herb crumb and roasted new
potatoes was pub dining at its very best.
DAY 5: FALMOUTH – HELIGAN –
MEVAGISSEY – VERYAN – PORTLOE
I’d spotted there was a bakery in Falmouth
where you could pay £10 for a pasty-making
lesson and it included a pasty, too. Charlie
Choak the Cornish baker turned out to be
quite a character. He whisked us through a
pasty-making lesson with a brilliant mix of
confusion and hilarity and in between laughs,
we got to grips with crimping, which was
much fiddlier than I expected. It was worth it
an hour later when we were sat in the park,
smugly devouring our creations. A tenner
well spent!
In the afternoon, with the sun shining, we
drove to The Lost Gardens of Heligan (www.
near St Austell, which I really fell
in love with. We were lucky to visit when
carpets of bluebells surrounded the woodland
sculpture trail and we strolled down into the
Lost Valley, through the ‘Jungle’ with its rope
bridge and exotic, brightly-coloured plants
and flowers, and into the walled kitchen
gardens. A great family day out, Heligan also
has farm animals and some of the best ice
cream around.
Just a few miles away, Mevagissey was
another pleasant surprise and we wished we
had more time to spend there. After a walk
around the harbour walls, from which we
caught sight of seals bobbing in the sea, it
was time to check into a lovely campsite at
Veryan. After dinner chez campervan, we
walked to Portloe, a tiny fishing village that
boasted a 17th-century inn-turned-four-
star-hotel, The Lugger, and a traditional
pub, The Ship Inn. It was uphill on the walk
back but in the serene night, with the starry
sky to gaze at, it was almost as romantic
as the bus stop in Bude wasn’t. I couldn’t
believe I’d never been to this beautiful oasis
of the Cornish coast before, the Roseland
Peninsula, and definitely plan to go back.
DAY 5: DARTMOUTH – SOMERSET
On our last day we drove back up to Devon,
past Plymouth and on to Dartmouth for
lunch. The Seahorse (www.seahorserestaurant.
is Mitch Tonks’ restaurant on the
banks of the River Dart, known for its
exceptional seafood, and we had a special
meal here to mark the end of our trip.
The restaurant was full of life, and the
Mediterranean-inspired menu features
freshly-caught local fish. We tried whipped
salt cod with Italian bread, scallops, monkfish
carpaccio, whole lemon sole with capers and
pickled cucumber and moreish cuttlefish
fritti – and (the non-driver) topped it off
with ‘sgroppino’, an Italian palate cleanser
traditionally made from Prosecco, vodka and
lemon sorbet, which I vowed to recreate at
home. The Seahorse is perfect for a special
occasion, but they have a surprisingly-
reasonable ‘locals’ menu’ too, at just £20 for
three courses before 7pm.
F L I G H T D E TA I L S
Flybe has flights to Exeter from Alicante
(until 25th October), Amsterdam, Belfast
City, Bergerac, Dublin, Edinburgh, Faro
(until 26th October), Glasgow, Guernsey,
Jersey, London City, Málaga, Manchester,
Newcastle, Norwich (until 25th October),
Paris CDG, Palma Mallorca (until 26th
October) and Rennes.
Flybe has flights to Newquay from Belfast
City, Birmingham, Doncaster Sheffield
(until 14th September), Edinburgh,
Glasgow, Leeds Bradford, Liverpool,
London Heathrow, Manchester and
Newcastle. Flybe’s franchise partner
Stobart Air has flights to Newquay from
London Southend. Flybe’s franchise
partner Blue Islands has flights to
Newquay from Guernsey and Jersey.
There was just time to call in to see
friends in Somerset on our journey
home, in a lovely village pub called The
Bell in Broadway, near Ilminster (www.
, a hit for its delicious
pizza and yummy halloumi fries. And of
course, we’d learnt by now that there are
more important things about camping in a
cool-looking VW van than shamelessly using
it to try to impress our friends’ six-year-old
and two-year-old. Probably. We were very
impressed by our Rockin home on wheels –
now it’s just time to save up for our own…
Clockwise from
above: The
Seahorse Restaurant
in Dartmouth;
Mevagissey; The Lost
Gardens of Heligan
Below: Pasty man
Charlie Choak in
action