Farnham-Polzeath-Portowan, England

It had been 10 months since Robin’s parents saw us off at the beginning of our trip, so it was an exciting reunion at the Farnham train station. We hopped into the parent’s rental car and set the SatNav on a route for Polzeath, Portowan and eventually Pipe Aston. Below is a zoomed in view of our full trip map. For reference, London would be in the top right corner (you can zoom out to see it).

So began our tour of the English countryside! We visited a number of Lee family friends, a handful of classic British pubs and chippies, ate Cornish pasties and scones with clotted cream, walked through small towns past ports and castles and ventured into many of country side greenways.

On the drive towards the coast, we made our way through the tiny hedge lined B roads towards Stonehenge. There they were, the legendary stones out in an open field wedged between the V of two main roads and nothing else around it except about a thousand tourists constantly circling it.

Once on the coast we met up with Robin’s cousins, one of which lives in Cornwall with his fiancé and her bunny (Bobby). They were fully stocked with wetsuits and surfboards so we ‘had a go’ at boogie boarding and surfing in the English waves. This area of coastline gets some big swells and one of the days we actually were turned away from the massive waves by a life guard who advised us not to go in “swim at your own risk, but we are not going to save you.”

So we had some pints instead and played some cards.