Our
South Wales members all had a group picture underneath the famous sign as you
can see here.All pictures are thumbnails, click on them to see full size.
This year's long weekend away was to Newquay in Cornwall. Nine cars went down with a total of 17 people from our area.
Several of our party were "first-timers" including John & Pauline, Darrell & Audrey, Robin & Andre and Phil & Glen, but the whole team soon got on like a house on fire.
Bob & Ros and Martyn made their own way down to Newquay and the rest of the group made way down in a small convoy. We had a small hold-up when we met some road-works South of Bristol but it didn't hold us up much. On the way down , we stopped in Taunton for lunch.
The Bay Hotel turned out to be excellent with fabulous views of Fistral Beach, Newquay. The waves looked excellent and the sea was almost always full of surfers.
I had a few minor complaints; something about the sea being too loud; I spoke to the hotel management, but they couldn't make it quieter, and Andrea didn't have anywhere to put her knickknacks in the bathroom, and why was it called a bathroom when it didn't even have a bath?!!
On Thursday evening my only worries were allayed when dinner was excellent and (almost) everyone's rooms were great.
The cabaret in the hotel's ballroom started out looking as though it would be a bit "naff" with Cornish jokes from Johnny Morse. He turned out to be very entertaining and extremely talented, playing about 8 different instruments during the evening. We learnt to do Cornish Aerobics and heard a side splitting joke about the Queen's Fox Hat (details on request).
On Friday 5th we all went to the lost gardens of Heligan. In fact, they were so lost that I couldn't even find them. I managed to get lost less than a mile from the gardens.
Robin impressed with his local knowledge having lived in Cornwall by pointing me towards our destination for a time until I realised he was using a Tom-Tom.
I managed to arrange a group entry discount but that was because they let us all in at Senior's rate! Not many of us actually qualified, but it did save us 50p each.
The gardens are lovely with lots of stuff to se and many pretty walks to do and after spending various amounts of time at the gardens, we all went out separate ways and met up for another excellent dinner at the hotel.
The cabaret this evening was pretty good with a vocalist/guitarist but the evening was rather spoilt by a rowdy crowd from Cheltenham who were intent on getting tanked up and making as much noise as possible. Anyway, we all gravitated to the hotel lounge with excellent views of the bay for drinks and chat.
Mike and Sally-Anne Bennet, the Cornwall area coordinators arranged for the local members to meet up with us for a run.
We were amazed when we grouped up to a total of 24 cars.
The drive to Lands End was great in spite of some heavy showers on the way there.
Our
South Wales members all had a group picture underneath the famous sign as you
can see here.
On our way back from Lands End, Mike and Sally-Anne had arranged for us to call in for an excellent cream tea. Those of us who'd had a larger than necessary lunch had to force the cakes down.
After our lovely run with the Cornish members, we drove straight back to the hotel where fourteen of them joined us for dinner.
The hotel had promised me all along that they would lay on some entertainment for this evening but they hadn't done it. They managed to put together some sort of quiz and some music, but as it turned out, nobody from our party even went into the ballroom (apart from going to the bar), so I was glad they had forgotten the entertainment.
The evening was spent chatting and drinking and drinking and drinking (my bar bill was quiet a shock on Sunday morning!!).
For a higher resolution version (800kB), click here.
We'd all like to express our huge thanks to Mike, Sally-Anne and all the local members for making us feel so welcome and arranging such a great day out.
Beautiful scenery, great food and above all, great company.
Thanks to Ros, Martyn and Robin.
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"What a great time we had! Many thanks to Mike and Michelle for all the organisation, and also to the Cornish Fives who led us to Land's End and back."
"Yes it was indeed a great weekend. Thanks to everyone for the superb company. Time to start saving again !!"
"Many thanks for a brilliant, long weekend in Cornwall"
See what you missed?!!
Hi Ho Silver
