Day 1: Donkey sanctuary, Exeter and Perranporth

[Dollymixture]

Day one of our big road trip which will take us from Bristol down to Land’s End and then up North to John O’Groats.

We managed to leave around 9am by some miracle and our first stop was to drop Oreo the tortoise off at the pet sitters.
We popped to McDonald’s for breakfast before starting our journey from Bristol.

First stop was the Donkey Sanctuary in Sidmouth.
Lila, our youngest and throughly animal mad daughter, has an ‘adopted’ donkey called Cocoa, and she was desperate to see him.

We arrived at The donkey sanctuary at 11.30am and it really is lovely and totally free to enter! There’s a decent walk you can do through the different paddocks and round the grounds, all dog friendly. There is even a maze, but we didn’t do this.

We found out that Cocoa was in paddock 1 and Lila immediately spotted him as he had his name necklace on! He was just as cute as his picture and it made Lila’s day getting to see him.

We spent a a bit more time petting the donkeys and letting the dogs stretch their legs, before jumping back in the car to continue on to Exeter.

Exeter was only 40 minutes drive further and is somewhere none of us have even been, so definitely work a stop.
We managed to park easily right in the center and took a walk up Fore street to the cathedral.
We admired the stunning architecture from the outside then myself and the four kids went inside and Koolie sat out in the shade with the dogs.

The Cathedral cost £5 for adults to enter; which I paid, but the kids were free. It is beautiful inside and it was nice to see Amber spending time appreciating the stonework and stained glass from an art perspective.

Lila wanted to write a prayer request, which she did and pinned it on the board. Both girls wrote message of hope on leaves and hung them on the tree of hope, which I thought was a lovely idea.

After this we grabbed some lunch in a local bakery - just the usual sandwiches and pasties. My husband pointed out a banana pastie to me and the lady serving us raves about how amazing it is; so i bought one to try - big mistake! So gross! Haha!

We walked back down Fore Street after lunch as we wanted to see ‘The House that Moved’ - it was a lovely building but had scaffolding up so not the best time to see it properly. We then took a walk up step cote hill, which is really pretty.

Back in the car then and next stop Haven Perran Sands. It took just under two hours and we were lucky with the traffic. Check in was easy, even though we were much later than our time allocated. The van is nice, clean and well equipped.

We left the kids to rest while we popped to Perranporth for supplies for breakfast and drinks for the van.
There is not much choice in Perranporth, and we opted for one of the tiny coops where you have to pay for parking £2 for an hour and join a long queue to get in!
Eventually we were allowed in the tiny store and managed to pick up enough for a cooked breakfast in the morning and some drinks for the fridges.
We had half an hour parking left so thought we could go quickly get some takeaway to bring back to the kids. This turned into a
nightmare, with every takeaway having enormous queues outside! One we joined for fish and chips closed just as we were about to go in! The time on our parking ticket was running out so we ended up giving up on Perran porth and driving to Newquay instead.
This turned out well - not only did we find free parking, we also found a Chinese with little a short queue.
So food ordered and collected, we drove back to the caravan to feed the masses.
It was a really good Chinese takeaway and we all enjoyed it.

By now it was 9pm so we decided to take a stroll over the sand dunes and see if we could find a nice view or somewhere to watch the sunset.
We really weren’t disappointed - the dunes were well worth scrabbling over and we were met with the most stunning views over Holywell bay and Perran Sands beach. The sun was just about to set and the colours in the sky and reflected in the see were amazing.

So a very enjoyable and very tiring day! Highlights were the views and sunset this evening.
Low points were Perranporth; nightmare to park and ridiculous queues to get food anywhere, although I expect this is due to everything at Haven being closed most of the time due to Covid.
The sunset and the beautiful weather more than made up for it though! It’s going to be an exciting but exhausting trip for sure.

[margyloveswdw]

Wow what a beautiful sunset! Great first day with lots done.

[enjibenji]

Great first day and weather looks lovely 😍

[P&S]

What a lovely sunset and the donkey sanctuary looked like a great place

[mitch84]

Ahh what a lovely day

[StorybookCircus]

Thank you for sharing photos of the Donkey Sanctuary- my MIL is in the process of adopting a pair of donkeys from them, I can’t believe they have a herd of 700! Cocoa and the others look really well cared for. I’m glad you all had such a lovely time ❤️

[Bootrip2]

Lovely to see a trip report. We havent been to Donkey sanctuary at Sidmouth, DD used to go to the Ivybtidge sanctuary. Reminds me to adopt another donkey! We have had several over the years!

Hope you have a lively time on your roadtrip adventure. X

[Scotty]

We used to go to Perranporth when I was a child, loved it, many happy memories. I don't remember stunning sunsets like that though.

[cornishfrogboy]

A great start and I am looking forward to updates.

There are places to park for free in Perranporth, but back from the Sea, by the Rugby Club.

[Dollymixture]

We were surprised too at how many were there! They are very clearly loved and well looked after and it was lovely to see where our little monthly donation goes to! It’s well worth a visit , plenty to do and also a lovely big cafe!

Originally Posted by StorybookCircus

Thank you for sharing photos of the Donkey Sanctuary- my MIL is in the process of adopting a pair of donkeys from them, I can’t believe they have a herd of 700! Cocoa and the others look really well cared for. I’m glad you all had such a lovely time ❤️

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