🇬🇧 Cornwall I – Wild Things

Cornwall Country

Our new stay took us into Cornwall, wow!!! Did we have some wonderful adventures!!! On our drive through the peaceful moor lands we kept our eyes out for deer. No deer just free roaming cattle, high hedges and beautiful moor views as far as the eye could see.

Oh and then we got a huge surprise, we came across some coos on the roadside. We thought we had seen the last of these beauties!!! They really are a mixture of beauty and beast. We just lov-em!!! They were grazing freely in the National Park just down the road literally from our next stay. If it wasn’t for the cattle grid we could have had then outside our front door.

Our new Airbnb was in a tiny village (blink and you would miss it) called Cardinham-Mount. We stayed in a 300 year old cute as a daisy cottage. We both fell in love with it. The pictures here show how cute and cosy it was. Just decorated to perfection with beautiful fox cushions, rugs and finishes, a toasty warm fireplace and so many special heritage features. Yes we could live like this forever!!!

Rob loved all the extra treats that were given to us by our host. We had yummy fruit mince pies with Cornwall Clotted Cream and Prosecco!!!

Now there was so much to see and do that by the end of our 5 night stay in Cornwall we felt like we needed a holiday. You really need a few weeks here to do all the wonderful coastal walks and see all the heritage gardens, National Trust Estates and quaint villages. Oh how we love the National Trust over here!!! Their shop is just full of beautiful craft items and wildlife artwork.

 

How we have loved the Wild Things!!

After doing a two and a half our drive to our accommodation in Cornwall where we unpacked, chatted to our host and then we embarked on another hour drive further south as we had booked a wildlife experience at, Feadon Farm Wildlife Center at Portreath.  We were the only ones out on a wind blown late afternoon. We were also overwhelmed at how great our guide was. Whilst our guide got organised I brushed up on my teaching skills. What early childhood teacher could resist a Gruffalo big book? The centre is used to educate children and adults about wildlife and how to protect the environment.

We got to met many orphaned animals that wouldn’t have survived if it wasn’t for the care at this centre. We got up close and personal with an array of British wildlife. There were baby squirrels, a shy door mouse, a hyperactive loveable weasel, scorpions that became fluorescent under a torch light, Britain’s tiny but ever so perfect bats which we watched fly around us, and Britain’s only poisonous snake the adder! Besides the pesky squirrel we had not seen any of these British animals in the wild.

The real show stopper came when we got to met 4 British foxes up close and personal. We got to hand feed them. Even though they are very shy, they ate from our hands. We were able pat them as we fed them. We got to observe how truly wild they are. We observed them always on the move, there eyes darting back and forward always on guard. Their bodies were sleek and low to the ground.

It is the only place in the UK where you can hand feed foxes. It was a truly special experience as one fox even gave us a kiss, not once but three times on the top of our nose.

If this experience wasn’t enough we got to fly the noble white ever so wonderful barn owl indoors. A real favourite for me!!

Our guide was full of passion as he was then eager to take us on a night walk out into the cold wet wind swept black night. We asked if we could sit in the warm badger hide, in hope of seeing badgers. It was the cosiest hide we had ever been in. It had video surveillance with infra red lightning which allowed us to look out without animals being able to see us through the glass. The smeared peanut butter on the glass window had already been eaten, which meant that the badger family of 5 had already visited for the night. We watched and waited for over an hour. Whilst waiting with anticipation we got to watch the previous nights footage where we saw foxes and badgers visit outside the hide. Our experience was meant to be 2 hours but our guide was so eager to share his knowledge we were with him for three and a half hours.

We were so impressed we visited again on another night. This time was once again another incredible wildlife adventure. I got to feed the miniature Pygmy goats. Then came the antics of two Aussie emus, one of which was in love with our guide as he had hand raised them. When our guide entered the emu enclosure one of the emus wouldn’t leave him alone. It would romantically rub up and down him and chase him around. We had never seen anything like it back at home with emus.

Rob then feed a big beautiful reindeer. After this came a real favourite for me. We got to go and fly the enormously beautiful European owl. Wow, wow, wow!!! This was a really spectacular experience even though we had done this three years ago. You can never get enough time with a huge owl!!!

Inside we got to see some more interesting mammals. The rats and mice had really cute tea cups to nest in. One of the small mice got out and we were all trying to catch it as it scampered back and forth across the room. It was cleverly coaxed into a small box!!! We loved observing the tiny field mice climbing like acrobats on thin wheat stems.

This time the python came out for a pat and we ended our experience with another kiss from the cunning trickster fox. Just a beauty to observe as they are always on guard.

On the way home on the dark moor we came face to face with free roaming horses grazing and strolling across the narrow lanes.

Our tiny town way dressed in festive cheer, which made it look like a charming movie set as we drove through it at night.

Rob needed a ginger wine to recover after the night lane driving! Our accommodation had ice cubes that looked like long straws. The fireplace was also relaxing after being out in the cool night air!