Boardmasters

Burgh Island, and 'the contraption' crossing over to the mainland.

The next festival keeps me on the South West Coast Path, but quite a way along it, Boardmasters being just outside Newquay.  A long way to ride even from Dorset, so instead I stop for a night at Bigbury-on-Sea, scene of many a happy childhood holiday.  Can't complain about £6 for a night's camping, and I get my fill of nostalgia by taking the hydraulic sea tractor - or, as it'll always be to me, 'the contraption' - over to Burgh Island (pronounced 'burr').  Lunch in the Pilchard Inn, then as the tide has gone out I can walk back to the mainland, pack up and ride to Newquay in time for the steward briefing, after which I manage to get to Porth for a beer or two.

Boardmasters camping filling up.  The wind turbine is where Oxfam were camped, yay.

Wednesday, and my shift handing out wristbands goes smoothly enough, nice to have some useful work to do at least, not that it is too busy this early in the week.  Finishing at 4pm means I can get into Newquay itself, which is pretty quiet midweek, still I have a few beers, a pasty, find some live music and even have a little dance.  It is a long walk back though.  More wristbands on Thursday, this time 4pm 'til midnight, so in the morning I wander down to Porth and along Trevelgue Head, interesting place, site of an Iron Age cliff castle apparently.  I get some cans from the nearby(ish) Tesco express before getting on with work.  Wow, there is an awful lot of booze getting confiscated from the teenage festival goers.  Really didn't need to buy any...

Some Cornish coastline, including Padstow lifeboat station.

Friday, and I have the day off, so believe it or not I go for a walk.  Bus to Padstow and then the Coast Path back to the festival site, really not far as the crow flies.  Seems the path is a bit flatter here, indeed quite often it is along the beach, but, it does really make an effort to follow the coastline, faithfully sticking to the line of every inlet and headline.  This makes for a very long walk back, and it is 8pm before I reach the festival, just in time for Everything Everything on the main stage.  They're pretty good, but the crowd is entirely made up of teenagers... I'm sure they're individually lovely, but en masse they are hard to take.  I retreat to the 'Land of Saints', where there is a pub!  The 'Keg and Pasty' has, well, beer and pasties, but also a stage with music more likely to appeal to grown ups.  Such as the entertaining Lounge Kittens... I also wander over to the nearby acoustic stage, where me and a small number of others brave freezing winds to watch the charming Laura Doggett.

Saturday, still no work so I wander the festival site a bit, check out a few bands (Mahalia, the Alibis) over the course of the day, but decide to get away from the teenagers for the evening and spend it in Newquay instead.  The crowds of hen and stag parties are as entertaining as ever... Then on Sunday I am back to work at 6pm, so, I have the day free, might as well do a bit of surfing.  Turns out I'm still not very good at it, but never mind.  Work passes swiftly enough, I variously shout at the drunken revellers though a megaphone, or gesticulate air hostess style while somebody else shouts.  All good fun.  As was this festival really, though I'm not sure I'd pay to come here, drunken teenagers have a limited appeal to be honest.  Anyway, back to Surrey for a rest - wow that is a long way to ride.

Cowabunga!

Photos to go with this post can be found here.