“It's all about the light,” said Richard Barnes, of Tehidy Holiday Park, the base for our stay in Cornwall. “It's a very blue light reflected off the sea and the beach. The countryside and the light draw in the artists and what appeals to them, appeals to the people.” Richard was explaining why Cornwall has such enduring appeal.
It had certainly appealed to me. Temperatures there seemed to be averaging 5-10 degrees cooler than the hot summer the capital was experiencing at the time of our visit, and any thoughts of getting away from it all by air had been thwarted by reports of cancelled flights to an even hotter mainland Europe.
The sensible thing to do, I reasoned to myself, was to head south-west and bask in the cooling effects of a place surrounded by sea. A call to our regular Top 100 Sites finalist secured a pitch and soon, we were driving unhindered along the A303 – where was the traffic? – past Stonehenge, and coming to rest at a pleasant café and farm shop in Devon.
It was roughly halfway, and an
