Newquay, Ceredigion

Although, as far as I remember, this was my first trip to Newquay, the town itself was eerily familiar. I got my first glimpse of the bay from the caravan park, where we went to visit my cousin's mother and stepfather, who were there on holiday. These first two pics were taken from the decking surrounding their caravan. They were originally marred by ugly power lines, which I removed with Photoshop.





After a pleasant meal at a local pub, with my cousin's folks, we got a lift into Newquay itself, and that was when my sense of deja vu began.





It was when I got to this part of Newquay that the sense of having been there before really sank in. I had a vague memory of being taken on a trip to the seaside by some neighbours, to a place I thought was Pendine. I have always recalled that daytrip as having been to Pendine, yet the slipway I recalled heading up off the beach, towards a collection of bucket and spade shops, etc, was definitely the one facing me in Newquay. Even though it was more than thirty years ago, I can definitely recall racing up that slipway, to the hut-like building seen in the second of these next two pics [bottom right-hand corner].





My grumpy cousin wandered off to do his own thing, leaving me to snap away at leisure.





Although it was a pleasant enough place, and I could see the attraction it held for family holidays, it didn't really do too much for me. The main problem was one of sheer congestion. It's an old town, with very narrow, winding streets, and even narrower pavements. The sheer number of pedestrians made it impossible to stay on the pavement for very long. Yet the instant I stepped off the pavement to avoid colliding with people, I ended up in severe danger of colliding with the incessant stream of vehicles which made their way through town, some at shocking speeds, for such narrow, pedestrian-clogged streets.





The beach was equally congested, so there was no escape there.







I eventually made my way up this very steep street, past a few craft shops and shops selling the usual seaside tat.



I suddenly felt very homesick, when I came across a house bearing a familiar name, which you can see clearly in the close-up, in the second pic of this pair.





Although it was clearly now a residential dwelling, I wondered about the history of this next house. Judging by its size, and the sign inscribed on the wall, I guessed it must have once been the residence of a very affluent and important member of Newquay society.



Shortly afterwards, I decided to make my way back down to the quayside to look for Grumpy, who had left his mobile in his parents' caravan. I called into the Shell Shop on the way down, which despite its name, was a nice little new-age, craft shop type place, and not a garage. Given my cousin's atrocious driving, I was very tempted to buy a little bracelet in there, made from snowflake obsidian chips, which was meant to guarantee a safe journey, but upon seeing the queue at the cash desk, decided to leave it.



After a brief wander around the quayside again, I spotted Grumpy Geezer.







After downing a very welcome 99, we decided to return to his parents' caravan, to retrieve his phone and a few other bits and pieces, before travelling to our next destination, Llangrannog.