We have spent a couple of days on the beach. Warm, sunny days in the early 20s. With a breeze. When you can stay out all day. We drive about 8 miles to get there, listening to Harry Potter along the way, driving past the hay being cut and baled, through high country until the hills descend to the sea to Polzeath.
We have claimed a spot each day on some terraces build against a cliff. Clare doesn’t like sand. It’s a good spot – high so that you can see the beach and the sea and the headlands. On one headland you can see an old tin mine. On the next one around, a lighthouse.There are some slightly different beach customs here.
The ice-cream van on the beach, for instance. 
The garden fence custom
Lots and lots of games on the beach; beach cricket, kite flying, frisbee and of course sandcastles. 
On the first day John and the kids built Minas Tirith.
On the first day John and the kids built Minas Tirith. I hired wetsuits and surfing gear for the boys so that they could join the throngs of surfers in the sea. It’s safe swimming and surfing with a gently sloping beach. On the first day Robbie disappeared from view into the mass of surfers which was pretty freaky for me. When I spotted him again he was right out the back and had drifted near some rocks outside the surf flags. Horrors. He realised where he was and rode in on some swells. I saw a determined little person pushing his board over to the other side of the flags. He told me later that while out the back of the waves he had been chatting up a 21 year old girl and had a good talk to the lifeguards who were patrolling the area in their IRB. 
The next day Leo and Robbie both went out together, Leo with a boogie board, Robbie with a surfboard, swapping halfway through. They really enjoyed pootling about in the sea together. The Polzeath locals here body surf using what looks like a polished plywood board about snowboard size, curved up at the top edge. Very portable. They walk down the beach carrying these things, redoubtable older women wearing battered wetsuits who look like they swim every day of the year.
The next day Leo and Robbie both went out together, Leo with a boogie board, Robbie with a surfboard, swapping halfway through. They really enjoyed pootling about in the sea together. The Polzeath locals here body surf using what looks like a polished plywood board about snowboard size, curved up at the top edge. Very portable. They walk down the beach carrying these things, redoubtable older women wearing battered wetsuits who look like they swim every day of the year.
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