We recently spent a long weekend in Cornwall, staying at Cornish Tipi Holidays and finding delicious food to eat nearby.  Cornish Tipi Holidays is a magical site in North Cornwall (not far inland from Port Isaac) where you will find tipis dotted throughout a woodland valley, and at its heart a beautiful lake.

Our tipi was called ‘Overlake’ set in a woodland clearing high above the lake.  We were shown around the site by the welcoming warden, Oggy, before we unpacked the car and settled in.  At University my studies focused on the First Nations of Canada, and as such I have always had a love for their culture and history.  Whilst I primarily studied the North West Coastal nations of Canada, who built houses from cedar planks, it was pretty special to get the chance to stay in a Plains style tipi.

This isn’t ‘glamping‘, this is real camping just without the need to bring a tent, or much to Mr Rigg’s delight the cooking equipment – I tend to err on the side of caution and bring everything.  Roll mats are provided in the tipi, but we brought our fab stripey roll up mattress, a sheet, a duvet and pillows.  It must be said, I’m not a real camper.

The first night we headed out to a local pub for dinner (we had been hopeful to go and hear the Fisherman’s Friends sing in Port Isaac, but the traffic there was crazy).  We settled on the The St Kew Inn, which had been recommended in our tipi guide, and sat outside with a pint of prawns and mayonnaise, and then a mega plate of fish and chips.

This was seriously good food, although we’d eaten far too much the previous twenty-four hours and were so quite stuffed and couldn’t finish everything.  The prawns were still in their shells, which Mr Rigg dealt with as I’m a bit squeamish, and I loaded them onto the soft slices of baguette with a generous dollop of mayonnaise.

They were really sweet and went down a treat.

The fish was in a fabulously yellow crispy batter (I wondered whether they had used turmeric to get such a wonderful colour) and was moist and juicy inside.  The chips were just how chips should be, fluffy inside, golden and crisp on the outside.

There was a heap of roughly crushed pea puree, much preferred by both of us to the traditional mushy peas.  I’m sure there was a healthy amount of butter mixed through them because they were insanely good.

Day two coming soon – boating on the lake, fishing for trout, incredible locally made salami, and a campfire dinner…

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