I love how dog friendly the seaside village of Mawgan Porth (Newquay) is!
It’s just so refreshing to go somewhere where everything from the accommodation, beach, footpaths, shops and restaurants are all welcome to dogs. We do have plenty of dog friendly beaches and restaurants in Cornwall, yes – and I’m not denying we are very lucky – but there’s something so great about having everything all in once place that all have the same ethos.
We headed down to Mawgan Porth with the dogs this weekend to the caravan, to make the most of the beautiful sunshine and warm weather, and as a welcome break from a very stressful week; we agreed no laptops and no TV, just quality time together to enjoy the outdoors.
We cooked up a BBQ at the caravan, with burgers and sausages (and fish for me!) and a tasty salad I put together with tomatoes, peppers and anchovies. The dogs were pretty jealous, but thankfully entertained themselves while we sat in the evening light enjoying our dinner.
Once we’d finished, I was determined to catch the sun setting on Mawgan Porth beach, so we walked through the woods equipped with camera and balls for the pups, and ran to the sand to get the last of the light.
It was stunning! There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the sunset looked so beautiful reflected in the pools of water along the beach as the tide went out. And the dogs had plenty of fun splashing about while I took pictures too. You just can’t beat the North coast for these views!
Thanks to a hectic week, we were shattered by the time we got back to the caravan, so ended up going straight to bed. Saturday was due to be fantastic weather once again, so we wanted to make the most of the day as well.
With the dogs beside us, we headed back to the beach in the morning, deciding to grab some brunch at Catch – a cafe/bar right on the beachfront. We tried eating there before back in March, when we had a rather disastrous breakfast and were pretty disappointed. However, wanting to support the local dog-friendly businesses in the village, we thought we’d give it a second chance.
Sadly, once again it was really disappointing. Our order was wrong, the quality was bad, and the service was equally poor. It’s also pretty expensive there so to have a bad experience twice is really annoying! Needless to say, we won’t be going back. We have also tried The Merrymoor Inn for dinner which was good, and Scott & Babs at Retorrick Mill is amazing for dinner as well – but yet to find a good breakfast there…
ANYWAY, we didn’t let it spoil our day! We headed straight out to the beach (luckily it was super low tide, so plenty of space for the dogs to run around like crazy) and headed to the ocean. It was super hot, so we stripped down to swimwear and went for a swim and a splash around with the dogs.
During the weekend, we taught Pepper how to swim! At three and a half years old, I’ve never been sure whether she can actually swim properly or not (apparently many French Bulldogs can’t), but with the use of some deep rock-pools, and then graduating her out into the waves, we’ve finally got her swimming, and I think she likes it too!
I loved spending the day at the beach without a care in the world – it made such a nice change from rushing around, looking at our watches and constantly feeling like we have to ‘be somewhere’ all the time. It also felt amazing to get in the sea and mess about in the water without needing a wetsuit – who needs to go on holiday?
