TELEGRAPH TRAVEL | Saturday, September 28, 2013 T21 #<HDGTCJGD?<TN 4DOCOC@,>OJ=@MC<GAO@MHA<NO <KKMJ<>CDIB 'JI0OJ>FNPBB@NON<IJQ@G OM<AAD> AM@@<KKMJ<>COJ@SKGJMDIB JMIR<GG ,Q@MG@<A 'P?DOC4JJ?N ?@N>MD=@N<H@HJM<=G@^<I?<AAJM?<=G@ ^A<HDGTCJGD?<TRDOCAMD@I?NDI<?EJDIDIB M@IO@?<K<MOH@ION>GJN@OJ3@ID>@ Taking the waters around Falmouth HILARY STOCK hink of holidays in grew up. But St Mawes is a village Cornwall, and what that I’m growing to love. Perhaps "NN@IOD<GN springs to mind? Flat it was our location, a spacious beaches, rolling surf, self-catering house called } The King Harry and St Mawes St Mawes, Truro and Falmouth. (01841 532700; rickstein.com/ slate-roofed fishing Moonrakers, just above Tresanton, ferries run 364 days a year. Other } A one-day Visitor card for one Rick-Steins-Fish-Falmouth.html) Tvillages, Roskilly’s ice cream, Olga Polizzi’s signature hotel. ferries generally run from Easter to adult costs £18; a three-day card } Tresanton Hotel (01326 translucent rock pools and… traffic. From our landscaped garden, we the end of October, but check first. costs £27; a six-day costs £42; for a 270055; tresanton.com) The county’s narrow winding lanes had uninterrupted views across } For booking and information family (two adults, three children) it } Trelissick Garden (01872 and stone hedges pricked with the bay towards St Anthony’s about the Fal River Links scheme, costs £45. A three-day family card 862090; nationaltrust.org. yellow gorse have an earthy charm, Head, a stretch of timeless, the Mussel Visitor and Visitor Plus costs £71; a six-day card £115. uk/trelissick) redolent of ancient field patterns, unspoilt coastland. cards, see falriver.co.uk. } Jon Stock’s holiday house was } For details of private tours at but they don’t mix with modern It was the owner of Moonrakers Visitor cards are only available booked through St Mawes Retreats, Tregothnan botanic garden and tea caravans and 4x4s weighed down who first told us about Fal River until November 4 and can a group of five self-catering houses plantation, see tregothnan.co.uk with bikes. Links, an innovative transport be bought online (falriver.co.uk/ in St Mawes and Fowey (0845 319 } For local information about So it was with some satisfaction scheme that lets you travel around mussel – five per cent discount), 0412; stmawesretreats.co.uk). the Roseland peninsula, see that on our most recent family trip by boat. “You can go everywhere or from ticket offices in } Rick Stein’s Fish, Falmouth roselandonline.co.uk to Cornwall, we decided to spend on it,” Amanda Selby said. “All the three days without a car, exploring way up the River Fal to Truro. It Falmouth and the surrounding area makes sense – we’re surrounded off ferry journeys for three days on a Mawes to Falmouth on the Duchess £23.75. As we passed the small but Jon Stock and his October 2010, it was dismasted in a entirely by boat. We were staying in by water here.” network of ferries and boats linking of Cornwall, a stylish wooden 60ft perfectly formed St Mawes Castle, family take a ferry storm off the Scilly Isles and towed St Mawes, at the tip of the Roseland We made some inquiries and St Mawes, Falmouth, Truro and the ferryboat that was launch by Prince we kept our eyes peeled in vain for across Carrick Roads into the harbour, where it remained peninsula on the south coast, which wondered why Fal River Links and Helford River. What’s more, we were Charles and the Duchess of seals on Black Rock, and for schools near Falmouth; the for many months while it was felt vaguely disloyal. We have always its Mussel Visitor card weren’t more also entitled to free travel on local Cornwall in 2008. Our card was of dolphins. But we did see the Polish tall ship, repaired. taken our holidays in Mousehole, widely known. For £71, our family bus services and the train linking already feeling like a bargain. A Fryderyck Chopin, a magnificent the Fryderyck Chopin, After lunch at Rick Stein’s Fish towards Land’s End, where my (two adults and three children) Falmouth to Truro. normal family return ferry ticket Polish tall ship that has a special is moored in the wife’s mother and grandmother could enjoy unlimited hop-on, hop- We began with a trip from St from St Mawes to Falmouth costs relationship with Falmouth. In harbour there JIODIP@?JIK<B@ T22 Saturday, September 28, 2013 | TELEGRAPH TRAVEL #<HDGTCJGD?<TN Venice from afar was HILARY STOCK HILARY The Duchess of Cornwall ferry in the harbour at St Mawes child’s play JIODIP@?AMJHK<B@ of passengers disembarked here to explore for free the deep-wooded (smaller queues than in Padstow, valleys and elevated gardens, using better fish and chips – £12.75 for two their Mussel Visitor Plus cards. You courses), we took in the National can also pick up a regular ferry to Maritime Museum, using a Mussel Smugglers Cottage at Tolverne. This Visitor Plus card. For £38, it gave us 500-year-old establishment served free access (but no free transport) as an embarkation point during wo Italian men were 0 20 for three days to the museum, the D-Day landings and was once nodding in respectful miles Pendennis and St Mawes Castles, visited by General Eisenhower. approval at my husband as Glendurgan, Trelissick, Lamorran A terraced, riverside restaurant, we stepped off the Venice Lake ITAA LY and Carwinion Gardens. currently closed, will reopen in 2014. vaporetto. Garda Having clambered over the We decided to head towards T“Forza,” they muttered, Vicenza Mirano Lido di Jesolo museum’s Sea King search and Truro. On our right we passed the “strong.” A gaggle of women Padua Venice rescue helicopter, we took the Tregothnan estate, home to Britain’s meanwhile were clapping their ferry up to Truro, heading across first tea plantation. Through the palms together and crying Adriatic Carrick Roads, the name of the trees, we caught glimpses of the 9th “Complimenti! Complementi!” Sea estuary’s outer tidal basin, and up Viscount Falmouth’s magnificent The reason we were being feted the River Fal. Our boat was a 1961 stately home, the family seat of the à la Brad and Angelina? Like them, ferry called Enterprise I, part of a Boscawen family. we were travelling around with an fleet owned by two local families Next up was the magical King enormous brood of children. – the Johns and Berrymans – who Harry Floating Bridge. Tucked As we shepherded five children three, I felt that leisurely day trips, have been operating on the Fal away on the river where the banks around – three strapping boys, interspersed with beach outings, are cloaked with sessile oak two winsome girls – we were would make for a more relaxing trees, this famous chain ferry was congratulated at every turn. The holiday than an exhausting full- \1C@!P>C@NNJA established in 1888 and links the passers-by weren’t to know that body cultural immersion in the city parishes of Feock and Philleigh the boys belonged to our friends, for several days at once. JMIR<GG RDOCDONJG? on the Roseland, saving a 27-mile who had sloped off to The Peggy Our friends, who had lent us their RJMG?>C<MH KMJQ@? detour via Truro. We decided to turn Guggenheim Collection. three boys, were also keen to join around at Malpas, one mile short Italy is suffering a major decline us, and by a stroke of good fortune OJ=@JPMA<QJPMDO@] of Truro, and head back down the in the birth rate – just 1.23 babies (i.e. a 72-hour marathon spent river. The journey from Falmouth per woman, compared with 1.98 in trawling the internet), we found a to Truro takes between 75 and 90 the UK and 2.03 in France – so it villa online which comprised two since the Fifties. The on-board minutes, bringing you into the was really rather lovely to be treated identical but separate apartments, commentary was informed without harbour, next to the bus station. as a novelty rather than a nuisance. with a garden. being intrusive. We learnt about Over the next few days, we took But of course, some of you will still Having holidayed with friends a the working sailing boats that the passenger boat from St Mawes be choking over the fact we took a few times, my conclusion is that the harvest Cornish native oysters in to Place, from where we walked gaggle of children to Venice. key to harmony is ensuring each ALAMY the Carrick Roads reach, by hand- the south-west coastpath. And we Utter madness! family has its own space (however hauling traditional small dredges. went back and forth to Falmouth To be fair, we weren’t staying in small) and can close the door Clockwise from the British as a must-see region of each other, we were actually able to The vessels race competitively in – the Duchess of Cornwall, with Venice, but on the mainland, 20 without causing offence when there above: cafe life in Italy; not as pretty as Umbria, not as read the books we’d brought. Some the summer and work in the winter its old world charm, proved to be minutes away in the handsome little is a need for sulking or napping. the Piazza San unexplored as Calabria, it reaches afternoons we would drive north in what is the last oyster fishery in our favourite ferry.