Heatwaves in June 2026

June. The start of the summer heatwaves of 2026. I hope this is an aberration as we are really not capable of enduring summers like this on a regular basis.

Social Night Near Plymouth

Our first trip in June was a for single night social event at Newnham Park near Plymouth. It should have been two nights but I’d double booked myself on the Friday with a trip to see the manic and very funny Russel Kane.

Newnham Park is somewhere we go quite often with the Land Rover club. Sadly we cant organise Land Rover competitions in the woods anymore but we did set up a Tyro (beginners event) and JTV (junior event) in the field. I took part in the Tyro for the first time which was fun, but suffice it to say that I haven’t uncovered a hidden talent. I’ll stick to being admin queen and

Newport, Cardiff and Tredegar House

We had booked a stay at Tredegar House campsite so that we could visit Aaron. This made use of yet another free night from the Caravan Club.

Little did we know that we would be in the middle of a heatwave at the time of our visit, or that South Wales would be at it’s epicentre. The heat conspired with the nearby road noise and delivered some very sleepless nights. Aaron drove us for a day down in the Mumbles, chilling out on the beach, but even the walk to and from the nearby parking was too much and the cooling effect of the water was swiftly forgotten. The location for a meal out one evening was decided by it’s location in the basement of a bank vault and the addition of air conditioning.

At Caswell Bay beach

We spent a lot of time doing not-a-lot in the shade of our van. We did finally get into Tredegar House before we left which was a good use of our National Trust membership. The location has a long history under the stewardship of the Morgan family before they succumbed to the depredations of punitive inheritance tax and the fast living of the 30s. Before being taken on by the National Trust it was a girls school which resulted in a lot of ugly changes to the building but added another layer of interesting history.

The house was stuffy in the heat and I pitied the staff who were valiantly showing us around and imparting all sorts of titbits of information. They were just grateful that a few people had braved the heat to visit.

Finding cooler weather in Cornwall

We left Cardiff knowing that we were just heading home to more sweltering weather. A look at the weather forecast didn’t give much of a chance of escape, but Cornwall did at least look a little cooler than the rest of the country.

We started our trip with an overnight stay at Strawberry Fields farm stop near Lifton, a favourite stop for us to do some shopping, browsing or use their cafe. Then we headed to the coolest point on the very tip of Cornwall. Here at the northern corner of the Penwith peninsular the Pendeen Lighthouse looks over the Atlantic. The Old Coastguard’s Campsite provided us with a welcome spot to camp in a cool breeze looking out across the unending western skies. We loved this rustic little spot which is a Camping and Caravanning certified site.

We fitted two coast walks in while we were staying at the campsite, heading east to Porthmoina cove one day, with a stop for some beach time in the shelter of the cliffs. For the second walk we hiked south through mining country to Cape Cornwall exploring the old buildings as we went. There was plenty of life around us;  kestrels, peregrines, choughs, stonechats and greater whitethroat among the birds we spotted. An occasional seal, one frightened vole who scampered into the gorse, and some tiny fish (blenny) in the rockpools.

We visited two amazing miners pools during our stay. One at Porth Ledden and the other just around the corner from the Pendeen lighthouse. These pools were constructed from natural rockpools or inlets, blocked off so that they collect sea water at high tide. Miners would use them as safe places to wash, protected from the heavy swell of the sea. At Porth Ledden we recognised Rachel Glover who was there with her family (not Steve Backshall – although we have spotted him a few times). There was a bit of confusion at first when Paul recognised her (I hadn’t clocked anything other than a family having fun) but called her Jo Pavey and accused her of being married to Bear Grylls before I then realised who it was and corrected him.

After our stay at Pendeen we moved south to Penzance where we stayed in Ponsandane campsite. We’d booked a non electric pitch which we discovered are on the sloping sides of the valley, but fortunately the owner allowed us to park down in an electric pitch which was a lot flatter. I think the expectation is that non electric customers will mostly be small tent campers passing through.

The reason for staying in Penzance was to visit the Jubilee Pool, a 1930s lido which has recently been restored with the addition of a geothermally heated small pool. We paid the £16 each to enjoy the lovely warm water in the heated pool, alternating it with bracing dips in the cold salt water of the main pool. It’s a lovely and evocative place to visit and I though it was well worth the money. Paul was less bothered, he doesn’t love a warm soak in quite the same way I do.

As well as a trip to the pool we enjoyed some short walks and bike rides in the area, looking for fishing spots. We popped out for a pub dinner one evening and had a BBQ the other. The campsite is right next to Tesco so very convenient if you develop a hankering for chicken wings.

Fishing near the old Penlee lifeboat station

Selling our flat

It was a frustrating month as we could tell that the process was moving nowhere but nether solicitor seemed to be interested in moving things on. We’d originally been given an estimate of July 3rd for completion but that target was obviously not going to be met. Our buyer was renting so wanted to give notice on her rental but wasn’t sure when to do so. In the end she handed her notice in at the end of June, in the hopes that a hard deadline would spur some action from the solicitors.

June Summary

10 nights in the motorhome. 1 night off grid at a Land Rover event, 1 night at Strawberry Fields. 8 nights in campsites, 3 with EHU (which included one free night) and 5 without EHU.

Average cost per night £19.44