Happy New Year everyone!! Here we are at 4pm on New Year’s Eve and I’m frantically trying to get this post written and posted before 2018 ends. I’m rubbish! It’s been almost nine months since our last blog post (I really need to get better at writing these more frequently!), and a huge amount has happened at Mena in that time. So much so, it’s hard to know where to start.

I think this year will be remembered mainly for the weather extremes we experienced. Starting with the beast from the East in February and the amazing start to the Summer. We were fully snowed in at Mena, and hard to believe just a few short months later that we were basking in the sunshine for weeks on end. The ground was so scorched by June, that we had to introduce a ban on firepits.

Farmer John who harvests our fields was a very happy chappy, as he managed to get two harvests of sileage this year, so plenty of winter feed for his animals. When the weather finally broke it was actually a bit of a relief – whilst it’s lovely to be able to sit outside and enjoy the sun, it’s pretty hard going when trying to sleep in a tent in those temperatures.

Easter was still pretty chilly (i.e. freezing!), but we trialled hosting the Alfresco Lounge serving cocktails from Dotty the caravan for the first time. It was a huge success, and Anna became a regular visitor to Mena for the rest of the Summer months. We also added weekly visits from Woody’s Pizza Wagon serving yummy pizzas, and the Dub Café, serving up amazing fresh coffees and croissants.

Our wardens Brian and Sue arrived at the end of April, just in time to help us get ready for the main season. Although it was their first Summer at Mena it feels as though as though they’ve been with us forever. Brian and Sue started out as guests at Mena during our first year, and we practically begged them to join us because it felt as though they belong here. We’re so lucky that they agreed, and we’re already very excited that they’ll back to help us again in 2019.

This year we installed three more glamping tents, exclusively for adults. Located in a quiet corner of the main camping field, our Lotus Belle Tents have electric hook-ups, so each has an electric toaster, kettle, induction hob and lighting. We had the furniture hand-made by a local start-up, Wood-N-It, and were very happy with the results!

We had a few nice PR bonuses this year – firstly, we received a plug from Chris Evans on Radio 2 in May, and then we ended the Summer on a high when totally out of the blue we were nominated as one of the five, ‘Cream of the Cornish crop’ campsites by Go Outdoors and Cool Camping.

The Autumn has been very mild here at Mena, and we had a steady stream of tourers leading up to December. We finally managed to have a short break away for the first time since buying Mena, and got home just in time for Christmas. Cornwall is an amazing place to be over the Christmas period and we’ve a lot of guests in over the festive period. Even so, we’ve managed to spend quite of lot of time at the beach, and with friends and family. Ollie has been doing a lot of digging, his favourite pastime, and Neil has managed to enjoy the surf. The temperature here is so warm given the time of year, that the water is probably at it’s warmest.

As always, Neil and I are very grateful to our lovely campers. Seeing you all enjoying yourselves at Mena brings us so much enjoyment and reward – thank you very much for all your support, for sharing your stories and ideas with us, for your lovely reviews, for making us laugh, and for not making us cry 😉

We really cannot wait to see you all again in 2019 and wish you all a very happy new year from Ali, Neil, Ollie-dog, Rodney, Del-Boy and the clucks!!

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