The Camera has Landed

Tues 21st June
                                                           

Cornish irony-If you die we'll still sue you.

                       Life got back to normal today for Lady Watson with the purchase of her brand new camera courtesy of Argoos in Bodmin.Whilst she was waiting for her camera I nipped into Halfords as I fancied some car number plates with the Cornish flag on them but was informed that it was illegal-bummer.With the camera stowed away securely we headed for the port of Charlestown situated near St Austell.

Lady Watson is coming -Oh s**t.Hide the vodka!

                                       Charlestown was a harbour and dock built by Charles Rashleigh.an entrepreneur,for the use of the local copper  mining industry in the late eighteenth century.It was used up until the nineteen seventies for the export of china clay but even although the harbour had been extended through time it wasn't large enough to cope with today's modern ships.The harbour was neglected until it found other opportunities especially as a base for sailing ships and most notably for film sets.One of the reasons I was lured here by Lady Watson was because one of the things that was filmed here was Poldark(new version).

I'm now third on the list.

Anything to keep her quiet.

Somehow the two don't go together.

                                     After we parked the car which was situated beside a full size model of an ancient galley used in some sword and sandal effort we headed towards the harbour and as we drew nearer some seemed familiar about the harbour.

Shrugging the notion off I followed her ladyship into the local hostelry so that she could get her new camera into working order and also partake of a local ale since it was near St Austell.Familiarity crept in again whilst I was in the pub and with the help of the ale I had a picture of Donald Sutherland getting thrown out the pub windows by some German paras and when I went outside I realised this is were some of The Eagle has Landed was filmed.Now I was interested and that was before I saw the Shipwreck,Rescue and Heritage centre.

Lady Watson's standing her hand'

                                       

Keifer's dad has just flew out the pub window.

    There were a couple of sailing ships in port as well as a nice yacht which I was reliably informed I couldn't have.

Bah humbug!

We had a look around the harbour and the surrounding houses which apart from the cars parked in front of them looked like they were straight out of the nineteenth century.

                     We then headed for the piece de resistance of the trip(in my reckoning)which was the Shipwreck centre.In order to get to the entrance you have to go through one of the tunnels where the clay would come out to the waiting ships.

Funny looking seagull

Bird no 2-think I'll have better luck with the first one.

                                At the entrance to the centre was the Oakley class lifeboat Amelia on display to the public as well as a few guns from throughout the ages.

Couldn't have been a French crew.They'd given up long before then.

                      At the entrance door there were figures of the ubiquitous pirates.

It amazes me that everybody now thinks that all pirates look like Jack Sparrow.I suppose it keeps the kids and no-brainers amused.Also at the front door was a big pool where you could control a radio controlled boat and try your hand at guiding it through the water maze.There were some mad people out  there making me thankful that they weren't out in real boats.

Tudor naval guns

                                        Once inside there were various exhibitions ranging from Tudor guns,wreck diving,souvenirs from wrecks,pictures and films relating to local fishing,smuggling and life in Cornwall throughout the ages and of course the numerous references to Poldark.The new Poldark TV series must have been a godsend to the Cornish tourist industry.

Also there were many references to the worlds most famous shipwreck-The Titanic.

As usual with all these centres there is the proverbial souvenir shop with some nice little gems intertwined with the usual tat.I purchased a nice souvenir poster showing most of the famous wrecks including the Torrey Canyon which ran aground between Lands End and the Scilly Isles in 1967.This was the first supertanker incident and numerous attempts were made to stem the flow of oil from its ruptured tanks and being the first super-tanker accident was a case of the blind leading blind.

Spread of the oil from the Torrey Canyon

Eventually the navy were called in to eradicate the problem by bombing her but even that didn't really solve the problem.

Wee bit poetic license.

               They also had on display figures and mannequins depicting life through the ages and also workers in the mining industry both in the mine and on ground level including office workers who always seem ignored.

Not pasty again!

                 A great time was had by one and all and after a look round the nearby shops,the visit was rounded off with a rather nice ice cream albeit at tourist prices.I think the shop owner was a bit taken aback by a mad Scotsman stating "How Much?".
                        We rejoined the' run to the west' which is the popular name for the A30 and it lived up to its name as it was nose to tail.Lady Watson said maybe we should come of the main road and find a nice place for dinner.No sooner had the words left her mouth and we were heading for the surfing village of St Agnes on the north coast of Cornwall.We ended up in the Peterville Inn for some nice simply grilled Sea Bass and a large amount of mussels for Lady Watson.All washed down by some nice ale courtesy of Jennings brewery.

Hurry up my beers getting warm.

After dinner we nipped down to the beach to watch the surfers and also watch the kids braving the waves.It was nice to see them out and enjoying themselves with no games machines in sight.Hurrah for the Endless summer.

Surfs up.

                              Speak to you soon.