What can I say, it started out looking like a fantastic day with an Early start from Penzance at 7-30am.
We arrived at Helford village around 8-30 and sorted out the boat.
The moon was still visible through the trees and the sun poured down warming my soul.
Moon through the trees
Little was I to know at that time that the day was fated to be filled with stupid accidents which would probably leave as many scars on the day as it did on me… HOWEVER!
We set off on a High and headed down frenchmans… lots of Egrets in the trees and the light was fantastic for photographing them…
side by side
Egret on a Log
In a tree up the creek
Never Ceases to amaze me how individual the Egrets can look…
planning the escape route
In flight
Could probably have spent hours in the creek photographing these birds , but we wandered into the far reaches of Frenchmans Creek to see what else the morning held.
I’m fairly sure, like ourselves many had planned to take advantage of the good weather and late Summer but it seemed an awful lot chose to take advantage in the exact same way at the same time as we did.. consequently there wasn’t as much (animal) life about in the creek as we’d hoped.. however we did startle this young fellow who was hanging in the lower branches of an Oak trying to get himself a stock of acorns..
red squirrel
On our way out of the creek we saw many more Egrets, fishing or just generally soaking up the sun from the tree tops..
A cormorant popped up right in front of us and led us out of the creek and back into the main river.. which was fast becoming a hive of activity, This young couple seemed to be having fun on their Dinghy…
Having fun on a sunny morning tide
The cormorant at this point decided to leave us as there were more than enough boats around for his liking…
It was round about this point where my luck began to turn.. as we ran out of petrol due to the fact I hadn’t filled up the tank, I had to fill midstream in the wind chop of the river…somehwo the anchor rope worked its way over the boat side and looped beneath us..
Not knowing this I restarted the engine and put it into gear only to find it ground to a sudden stop having wrapped the rope around the prop..
Hanging over the back of the boat trying to get thye rope free meant I’d had to drop the up and over wheels into the river which were happily beating my arm causing and almighty bruise the length of my forearm.
Eventually I got the rope free and due to the pain and swelling we decided to moor up for lunch and take a break…
I stood the tripod on the bank to climb up and thankfully I’d taken the canera off as it weighed considerably more than the carbon fibre tripod with heavy alloy Gimble head which sudde3nly crashed down onto my arm and hands taking half of my skin and flesh with it…
Now being I’m undergoing Chemotherapy treatment for my aggressive rheumatoid arthritis, I’d had steroids with the infusion which of course weakens the skin and due to the blood thinning drugs etc after my heart attack ther was blood from here to eternity looking like a chainsaw massacre I clambered up the bank in more than a little pain and wandered off into the woods to take time to pacify myself before returning and allowing my loving wife to adorn me with bandages and cream..
Well after a long spell in the sunshine awaiting the tide and a brief thought of giving up for the day I laughed climbed back in the boat and we set off to go with the incoming tide up to gweek.
we literally floated up river and when the tide was slower catching up we climbed out of the boat and walked up the channel pulling the boat along behind..
Well they say it comes in threes and sure as mud is mud I found the soft bit and sank knee deep only to lose my balance fall arse over tip stick my other foot into the deep mud and lose both of my crocs under 2 foot of mud.
Much fishing about in the mud finally saw both crocs float to the surface.. one escaping towards the edge (over lots of soft mud) which Aidan skillfully recovered using fishing rod and jelly sand eel.
Could this be the final event of the day.. Please!!
thankfully it was and we slowly floated up the rest of the way to gweek enjoying the wildlife.. licking my wounds and feeling extremely wet and stupid..
Here’s the best bits:-
Scottish dominant shintype demands row me tae Gweek while I eat ma Grapes...
spider in the web
Hoverfly
Greenshank in Flight
Greenshank with fish
A Redshank runs by
Classic example of a greenshank reflecting in the water
Little ringed plovers
Whimbrel strutting his stuff
bit by bit we floated through the mud to gweek
Finally we arrived just as the sun went down on Gweek… time for a cup of tea before loading up the boat and flying back off down river in an amazing sunset.. where the Osprey flew right over our heads into the setting sun…
The Setting sun lit up the sky but not the river as we passed Bishops Quay
The last Light before we plunged into darkness before reaching Helford and the shores of the river.
The dark crept upon us and as we came into Helford village it was all we could do to see our way slowly to the sailing club..
Finally we arrived back at the van 13 hrs after leaving it.. filled to the brim with the experience and quite some painful throbbing in my case.. but all in all I have to say it was worth it.. another fabulous day in the magic of the Helford River…
Mel