That Seals It

Weather forecasters are wonderful. If I understood today’s five day forecast correctly, we were in for cloud building with showers giving way to potentially heavier rain. Tomorrow, “however”, would start overcast with the possibility of showers leading to possibly heavier bursts of rain. (And the difference is ..?) As the low moves away southeast “though”, the Atlantic will start influencing our weather more and we will get weather fronts moving in from the west bringing showers with the possibility of some heavier bands of rain (again, the difference being ..?), and so on and so forth. So, let me get this right: no matter what the weather systems do, we are in for showers followed by rain. Excellent!

After a sustaining consolation breakfast of bacon and eggs (which we never eat at home), we decided to brave the elements before it actually rained and walk to the coastal path at Perran Sands, about 2.5 miles from our camp site. At least the bluebells thought it was spring, even if the weather was having other ideas. Given the consistently depressing weather forecast, imagine our surprise as the sun broke through and we peeled off first one layer, then another, to end up walking in our T-shirts. The light was pants with a grey murk all around the horizon so our views of St. Michael’s Mount were far from photogenic, but it was a much more pleasant walk than we were expecting.

Heading east, as we were passing a somewhat rocky Stackhouse Cove, a couple of the rocks appeared to be disappearing then reappearing, as rocks often do in a slight swell. These seemed to be reappearing in a slightly different spot, though. They’ve got eyes and whiskers. At last – a couple of seals (Grey Seals, I think) very close in to the rocks on the shore. (Not close enough for a camera, regrettably, but fine for binoculars.) We’ve often hoped we’d see a seal from the Cornish coastal path but hitherto with no luck.

With the day made by our long-awaited seal encounter, we headed further east as far as Hoe Point (about three miles) before cutting back inland for the three mile or so wander back to Billy Bailey and a well deserved cup of tea.

Now it’s time for a shower followed by the last remaining beer before fixing Coq Au Cara-Vin by way of evening entertainment.