Short take: we are feeble, but flexible, and we learn to ignore weather forecasts.
The forecast for Tuesday was, as of Monday night, rain. With a hike of 6.5 hours planned, and five consecutive days of walking damage to our legs and feet weighing on our minds (and bodies), we decided to take a day off and to travel by taxi most of the way to Carwinion. We booked the taxi for 10:30 the following morning, and went to bed.
And so, of course, Tuesday dawned bright and sunny.
But we were still tired, and the forecast, as of Tuesday morning, was for rain from midday on. So we stuck with the taxi plan. Shortly before 11 we were dropped off at Helford, a charming little village on the Helford "River" (which is in quotes because it is a ria rather than a river... a ria being a flooded valley system... due in this case to the sea level having been much lower during the last ice ages... but it looks like a river, well, an estuary, and probably that's what's important here... although for mussels, and winkles, and other marine life, the fact that it has very little freshwater flowing into it is probably more important... but maybe I should focus a little and get back to telling you what we did?).
We intended to take the ferry across to the other side of the "river", but because the ferry doesn't cross at low tide, and of course it was low tide, we had to wait half an hour. While waiting we saw at the water's edge a man collecting something... winkles, as we learned. He told us that he used to be a fisherman, but that he could make better money gathering winkles... up to £50-60 for 30kg, which on average took him about 2 hours at low tide. There were tons of large mussels around, and we asked if harvested them too, but he said no, he couldn't find anyone to buy them, although he had heard that they were expensive when bought in a restaurant. Then we talked limpet lore for a while until the ferry came and took us over to the other side.
It was still sunny.
So, we decided to do something that was in the plan for tomorrow -- visit the Trebah garden -- since rain was also in the forecast for tomorrow, and the garden would be nicer in the sun. And very nice it was indeed... with huge rhododendrons and tree ferns and bluebells everywhere and all manner of other flowers. After walking around for a couple of hours we had a snack (rather than a meal, due to "Full English Breakfast" syndrome... i.e., eating enough at breakfast to last until dinner... of the following day :-).
It was still sunny.
So we went to the next garden on tomorrow's list -- Glendurgan. Also beautiful, and with a maze that Lidia, Bonnie and I went into. After running around for a while I made it to the middle and stood where I could watch the other two making Brownian progress :-). After some time more, they found there way back to the exit, waved happily, and went out. I was confused... it wasn't like Lidia to give up. So I walked out of the maze and asked them why they had quit. They were nonplussed... they felt that they had succeeded. It turns out that Romanian mazes either don't have centers... or perhaps (my theory :-) Romanians never reach them and thus declare victory when they get out. Hence the term "Romanian victory" (OK, I admit, I made that up just now... but still, there are times when I seriously doubt that Romania is culturally part of Europe!).
Ummm, it was still sunny.
But it was the end of the afternoon, so we walked off to Carwinion House, our stately B&B for the night. Tomorrow, the forecast assured us, it would rain.
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