Padstow Day 4

 Well, we successfully navigated the Doom Bar and arrived safely in Padstow Harbour and rafted up to a large motor boat at 7pm. The harbour is tiny and so not much room if there are a lot of visitors. We couldn't get on a pontoon so we are moored up to the harbour wall, which involves climbing up a vertical ladder in the harbour wall to get off or on the boat! Not my favourite thing to do but at least it is a dry ladder, not covered in slippery seaweed like some we encountered on the East Coast leg of our trip.

Lunar Sea in Padstow

 To those of you who love Padstow I apologise, because I am afraid I don't.   Perhaps it is because we are here at the Jubilee long weekend bank holiday,   but I have never seen somewhere so crowded with tourists, not even   Broadstairs on a sunny August bank holiday weekend! It really is unpleasant.   As we are moored in the harbour, the town is nestled around the three sides   of  it, so there any many pubs and restaurants right here. People are naturally   interested in the harbour and the boats in it, especially as most of us are    "dressed overall" in flags for the Jubilee. So we get a lot of attention, I feel   like we are in a fish bowl and there really is no privacy as everyone is   looking down on us. Children  are crabbing from the harbour wall, young   people spilling out of the pubs with their plastic glasses and sitting on the   harbour wall, families with dogs and pushchairs sitting on the benches all   around the harbour watching the world go by. 

I must be becoming a grumpy old women, but there we are, this blog reflects how I see our trip. We did have a late evening stroll around the harbour and had a bevvy in the Shipwrights, Josh sampled the local beer ( St. Austell's Tribune)  and I had the best Halloumi Fries ever, so that was pleasant.

Today is Saturday, and to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee all boats everywhere in the UK have been asked to sound their horns at midday. We duly sounded our fog horn as did the other boats in the harbour, which was exciting and added to the sense of occasion. I think it took a lot of people by surprise not to mention the dogs, who joined in by barking and the seagulls by squawking.

Seen in a Padstow shop window!

 I had to pop up into the town to find some supplies and a newspaper, and it really was so crowded. I do feel sorry for the locals, although I have to say they are all cashing in on the tourist trade, and I don't blame them. I did walk up the road out of the town a bit (which is all centred around the harbour) and I think every single cottage was a holiday let or a B&B. I do feel that the character of the village has been been swallowed up by the tourist trade, which is a shame. Not my favourite place so far on this trip.