Now we were back to a family of four (plus a dog) we had a couple of sealife activities we wanted to do. One was crabbing and another was to visit the Cornish Seal Sanctuary in Gweek.
The Cornish Seal Sanctuary is set next to the magnificent Helford Estuary and as well as hospitalising seals they also look after Puffins and have a Beaver colony on site and the walk to the latter is stunning with the estuary as the backdrop.
For 65 years they have been rescuing seals and rehabilitating them before releasing them back into the wild. There are also some permanent residents that may not make it in the wild so they live here in the most luxurious of retirement homes and these are the ones we get to see get fed and swim about. We spent a good half a day here visiting all the different types of seals and listen to the demonstrations which are frequent.
We got to see the feeding times for the Seals and the Puffins however the Beavers remained illusive, although the habitat all around showed clear signs of it being a natural beaver colony with a dam and a gnawed tree trunk at its base. Dogs are allowed here but I didn't think it would be that fun for him nor did I want him to bark at the seals as he is still young, but there were many dogs there on our visit. We left Digby with Daddy to have another glorious walk.
The next day we went to Mullion Cove to do some crabbing. Being typical landlubbers I didn't check the tide times and it was firmly out, luckily there was a charming cafe nearby so we went in there for some brunch. We had to go back to camp as tide was not coming out until 6pm, so we thought we'd come back and get some fish and chips and do crabbing later.
Much later we were in luck, tide was high and we held on to our crabbing nets patiently until my youngest caught the biggest crab our family has caught, and it was a spider crab hairy with seaweed and algae. I took the dog for a mooch around. I love this cove it is so small yet the rock formations make you feel how small you are against nature, I could imagine in a storm it being pretty dramatic and yet when calm it is serene and ultimately relaxing. Possible my favourite place to do anything mindful. I want to live here obviously!
However where we were not mindful was to check that the chip shop was open. Alas it wasn't so at 8pm with a hungry family we were now resolved that we had to head home for tea. But then on the way home we saw it. At first we thought a pub and thought yes, at this late hour let's get some food. It wasn't a pub, even better it was a wonderful Thai restaurant called Jumunjy.
We sat down, the inside looks nothing like the outside it feels like an authentic thai shack that you would find on the islands. The best thing was they also allowed dogs so we found our spot. We shortly got chatting to a lovely local couple who told us all about this place. It really is authentic thai with the owners moving here from Thailand. Everything inside was built from reclaimed material which is why it just feels right. I've not eaten as good Thai as here, I'm almost devasted it is all the way in the Lizard Peninsula. Everything about this place was just spot on, I cannot recommend it enough.
The next days was a little drizzly and overcast so we had a campsite hang and decided to venture out again at high tide to do some more crabbing, this time we stopped off at the Fish and Chip Shop in Mullion that was open this day and took them down to Mullion Cove, delicious food, delicious setting. Although not as bright as yesterday, it was way more atmospheric which I loved and, we caught another Spider Crab and a Jellyfish!
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