Meet my lovely friends Bo and Dave who recently travelled from Portugal to visit us for a long weekend. That's surely the sign of a great friendship when your mates travel for 24 hours just to see you for three nights. We had a busy few days, eating, drinking and generally making merry and yes, we had a lot of laughs too.
The weather was cool but bright and calm enough for a boat trip. Bo was keen to visit one of the Eastern Isles so that's what we did. It was dead low water as we chugged across St Martin's flats resulting in our fine boatman having to pull the engine up and use a paddle to punt us across the stretch of water that was at times just inches deep. It all added to the sense of adventure, especially when Steve declared that we might not be able to land on Nornour as the low tide had revealed a lot of rocks. We hatched a back-up plan that we would land instead on the nearby stretch of white sandbar and set up our picnic there if necessary.
But rocks, seaweed and low tide weren't going to scupper our plans! We skimmed around the sandbar and Steve manoeuvred the boat slowly into the shallows of the Eastern Isles. We encountered lots of seals along the way as we pootled slowly through the long fronds of seaweed, picking our way into the shore. They are hugely inquisitive mammals, but are also quick to duck out of the way in response to a camera being pointed their way.
Hurrah, Nornour was ours!
After a couple of beers to wash down our picnic we climbed to the top of the island to admire the view. The autumn sunshine was dazzling and the company wasn't half bad either.
The views are stunning no matter which direction you look.
The Scillonian steams off into the distance, heading back to Penzance.
Bo's photography tip of the day - get down low to find a new perspective. Yep, that works!
So good to capture these special moments.
Time to go home.
Here's to friendship!
Anna x
