No it's not the title of a Carry on Film it's the name of a river to the East of St Mawes in Cornwall. See Sheet 204 GR8534.
I had never heard of this river but it came highly recommended by Dave whom we had met on our recent Harkan River Trip, along with many other like minded souls. Maisie who was also on the trip had suggested via the medium of Facebook that we all get together for a meal at Tim's Tapas bar known as the The Provedore in Falmouth. http://www.provedore.co.uk/ Quite a few of us took up the offer and soon there was a move for a canoe session on the Friday. Great idea for those of us with time on our hands but alas poor Maisie, the organiser, was still hard at work teaching!!
That didn't stop us Stopportons, Les, Ben and Dave from meeting at Percuil boatyard to launch our canoes.This location was suggested by Dave. The Roseland peninsular is pretty. Pretty remote in my opinion but I can see why Dave chose this location, especially the put in. He works part time as a sailing instructor here. Teaching ' bawling screaming kids' "Oh yeah"? When we saw him hard at work later that afternoon his boat was full of something I believe is called 'deck fluff'. Don't ask. I did and was shocked!
We canoed as far as GR 8636 Trethem Mill then turned to find a lunch stop on the beach. After much landing and exploring and with time running out for Dave, he had to be at work a little downstream for 1230hrs we landed and soon had the bacon, eggs, fried onions, toms etc on the go. Ben and Dave lit a fire to boil water for T and I used Les's trusted gas burner to cook the scran.
After lunch and with Dave now returned to work we set off down river as far as GR 8532.
The point. Here the winds were blowing off the headland and it was far too choppy for Les and Ben in the Canadian to continue. Jackie and I could have but were also glad we had decided to turn back.
Further exploration of a few creeks and soon it was time to get ashore and stow the canoes on board our transport.
We have recently acquired a Peugeot van which takes both sit-ons and I am in the process of converting it into a mini camper van for such expeditions. Tonight was to be our first trial run sleeping in it. Ben it seems had already completed a conversion some time back and his was of a standard I can only dream of attaining. When Jackie saw it she asked "Why is ours not fitted out like that"? Last week it was "Why do we need that?"
Moving on quickly! We drove via The King Harry ferry and were delighted to meet with Johan who was working on the ferry when we crossed. We managed a quick chat with him but alas he was working tonight and could not make the tapas bar. Soon we arrived at Menenhay Farm Camp Site and booked in. http://menehayfarm.co.uk/
1830hrs arrived and nine of us converged on The Provedore. Get there later and the chances are you won't get a table. It was a great evening. Mike,Jackie, Les, Dave, Maisie, Ben, Jess, Jay and Kelly were there. Photos were passed around but Maisie had outshone all our efforts with a fantastic presentation using photos from the weeks expedition. Shown on a lap top with a sound track it was indeed a professional looking presentation. The evening closed about midnight. All of the customers had by now long left and we managed to have Tim join us. God bless him and his Liquorice Liquor!
