Do you prefer being in the water, or on the water?
This is a question I posed to Instagram last week, and there was definitely a 50/50 split! It’s very hard to choose, and I think it depends on my mood and how brave I’m feeling (the Atlantic is COLD, okay!), but I often find myself opting for activities that involve being on top of the beautiful blue ocean, with just the occasional dip.
Last month, Olivia and her partner Tom invited Alex and I to join them for an evening out on their boat. It was one of the hottest days of summer – perfectly still, and the ideal time to go exploring around River Fal and Truro River.
Armed with a delicious packed picnic, we set off to go and find the perfect spot to enjoy our food. Captain Tom took us across Falmouth harbour and over to Trelissick. The tide was at its highest so we were even able to meander through the tiny inlets around Coombe, and back out again, making our way over to the bottom of the Tregothnan estate.
We found the perfect spot – almost totally silent – near Tregothnan’s own private pontoon. If you don’t know – Tregothnan is a large country house and estate in Cornwall, famous for growing tea (it was home to the first tea ever grown in England) and its large private botanical gardens that open once a year to the public. Owned by the Boscawen family, the estate is over 25,000 acres in size!
Anyway, this spot made for some idyllic picnic views, and once we’d finished, Tom took us further up the Truro River to explore all the way past Malpas, Newham, and eventually, right next to Boscawen Park and Tesco in Truro! It still amazes me that you can go all that way via the water, but Lemon Quay (now concreted over and used as a piazza) did in fact used to be a Quay, and the water goes all the way underneath it still.
It was very cool to see everything from a totally different perspective.
Funnily enough, the very next day, I ended up going out on a kayaking trip with my dad, his partner, my sister and her friend at Malpas, where we paddled all the way up the creek on the opposite side of Truro, towards Tresillian.
So now I can safely say I’ve pretty much explored every last drop of Truro River (nearly)!
It was a lovely couple of days and I do love the freedom of being on the water. There’s nothing quite like it!
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