Move along nothing to see

Pasties and Ice cream

I have recently returned for a lovely week in Cornwall.  My friends Lou and Caroline moved down at the beginning of the year and were renting a house before finding somewhere permanent to live.  In July they moved in to their new home in a lovely little village not too far from Truro.  I haven’t been working since the end of April so I was invited to stay for a few days. 

I travelled down and the next day Caroline was off work and we had a “ladies who lunch” day, after taking cylinders in to the dive shop for fills as we were diving that evening.  Dive kit sorted and Lou arrived home and we set off for Falmouth Marina, I don’t think Gary of DiveAction could have had a mooring further away and it was a hike just to get the kit on the boat made even worse by having to return the marina trolley’s to their home by the marina building, why is it always low water when loading boats :(. 

We had a nice run out and chatted to people I had heard of on the forums but never met before, we kitted up and jumped in and down to the reef, it was a drift dive and unfortunately during the dive my smb must have caught on something and I had to let go – I was not a happy bunny.  Thank heavens when we got back to the marina some trolleys had been left and we were able to get the kit off in one go and best of all the pontoon was now higher and flat :).  We had a pint of Doombar in the yacht club bar, there was a party going on and a lovely local choir was singing traditional songs. 

Saturday morning and we headed off for a shore dive at a spot I was assured was a lovely bay.  After walking out about 100m and still only being knee deep Lou called the “dive” Caroline had already given up and was almost back at the slipway.  Lou and I couldn’t see our feet in the sandy water and I fell over only to emerge looking like a sea monster covered in green seaweed. 

We packed up and went off to Padstow for pasties and ice cream .

Lou and Caroline bought a lovely painting from a small gallery and we headed home, we finished off the day with a lovely meal at Chantek in Truro. 

I had been to Cornwall last year during a dive trip to Porthkerris and had thought I would take a trip to the Eden Project but didn’t get round to it, so I had planned to go this time while Lou and Caroline were at work, but lucky for me they decided we should go on Sunday and we had a cracking day, the weather forecast wasn’t good for the afternoon, but it was glorious all day.  Cornwall seems to be one long round of cider and pasties which were great, Caroline had a go on the zip wire and Lou and I watched, claiming dodgy knees.  The afternoon was finished off in the little village of Charlestown obviously with yet another pint of Doombar . 

Monday and Caroline and I had another “ladies who lunch” day as Caroline had some errands in Truro and we took the tanks back in for fills.  Walking round in the sun we just had to have an ice cream – well you have to don’t you.  Tuesday wasn’t a good day and it started raining in the morning so I planned to go to the National Seal Sanctuary at Qweek, not a particularly great place to visit but I suspect that might have been because there were no little seals and just the older ones who live there all the time.  I had promised myself a trip to Roskillys so headed of for lunch of pasty followed by ice cream; you see there is a pattern here, I just had to buy some take home packs – it would have been rude not to. 

Lou’s Mum and Dad, Brother and his girlfriend came round on Wednesday evening and we had a lovely BBQ  with Rosikilly’s ice cream to finish, it was almost time for me to leave I had diving plans that weekend but I had a great time and hopefully didn’t outstay my welcome.  It was great to see Lou and Caroline again it had been too long but hopefully our next meeting will not be too long off. 

August 18th, 2007 Posted by Fiona | Holidays | one comment

Holiday Disappointments

Almost two years ago I was part of a very excited group who met up at the dive show in Birmingham to meet up with a specialist diving tour operator to try and organise a holiday of a lifetime to the Galapagos.  We met the operator and informed them what we wanted and as they could provide the trip we wanted we signed up and were given a couple of weeks to get a full charter and pay the initial deposit, this was back in October 2005 all we had to do was sit back and get organised. 

As we were going such a long way I decided I would extend my trip and visit Machu Picchu in Peru, I did my research and found a travel agent who could organise the trip for me, MP is a popular destination so I had to commit to certain aspects of the trip quite early on.  I had decided to stay overnight at MP and so chose a lovely hotel close to the site, I can’t tell you how many times I have looked at their website as I looked forward to the trip. 

In the summer of 2006 we were informed there would be some changes to our booking and we had to pay what should be a discretionary staff gratuity up front before our trip, some of the group weren’t happy with this and were given the option to cancel, they did and I bet they are glad they did.  The rest of us agreed reluctantly as another couple of hundred pounds wasn’t going to make too much difference.  We then had to find a few more people to fill the boat, we managed eventually which wasn’t too difficult as the BBC were running some programmes about Galapagos and the region. 

So yet again we sat back and waited, constantly checking the same websites and dive forums for trip reports to whet our appetite, July 2007 came round and we paid the balance for the dive portion of the trip, then on July 12 came a bombshell, I read on one the US dive forums that most of the boats had been confined to port as they weren’t operating with the correct permits. We contacted our dive operator for more information and where informed that they had been notified of the problems but these would soon be sorted out, our quest for information has been constant.  We are told something will happen and then it doesn’t so we wait again, then I read that the President of Ecuador has lifted the “illegal” sale of shark fins IF caught accidentally – yeh right so it seems he has declared open season on the sharks we are hoping to see.  I certainly don’t want to see dead sharks lying dead on the seabed and I don’t think any diver does. 

We heard that the boats could operate the southern islands only but then we hear that the boat we are due to be on has floated the current regulations and headed for the islands of Wolf and Darwin anyway, now they have been spotted and reported, jeopardising any future trips.  We gave our dive operator a deadline for information on a go no go but they have once more come back and asked for an extension, we have no choice but to comply.  I was due to pay the balance of my trip extension today (15^th) but because they were not able to extend my payment date for a few days I have decided not to pay the balance and therefore have cancelled that part of the trip I was particularly looking forward to, not least that I was going to meet my friend who lives in Oz after the dive trip and continue our trip together. 

I can’t explain how upset I am about the whole situation, the trip of a lifetime has turned into complete and utter frustration, the most frustrating aspect is the lack of accurate information we are getting and I seem to have more contact with a complete stranger on the other side of the Atlantic who is also in the same “boat”. 

August 15th, 2007 Posted by Fiona | Diving, Holidays | one comment