I packed my tent up in the dark as I had to be at Popes Quay Noss at 7:30am ready for Paul to collect me in his boat. The early morning start was due to needing the tide. I sat on a cold pier in Noss and at exactly 7:30am Paul arrived with the news that the cold prevented his boat engine starting so he’d take me round by car.
This was quite a long drive to get to Wembury on the other side of the Avon but the sun was still low when I got there and Wembury church stood against a pink sky.
Then it was walking on to Plymouth on a rocky stretch of coast dominated by Mewstone rock. Plymouth stood in the sunshine at the end of Plymouth sound.
It was here I did an interview for BBC Radio Devon sitting on a sunlit cliff. John the interviewer and I had a 20 minute chat which will obviously be shortened for broadcast.
Then I walked into Plymouth catching a neat little ferry along with a student with huge bucket of snails and another of live hermit crabs which she was studying. I nearly bought up the exciting scene in One Foot in the Grave where Angus Deaton gets his testicle grabbed by a hermit crab from Victor Meldrew’s but decided against it as it was only a three minute trip.
Then a walk along Plymouth Hoe to my hotel passing a statue of Drake. A slightly apologetic sign the Victorians had put up the statue “as they thought Drake was a hero”. The Victorians were in error as the man who saved us from the Spanish Armada had strong connections with the slave trade. So no more heroic Drake stories.
I reached my hotel for a three night break.