The Coast Of Cornwall
Martin Clunes….you may know him as Doc Martin…. Was waiting waiting to greet us outside of the small pastie shop, as we walked down the steep hill into Port Isaac. At least a lifesize cardboard cut out was
With hoots of laughter from all of us I stepped inside and bought six hot pasties. The aroma in the small shop was delicious!
I passed them around, remembering to tell everyone to ‘watch out for the seagulls’. They grabbed their bags and began munching hungrily.
I immediately noticed that these were actually Devonshire pasties and NOT Cornish pasties….. good I thought… much better!!
We stepped across the narrow street, avoiding other visitors, as we strained to look over the wall and down into the bay beneath. A number of small pleasure boats and a lonely crabbing boat sat down on the sands….. the tide was out. Moored to long anchor chains that stretched down the beach, they looked as though they were ‘at rest’. It was a colourful and pretty sight.
A few more yards down the hill and I stopped to tell everyone about the old schoolhouse…. A formidable Victorian structure, whitewashed against the elements and perched atop the cliffs, and of course some admirers of the TV show had questions to ask about its roll in the popular series.
As we stood there, I spotted a leery eyed gull, take off from the school parapets…..too late, I knew that someone was going to lose their lunch.
It tucked and dived, ……. The pastie was stolen out of the young woman’s hand, and with a shriek, she jumped back!
Another gull I hadn’t seen, double tagged us, and the gentleman to my left lost a sizeable piece of his pastie.
It was carnage…….. potato, pastrie and meat flew into the street and other passers-by took a wide birth…. All I could do was laugh!
Everyone laughed with glee at the onslaught and I’m sure that even today, they all remember their excursion into Port Isaac because of the seagull ambush