Things didn't quite work out as planned today.

It was a beautiful day. Brilliant sunshine and blue sky with not a cloud in sight. I was forced to put on some suntan lotion, and even then my face got a bit burnt. I even had to concede defeat and buy a pair of Jandals to wear.

We were planning to go to Truro and stay on a farm that used Shire horses to work the farm.

On the way towards Plymouth, we detoured off the main road because Lynette had been hunting for English wildflower seeds and there was a large garden shop there. And they were having a 50% reduction on most seeds. She loaded up and now we will have to visit the MAF department when we land at Auckland Airport.

Further down the main road we spotted a sign to a monkey refuge. Unfortunately the signs were spasmodic and after a detour that took us in the opposite direction, we landed up in Looe. We never did see monkey refuge signs.

Looe turned out to be an interesting place. It's an old fishing village which now earns its main income from tourists, although there are a few fishing boats working from the town. I'm not sure if it's a river or simply an inlet that the town bridge is across, but the tide change looks to be pretty aggressive as all the boats have sheerlegs fitted to them, to stop them falling over when the tide goes out.

It's an old town with very narrow streets, and is now better off for the sale of one pair of Jandals. We did try some genuine Cornish Pasties, but they are not our first choice for food. Lynette's kept coming back and I could only get half way through mine. We weren't allowed to feed the seagulls as the local council bans that.

After we left Looe, we headed towards Truro via Indian Queens, where there is an owl refuge. It was a bit tricky to find, but there were more signs than we have seen on other attractions, so we made it.

The complex has about 50+ large cages each housing one or two owls. It's usually one if the birds have been raised by and imprinted onto humans. The the owls don't think of themselves as owls but small humans. After all, they have two legs too.

It was a great collection of feathered critters, ranging from a little Indian Scop about eight inches high to some really large owls that are nearly three feet tall. They had about a dozen birds out of the enclosures, sitting quietly on stands and if you were lucky, one of the attendants, would bring a bird up to you. Some could be patted and others just admired. For a modest fee for 30 minutes, you could hold them, and were given a glove. The attendant would then bring a range of birds and put them on your arm. Members of your family could then take photos. We weren't that lucky, but did get some pretty close encounters with a number of owls.

You could also join the “Owl in the Park” gang. You sat on the grass, and an attendant brought two hand reared fluffy Moreporks out to run around and be patted. I never realised until today that the Morepork is simply another refugee from Australia that we are looking after.

We also met a Kiwi at the Owl park. He runs the cafeteria and left Dunedin 20 years ago. He's hoping to go back next year, for a visit.

After the Owls, we left to look for our Truro B&B. We had an address and a printout of the Google Maps locations, so one would think it would be easy to find. The instructions said that it was at the end of the lane. The word “lane” scares me, as it normally indicates that the road runs out of width. There's no numbers, of course, so you have to set the GPS to the midpoint of the road and follow your nose from there. 

 We did this and also stopped and asked directions, not all of which made sense. We kept following the lanes, but none seemed to have ends, and branched off in other directions. In the end, after bashing our way along a road that was so narrow that both sides of the car were being scraped by the greenery, at the same time, we stopped again to ask. The reply was to go back along the road that would be seen as a modest farm track in NZ, to where we had come from.

We phoned the person running the B&B and left message saying that we couldn't find the place and giving them ten minutes to get back to us. After all, Lynette had told them that we would be there around 6PM and we were right on time. Ten minutes later, we called to say that it was all off and headed for Falmouth 20+ minutes down the rod.

We checked into a flash hotel on the cliff overlooking the beach. Our cheap room doesn't get the sea views but we can hear the seagulls. We wandered down to the town and had dinner. Prices are a bit more expensive here compared to other locations. 

Above and Below - Various models of local plank that are available in Cornwall. 

Note the sheerlegs on the left side of the boat, to stop it falling over

Look at the date on this buikding 1456.

The launches sit in cradles so that they dont fall over when the tide goes out.

A member of the public handling the spectacled owl.

This poor Morepork is called Ozzie.

The common Barn Owl

Gandalf is a beautiful young owl from the Arctic

Above and Below - This owl is a big bird

Above and Below - Gandalf entertaining the public with his show.

This young Kestrel also put on a show.  Not sure how it came to be with the owls.