Snow Joke

The first day of the Autumn half-term holiday was the last day of British Summer Time.
WHY?
I would love to know the rationale behind this decision. Why would anyone think it is a good idea to delay the school holiday until after the clocks have changed, resulting in darkness falling earlier?
We could have ignored the extra hour and remained on BST throughout the week, but it would have caused havoc trying to fit in with opening hours.
In a feeble attempt to squeeze the most out of our shortened afternoons, we decided to head down to Cornwall - a county we have not visited much in recent years, apart from odd forays over the Tamar on days out, when we have been holidaying in south Devon.

Our rental cottage at Gorran Haven was not available until 4pm, but as we had no idea how much traffic we would encounter we set off around 8:30am, allowing us plenty of time for roadworks and traffic jams.
The previous week, when other parts of the country had their half term, had included some very fine weather. However, as we headed towards our great escape, the forecast was looking increasingly dismal.
Great. Just great.

We had a plan for our journey which included a stop for lunch at a beauty spot just off the A30, when we could enjoy a well-deserved break from the confines of the car.
As we journeyed we commented on the dramatic skies around us. By some good fortune, we seemed to miss the rain, which appeared to pass to the south or north of us.
Reports from the advance party indicated that hailstorms were making their presence felt in the St Austell area.
"WoW! Well, the sky WAS very dark!"



We crossed the border into Cornwall. Not long after we passed Launceston we noticed that the higher land was paler than we would expect, as it looked like hail had fallen here too.
Then we experienced our very own wintery shower, as first hail and then the unmistakeable splatters caused by flakes of snow landed on our windscreen.
We stared in disbelief!
"SNOW!!! It is only October and this is Cornwall!"
So much for my grand plan of hanging on to the last dregs of summer by travelling west.
This was the point at which we had planned to turn off the A30 and have a picnic.
In my mind, I had planned sunshine, preferably just a gentle breeze, with temperatures around 14 degrees centigrade, or higher.
The reality was a bleak wintery shower with the temperatures just above zero!

We missed the first turning, but DH took the second, dropping anchor and turning abruptly off the nearest thing Cornwall has to a motorway and on to a single track road covered in white wintery precipitation.
I had no idea if we were about to skid off the road.
"I am not sure if this is such a good idea..." I said, voicing my misgivings about travelling on an untreated minor road, given the unexpectedly early arrival of winter.
"We are here now!" replied DH, who likes to stick to a plan once it is made.
I could not fault the truth of his statement and tried not to panic too much, as we inched along in this winter wonderland.


Our next obstacle was a herd of cows, who were enjoying grazing the grass either side on this single track road and were not that keen to move to allow us to pass.
DH drove on very slowly, as cows to the left and right activated the sensors with a series of beeps. Fortunately, the cows heard the sensors and took this as an encouragement to move away from our car, rather than boot it.



We stopped by the stream and ate our picnic, inside the car, sheltering from the artic blast.
It was around this point that I realised that we had forgotten to bring our picnic chairs...
By now the skies had cleared and the sunshine had returned. After lunch DH and I got out of the car and wandered around, but the KHT stayed inside the car, complained that it was far too cold to get out.









We continued our journey, passing vehicles that were in the process of being recovered after leaving the road, presumably during the earlier wintery showers. There but for the grace of God...





We found our bungalow easily. Having unloaded the car we decided to take advantage of the last evening of British Summer Time by going down to the nearby beach.


A small group gathered on the harbour wall to enjoy the last rays of the final day of BST.
We had come prepared with ingredients for our dinner, but the chippie was open so we thought it would be a good idea to support the local economy, especially as they offered gluten-free batter for DH.

The food was cooked to order and was totally delicious. I might even get round to writing a review for TripAdvisor! They deserve a good review!