One of the things on list coming down to cornwall this time was a cycle along the camel Trail from Padstow up to Bodmin and back, take some photos and fly the drone. It’s easy enough to pick a rental bike up so no need to bring my own down.
I have done it few times and it’s a nice steady 30 mile cycle ride. When I set off from Camborne this morning weather wasn’t too bad, a bit grey but patches of blue sky so no worries. Padstow was a different planet. The rain had set in and the wind was starting howl up the Camel Estuary. I was soaked just going to the parking meter in to pay for a ticket so time for a change of plan.
Fortunately the harbour carpark in Padstow is home to the Lobster hatchery and Marine Conservation Project. Along the other end of the carpark is Rick Stein’s fish and chip restaurant. So thats lunch sorted at the very least😃
The Lobster Hatchery was started in 2000 as a response to the decline in stocks after the Scandinavian fisheries had collapsed altogether and it looked like the British stocks were heading the same way due to overfishing.
Local fishermen bring in female lobsters with their eggs and they are kept till the eggs hatch.
There are upwards of 10,000 to 100,000 eggs but the young lobster are tiny and in the wild very few grow to be adults.
Once hatched the young lobsters are separated and looked after till they are a few months old and able to fend for themselves in the wild.
They keep some till they are a year or two old to show the lifecycle.
Once they are old enough to be released local divers take them down and set them free in a suitable habitat where they can hide and grow up a bit in the wild before becoming lunch in Ricks restaurant.
There are also some monsters that have been donated by Fishermen or Divers.
The water must be cold this one has turned blue.
Since the last time I was there the Hatcher has been extended with an educational section upstairs.
It will take around an hour to get round so the entry fee isn’t too steep and you can use the ticket to get back in again for upto a year, if you back in Padstow
And how was the Fish and chips I hear you Hivers ask?
Rick Stein owns most of this section of the harbour along with a delicatessen and a cookery school with a couple restaurants in town the locals some times call it Padstein.
Fish and chips was very nice thank you 😃 even if I did have to eat it in the TT as inside the fish and chip shop was full with people escaping the rain.
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