The day didn’t get under way until 9am when the children woke up…. We ended up in bed before the children who were too hot, too excited and too restless to sleep! Pastries for breakfast followed by showering everyone lead into a nice coffee and chat with some passing admirers of freckle!

I think Caroline has just about mastered the art of getting up to her bed, but hasn’t realised, much to the surprise of the French man walking his cat ( yes, a cat on a lead!) that any talking your bottom does can be easily heard outside the van! The poor fella thought he was staying opposite a couple of hot girls and got his thoughts rudely interrupted by a trump which shattered the illusion!

We headed to the beach to have a paddle, Fraser was completely obsessed about going in the sea in his wet suit. We had a wonderful time in and out of the sea, and playing on the beach before we headed back to a little cafe and had a bite to eat whilst we watched all the cockle pickers taking their boats into the sea with tractors. The beach is a bay and we understand that they go out in boats to collect the cockles but we aren’t too sure what they are catching.

This morning whilst at the beach, the tide started to go out,revealing a wonderful tidal swimming pool…. I’d never seen anything like it but it just emerged and all of a sudden was hitting us in the face! Caroline educated the kids by saying that we needed to check it for sharks first.(which reminded me of her interview when she we asked her what risks she would asses before the children first arrived, thinking along the lines of checking for broken toys, when the answer we got was to check for spiders! Woolston spiders are known for being hairy at worst!)

After the children slept and we chilled for a couple of hours, we packed our bag and headed to the beach in search of the pool…. Whilst we were waiting we watched all the locals ritually loading up with nets and belts with baskets on. We had no idea what they were up to but it was fascinating to watch.

As we got closer we saw them all at the mouth of the bay, the tide was totally out and they were doing something with tennis rackets attached to fishing nets. We went to Investigate and found they were catching prawns! And we could see them swimming by our feet! A huge regret is not having the camera as we moved on. There was a mussle farm answer watched them harvest the moules and we chatted about what we could pick and they told us where we could get moules. We also saw the ropes of baby mussels and the ones that had rotted through.
Really really amazing afternoon, we also found hermit crabs, the prettiest shells you’ll ever sea and much to the children’s delight….. The swimming pool!

A BBQ for tea with local bread and ribs rounded off by a local band in the cafe with an ice cream for the scamps!! A late bed but wonderful day! If this is the holidays I blinking love it!

I’m now sitting nursing a glass of wine (Roche mazet -dad and stew!) enjoying the sound of the sea and the gentile sea breeze….. Bon nuiit
Xxx