The Last Day Of The “Wild West” Tour
Today’s Shooting Locations:
- St. Michael’s Mount (cancelled due to heavy rain)
- Newlyn Harbour
Well, the time has just flown and I’m very sad to say that this is the last day of the Cornwall “Wild West” photo tour from the amazing folks at Light & Land UK. We will finish today at 2:00PM so that everyone can return to their homes in good time. As for myself, I will be staying at the host hotel for another night, leaving tomorrow morning (more on that in a later posting).
We all got a bit of a sleep-in today as our dawn shoot was cancelled on account of the bad weather – it had been raining all night and, by early morning, it still was not fit for any kind of shooting, unless you were a duck with a camera.
After breakfast at the hotel our group boarded the vans and proceeded to Newlyn Harbour. Newlyn is a seaside town and bustling fishing port located only 1 mile from Penzance. It makes for a lovely walk if the weather is OK. The population of Newlyn is 4,432 (2011 census).
Newlyn Harbour is an extremely busy port, and more on the industrial side unlike the port in Cadgwith, which is very “old world” and charming. Prior to our group’s arrival at Newlyn Harbour, Clive and Phil (our group’s leaders) had arranged with the Harbour Quartermaster that we be allowed special access into the secured area where the fishing boats are docked and unloaded. This would allow for some great shots of the boats and harbour in action, as long as we all stayed out of the way of the working men there.
It was a fantastic opportunity and we worked the location like there was no tomorrow. I came away with a lot of images from this shoot, but have narrowed it down to these for the blog:
… then a quick Diddly-Diddly session…
It was getting on for later mid-day at this point and my stomach was talking to me, so I left the harbour and found a little cafe for lunch. Some local fishermen came into the cafe, sat down, then struck up a heated discussion with each other regarding a local contentious issue. It was quite entertaining (for me, at least) to hear them all talking simultaneously, rapidly and excitedly in their local dialect (I think it was English but I’m still not sure…).
After lunch, and prior to rejoining the group at 1:45PM, I wandered around Newlyn for a short while and took these few shots:
Our group left Newlyn Harbour and returned to the Artist Residence hotel. Most of our group had checked out earlier this morning and left their luggage at the hotel, so for them it was just a matter of retrieving bags, then departing for their homes.
It was an incredible flurry of activity as almost everyone said their goodbyes. Hugs and contact information were exchanged and everyone except for myself and two others flew out the hotel door to waiting trains, cabs or cars. I, and two of my colleagues, will be staying an extra night at the Artist Residence and will head out tomorrow.
Earlier that morning, before any of our team left, we posed for a group picture. A group shot on a tour’s last day, apparently, is a Light & Land UK tradition. Here is our motley crew:
All the goodbyes had been said and suddenly I was alone after so much activity and company for so many days – what an odd feeling. I then went to my room and got caught up on a couple of days of this blog.
Tomorrow I am checking out of the Artist Residence in Penzance and heading for Truro for a couple of nights. Truro is Cornwall’s only city (the other centres are all small villages and towns), with a population of about 19,000 people.
To close out my last evening in Penzance, I took a walk to the train station to retrieve the next day’s ticket to Truro. Along the way to the train station I encountered this mural, which I thought quite good. The Waterside Meadery is a large restaurant/pub in Penzance; this is the mural on the side of their building:
So the tour and day has drawn to a close. I’m sad to see it end but my Cornwall adventures are not entirely over yet and there’s more to come before I return to the reality of daily life in Toronto.
Over and out from Penzance for Tuesday.
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