Sun shining, birds singing and blue water beckoning. We drove down to Helford Passage and took a short ferry ride across to Helford Village. 
Small boats and buoys float on the Helford River.
A narrow lane lined with hedgerows of a ghostly white mist (the delicate blossom of the blackthorn) leads from the ferry point into the village. Finches flit from one side of the lane to the other, others sing merrily in the bushes and all the while the warmth of the sun intensifies the coconut fragrance of the deep yellow gorse flowers.
A pretty white-washed, thatched cottages, cute welcoming pub, type of Cornish village greets you, with even a General Stores! If only all Cornwall’s villages were this pretty.
Walking around the village only takes a few minutes – it isn’t big. But you can stroll through woodland, at this time of year delightfully sunny, wild primroses, violets, wild angelica and early ransomes with their light garlic fragrance, line the banks. Periwinkle in shades from white through palest lavender to deepest purple clamber over the dry stone walls, and red and white campion, yellow celandine and the common daisy are raising their heads to the sun.
A circular walk takes you to Kestle Barton which has a cultural centre (closed on a Monday) and on towards Frenchman’s Creek. Now anyone who is a fan of Daphne du Maurier will have heard of this place and I had to have a closer look, despite it involving a steep walk down (and naturally back up) a rather steep track.
Finding the creek though was magic. Especially as there were several white egrets feeding there. Of course as soon as I appeared with camera in hand, they flew away. But I enjoyed a short walk alongside the water with its tantalisingly flashes of blue and green appearing to me between the trees. I could have continued around the headland back to Helford, but as I had left the OH on a particularly lovely granite bench at the top of the track I had to head back the way I had come.
Back to the other side of the river we spent a pleasant hour or two at the Ferryboat Inn, supping ginger beer with ice and lime slices and watching hardy children play in the water and the fog rolling in from the south. An agreeable way to spend the afternoon.
If you enjoy a walk, long or short, then have a look at Jo’s site where you are welcome to join in. And I am sure she will forgive me using a boat on part of this walk as I know Jo is extremely partial to boats and water 🙂
Pure magic in your photos. What a rewarding outing. I read about it in “Waterlog” last year, (highly recommend by Laurence Mitchell), thanks for sharing this! Selma is now eagerly putting it on out must see list, quite high up. 🙂
I can see Selma here. It is a fairy sort of place 🙂
Indeed! 🙂 Fayriedust coming your way, Jude. ###
According to Wikipedia, the first part of the name Helford comes from the Cornish word heyl, meaning ‘estuary’, so Helford was apparently a place for fording an estuary.
Sounds about right – there is a place called Hayle / Heyl on the north coast which is also on an estuary.
Beautiful, must go again and this time properly explore Frenchman’s Creek 🙂
I wish I had learned to kayak – it would be a lovely place to explore by boat.
We had a canoe in the States, one of those aluminium ones, and we often used to go out in it exploring. Great fun. We also did a bit of kayaking in Franch last year too. You should try it if you get the opportunity, it’s really easy. Just make sure to wear a life jacket at all times!!!
Jude, I’ll be catching up here slowly after recent events and only just getting back on track with a major catch up (my brother was taken suddenly very ill but is slowly recovering thank goodness) and just wanted you to know why I’ve been MIA xx
Sorry to hear that Sherri – hope things continue to improve for him, it’s such a shock when things happen suddenly. Take your time… I’m not going anywhere, yet!
There are a couple of heart stopping photos on here, Jude! That shot of the creek, and the lovely old boathouse are among my favourites. Thank you for thinking of me. I’m impressed that you are managing to go on blogging while you’re down there. 🙂 And you’ve done ok with the weather! Happy hols!
You’ve created a lovely ‘virtual’ outing! It all looks so idyllic, and Kenneth Graham would have approved the “Messing about … ” part 🙂
Delightful!
I see I have been here with you before Jude, but such a lovely walk well worth a second look. So photogenic
It is a lovely spot. Very pretty and very tranquil, at least on the occasions we have been there.