Cotehele in late October

Remember the teaser photo after a couple of posts back? I was referring to a little outing one sunny, mild afternoon in October to a place not far away from home - Cotehele (pronounced coat -eel).

So here's a snapshot of the rest of that afternoon (at last!)

Expecting a quiet amble along the woodland path, I was somewhat surprised to find that lots of people had had the same idea and the car parks were almost full.

But there are many paths that crisscross this huge estate so it was possible to get away from the madding crowd and listen to the birdsong.

While I rested on a handy seat, Benji did his usual trick of 'guarding' the path from all-comers; he sits there, watching them approach, then refuses to budge so that they have to take avoiding action and go around him.  Once they have passed, he gets up and wanders around again.  Little monkey!

Now Zac always took the opportunity to get a drink from this underground stream which surfaces at the side of the path, but Benji refuses to get his feet wet so he misses out.

My eye was caught by the sight of a mast floating along above the reeds . . . 

. . . . so we made our way to Cotehele Quay for a clearer view.

Considering the time of year, river traffic was busier than I've seen in a long time, with craft coming along in both directions.

However, 'Shamrock', the Tamar sailing barge, owned by The National Trust, was sheltered by a huge tarpaulin cover, undergoing maintenance and restoration.  I found a handy spyhole and poked my camera inside.  There's a website devoted to the 'Shamrock' - http://shamrock-cotehele.blogspot.com/p/all-about-shamrock.html

And so another visit to Cotehele ended; we made our way back to the car, hoping to get away before everyone else had the same idea.  We did!!!