Thursday 5th November

Today we made a short journey of 20 miles (32 kilometres) to a nice parking place overlooking some small uninhabited islands just outside the city of A Coruna.

There is some public art here.

This arch adorns the nearby roundabout.

As the tide got low quite a few lads in wetsuits turned up and swam over to the islands - we assumed to collect the local delicacy - barnacles.

 

A rain squall came in from the Atlantic just as a massive cruise ship was passing.

It really was a big ship! 

What happened next was quite extraordinary. I did not try to photograph any of it for fear of being implicated. As the barnacle hunters swam back from the islands and climbed ashore the local police turned up and tried to apprehend them! It was like a cops and robbers movie with barnacle hunters running around in their wetsuits and the police trying to find ways to get close to them. At times the barnacle hunters abandoned their catch only to come back to it when the police weren't looking. The barnacle hunters used several different vehicles to try to confuse the police. In the end I think there were no arrests but I'm not too sure. I presume that either: (a) it is illegal to collect barnacles here, or (b) barnacles are out of season, or (c) these lads don't have barnacle collecting licences.