Come on then, how about some coastline related webcams to look at? An admittedly very poor substitute for the real thing, but needs must…………

One thing I have always prided myself on is never taking where I live for granted. I grew up many miles away from the sea and when I came down to live in Plymouth to attend the university it was the first time in my life that I had ever had so much freely accessible saltwater fishing literally on my doorstep - and holy cow did I indulge myself and I continue to do so to this day. Not at the moment I might add, but I’ve been able to go out fishing as normally as one might go to the shops for nearly thirty years now, or as a family we can see what the weather’s like and then head off to the beach or the coast path in no time at all. I have never lost the thrill at living so close to the sea and in such a beautiful and relatively quiet part of the world, and I am being honest with myself when I say that I still don’t take these simple pleasures for granted………………

But how many times have I not gone fishing for some reason that to be totally honest need not have been a reason not to go? How many times as a family have we looked out at some achingly blue skies and not gone to the beach for whatever reason? Okay, it’s not as if we have to the beach to have a good time with where we are lucky enough to live, but with what we are all currently living through and with the restrictions on our movements that are in place, holy cow do I dream about walking on a quiet beach and feeling the sand squeaking like it does under my feet. Such a simple thing to do that so many people think little of, but how many of us are dreaming of the days when we can freely head out to our glorious coastline and engage in what we so love to do? Fishing, walking, sailing, surfing, you name it, the ocean does it for so many of us in so many awesome ways. It’s still there, it’ll be there when this is over, but how badly do we want to be out there right now when we’re not allowed to go?

On the purely fishing side of things and when I am trying to work out where to go fishing and so on, I reckon I’m in the same boat as many of you here when I say that I use any number of different resources to try and better inform my decision. From looking out the window to driving to the coast to have a look at water clarity, to checking various tide and weather and wind apps and websites, and of course having a look at various webcams which can sometimes help make up my mind. A lot of the webcams on something like Magic Seaweed which I might check on for fishing aren’t exactly set up for anything more than getting an idea of the sea conditions, but I wonder if there might be other coastline based webcams out there which do give one a more “look at me” view of sea and beaches and rocks and so on? I agree completely that looking at a webcam is a piss poor substitute for the real thing, but needs must during these difficult times?

I avoid areas such as Rock and Polzeath in north Cornwall like the plague because they are far too busy for me, but since I was born the area south of Padstow and around Trevose Head especially has been the place I have always gone on holiday with my family. I love this part of the world with a passion although I live in a very quiet part of Cornwall myself and I can pick and choose when to head up there to avoid the holiday crowds. There’s a decent looking webcam here that sweeps over what is currently an eerily quiet looking Polzeath beach and along the northern side of the Camel estuary and damn does it look pretty this morning! There’s a webcam here which looks across the Camel estuary from Rock across to Padstow which again looks rather empty this morning.

This blog post might fall flat on its face but I am trying my best to keep things going for those of you reading this who do live away from the coastline and/or might not be as fortunate as me and my family are with being able to easily get outside for some fresh air. If you know of any good looking coastal webcams then please drop a link to them in the comments section below and from time to time I can drop a few of them into some future blog posts. Who knows where on earth we are all going, but the world is still out there and I for one am clinging to some point in the future when I can try and catch a fish or yomp down the cliffs and go for a long walk along a stunning sandy beach. You all have the best weekend possible, please stay safe and well, and how much of a debt do we all owe to the awesome people in the NHS and so many other good folk who help keep us fed and watered and so on?