Frosty, tanned and tattooed with a radiant smile, who is aptly named as he is cool af, spends the majority of his time removing plastics and other single use pollution from beaches, rivers and lay-bys around Cornwall. Being a fanatical surfer in his earlier days he built a harmonic, serendipitous connection with the ocean and its inhabitants. One year, Frosty told me he had given up all of his hobbies and began focussing solely on beach cleaning; he admitted to doing a beach clean almost every single day that year! It's no surprise he's built a large following of appreciators, from locals, to people thousands of miles away. Quite the legend we think.
Myself (Adam, RA founder) & Rat Assed Lee hit the road for the annual Cornish van expedition. All intentions of having a great time, hitting up as many beaches as possible, beach cleaning & getting Rat Assed. After a good four days of doing exactly that, exploring breath taking golden, rugged Cornish beaches, we were excited to finally, on the fifth day, go and meet Frosty. I had been excited to spend some time with Frosty ever since finding his Instagram account Turn The Tide Cornwall.
We woke up that morning, headed to the local super market so Rat Assed Lee could drop a cheeky chocolate bomb and made our way over to Frosty's hometown. We hit up a lay-by on the way (after I thought I could smell a fire coming from the back of the van), which fortunately just turned out to be sun-drunk delirium. The lay-by, like I see often on Turn The Tide Cornwalls story's was a mistreated filth. We filled a black sack easily and continued on our way.
Arriving at Frosty's we were greeted with a beaming smile, I was shown around some of the recent treasure finds, all very cool vintage bottles, jars, lids, some in immaculate condition, from a dig at a top secret location ;). Frosty also enjoys "mud-larking", which basically involves getting down and dirty close to rivers, scavenging interesting and sometimes valuable items.
We headed over to the River Fowey, (pronounced "Foy"), which is famous for its sailing due to its natural harbour. We inflated our paddle boards and hit the water. Luckily for Lee who has the balance of a single legged rhino, Frosty's inflatable was a two seater kayak. We headed up the river in the direction of the Moors, the wind was blowing a hoolie in the opposite direction providing quite the workout.
We were shown different spots along the river where litter often collected, spot cleaning as we went. We were told one certain embankment once harboured close to a hundred balls, carelessly lost by dog owners. We asked lots of questions and received interesting and sometimes worrying answers. Unfortunately people often get sick bathing in the Fowey, if you'd like to know more about the state of our water-ways here in the UK, it's worth checking out the work Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) are doing combating the issues.
We paddled up a small inlet off to the left of the river, where the wildlife seemed to come out of hiding, including a big gaggle of geese with their young. The sun was shining and the water down this inlet looked clear and beautiful. The tide was quickly rising so we had to put the boards on higher ground whilst we trudged down the river, keeping an eye out for any unusual objects and of-course, litter. Frosty's luck was in as he found a vintage lid of some sort. Time seemed to have flown by, we paddled back to the jetty and had some lunch from the new local catering food truck. There's also a free-entry farming museum, where you can take a look at all the old tractors and machinery, very cool and somewhat eerie to look at!
We finished up the day with ciders down at Shoreside Carylon, where they have live music all throughout the summer, a brilliant vibe. They have recently started an incentive, anyone who fills a whole bag of litter from the beach, gets a free pint! We can fully get behind this at Rat Assed, an absolute win-win! More beachfront venues need to introduce this same incentive. Maybe a free ice cream for the kids?!
Naturally Lee and I spent the next afternoon cleaning at Shoreside Carlyon, and are proud to say we were the first to cash in on the incentive. Followed by more ciders with Frosty. Lee got a little too Rat Assed!
Overall brilliant trip! We love you Cornwall and we love you and all your efforts Mr Frost! I hope you enjoy rocking your new Mad About Litter Rat Assed T-Shirt! And thank you for the Turn The Tide Cornwall Hoodie, I wear it proudly!
Be sure to check out Frosty's instagram account and show support, he is one in million!
Until the next time.
Adam & Rat Assed Lee
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