Ailsa and Andy’s Travels: Day 39 St Austell Brewery Ozzy

Another day at sea… I went to a really interesting talk by Rob Forkan, who’s the founder of a flip flop company called Gandys, but it’s the reason behind the company that’s interesting. Rob and his 3 siblings were on a family holiday in Sri Lanka in 2004 when the Boxing Day Tsunami hit the island they were all staying on. His parents died in the Tsunami but Rob (who was the oldest child - 17 at the time of the tsunami hitting) managed to save his 3 younger siblings, hitchhike with them 300 miles across Colombia with no belongings, passports or money, and get them all on a flight back to the UK. Rob and his brother have since set up a successful company called Gandy’s which sells flip flops all round the world with the aim of funding and setting up children’s homes, primarily in Sri Lanka. It was a very inspiring talk and quite moving to hear the horror of the tsunami first hand. He found his two younger siblings clinging on to the top of two coconut trees. 230,000 people were killed in the Tsunami which had waves of up to 30m and travelled at 500mph at its peak.

This evening was formal night so Andy had to squeeze into his kilt and everyone was dressed up to the nines, some in roaring 20’s style! After dinner we ended up chatting to a lovely Australian couple called Ray and Linda who were from Adelaide. Ray looked about 65, but he turned out to be 80, and still working as a magistrate! They were on a trip to Southampton to then head down to Cornwall. When they had visited the UK previously, they had stopped at a random pub in Devon and were sitting at the bar having a drink when Ray noticed a photo of his grandpa behind the bar. After much discussion it was established that his grandfather was one of the founders of the St Austell brewery! They visited it the next day and were shown lots of the original artefacts and archives relating to his grandfather.

There we go, another day dusted off and another clock change tonight: -1hr. Great, an extra hour in bed, we quite like these 25hour days!