SIZZLING weather last weekend, with temperatures soaring into the 80s, brought visitors in their thousands into the county, with South East Cornwall getting its fair share.
Coinciding with the beginning of the long school summer holidays, the hot sun brought even more holidaymakers than expected, with a quarter of a million travelling into Cornwall between Friday and Saturday night.
But with the sun also came bumper to bumper chaos, with the A38s notorious traffic jam blackspot - Dobwalls - living up to its reputation.
All over the weekend there were queues up the hill leading through the village, and on Wednesday, traffic agencies were giving out warnings that vehicles were queued right back to Safeway roundabout to the East of Liskeard.
An accident on the road leading to the ferry on the Devonport side also caused chaos late on Tuesday afternoon. There was so much traffic in the ensuing hold up that vehicles travelling across from Torpoint could not get off the ferry until the road had been cleared.
The Tamar Bridge also had to cope with a huge increase in traffic, and all roads leading to popular holiday destinations were crammed to the limit. There were a lot of very hot holidaymakers sitting in long lines of stationary cars.
Added to the holiday traffic at the weekend were the extra movements caused by locals also wanting to get to the coast to soak up the sun.
However, the influx was a welcome relief for tourism operators, who have struggled during the foot and mouth crisis.
At Looe, the beach was packed solid, with hundreds of bathers enjoying the warm sea, and the picture was the same at Seaton, Whitsand Bay and Cawsand, and Par further down the coastline.
East Looe Town Town Trust, who own the port's popular family beach reported a record amount of rubbish waiting to be collected by Caradon Council on Monday morning. The large container on the seafront had as much rubbish piled outside as there was inside.
After pleas from the Trust, Caradon have agreed to up the town's collections to three a week during the peak period, instead of the usual two.
Sadly the break in the weather yesterday, Thursday, may have brought a halt to the heat-wave. Torrential rain caused power cuts in Looe and other areas and flooding on the St Cleer to Liskeard road.