Message in a bottle connects Devon and Cornwall pen pals

An eight-year-old girl has found herself a pen pal after tracking down the sender of a message in a bottle.

Rosa Dustan discovered the letter from Charlie Martin, six, from Cornwall, while walking on South Milton beach in Devon with her family.

Mum Laura Dustan was "amazed" to find the message, which survived about 70 miles by sea from Porthcurnick beach.

Charlie said he started sending the messages after learning people in the "olden days" did not have phones.

He explained the message was thrown into the sea on 23 January while he walked with his sister and grandparents.

The letter was found by the Dunstan family six days later.

The message contained the name of the farm in Cornwall Charlie lives on, and Mrs Dunstan was able to message the family on Facebook the day it was found.

She said: "So now my children have found a friend and they're planning to write a letter to him.

"You just don't come across that very often.

"It was just something really nice, because at the moment everything is doom and gloom about Covid, it was nice to find something that made us all smile and got the kids really excited."

Rosa said: "We went home and dried it all off and we saw there was a letter from this little boy called Charlie.

"It was really amazing because I never really find stuff in the water."

Charlie's mum Kate Martin said he was "absolutely tickled pink" his message in a bottle had been found.

She said Charlie had "persisted" putting the messages in rivers and the sea after being taught about them in school, dropping off about 10 of them before the Dunstans found the most recent.

Charlie said: "I learned in the olden days they didn't have phones, so came up with an idea to send messages in the bottle myself.

"We went to the rocks when the tide was going out and my grandad threw it out really deep into the sea."

Follow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].