Loads of photos linked with our Saturday in Devon. Following on from my last post (didn't know you knew the bugle - music ed) we woke up reasonably early on Saturday. Well, I suppose it depends on how you determine "early" and "Saturday", suffice to say we were up, breakfasted and off to the coast by 11am.
Now, many years ago, (pleistocene - prehistory ed) I undertook to walk a part of the South West Coastal Path, by myself. Well, originally a number of my friends had agreed to come too, but as the time came towards the kick-off date, they all, one by one, apologised and decided not to come, leaving me to do it all by myself (round of ahhs please from the assorted readers - circumlocution ed).
Why am I harking on about this? Well, hold your horses, and you at the back there stop that Alpacca from making that noise. The point I am going to make (eventually it seems - ed), is that on the second day of my, oh so lonesome (put at sock in it - ed) walk I came across a spot of the path near Torquay which turned out to make quite a mark on me. (Did you fall off the path into an alternate realityu? Did the path on the edge of the cliff fall into the sea moments after you walked it? Were you dive bombed by a flock of seagulls? Ooh this is so exciting - bring it on - ed)
Shall I continue, or have you more to say, and you at the back put a muzzle on that Alpacca! What a disturbing noise it makes.
The point I am trying to get to (if you are given the chance, hee hee - ed) is that almost at the end of second day of the walk from Dawlish to Torquay, I came across a spot just off the path that left an indelible mark on me. My feet were killing me, I had blisters on both feet (I do have a photo of one of them - they are available on demand to suitably qualified blister sufferers - ed) and I was very very tired, so when I spotted a park bench with a view out to sea I hobbled over to it and sat down.
I took off my walking boots very gingerly and then the socks, revealing blisters that were the size and shape of a couple of shallots... well one shallot on each foot, so yes, my feet were an utter mess, the problem would come later when trying to put the socks and boots back on!
After a few moments, I settled down to lie along the bench and I drifted off into a light doze. The sun was shining on me, there was a light breeze rustling the trees (and very importantly the soles of my feet - ed), the sea was gently crashing into the rocks below the cliff and gulls were cawing to one another as they soared on the thermals lifting them up above the cliffs and high into the sky. I drifted in and out of sleep for around an hour or so, before waking finally as the sun was lost behind some clouds bringing the temperature swiflty down and causing me to shiver myself awake.
It took a few moments before I became fully conscious and at that moment I felt the most at peace with myself and the world that I had ever felt in my life. I would like to say that I had some fabulous insight but I think that the combination of the tiredness, the fabulous view and the natural sounds emanating all around me just brough me a serenity that I had never felt before. So, all in all a very special place.
Putting the socks and boots on again, was to say the least problematical, I managed to limp down the hill into Torquay proper and fortunately the blisters failed to burst...I am never sure whether it is better to have the burst or not?
So let's fast foward from May 2002 back to the present May 2014. Now, I had talked about this spot to Bridget and so given wer were in Devon and not that far away she wanted me to take her to the this place that I had waxed lyrical about it on more than one occasion (broken record anyone - ed)
Now, I had a reasonable idea where it was, but I had never walked there again or indeed been there by car. So after a number of twists and turns in the car, we eventually found ourselves in a car park off Anstey Cove Road (most important it was a free car park - finance ed).
I reckoned if we walked along the SWCP towards Torquay for a while we would come across the exact spot. So, for those of you who have managed to get this far, the photos on the link show views from along the path, as we worked our way westerly from Anstey Cove to Thatcher Point.
Now, the walk was a little longer and a lot more hilly than I remembered, and Bridget (bless - ed) is not that great at hills and was wearing the wrong kind of footgear, in fact very girly red sandals, not the kind well walked in, wornm hardened old leather sandals that I have walked ten of miles in, so she was starting to suffer on the potential blister front. Needless to say, we got to Thatcher point and then went down the hill a little and found a spot almost but not quite the one I had found, and I left her to recover, whilist I went back to collect the car and pick her up.
Strangely, even though it was not the exact place, she was quite moved by it, the waves, the seagulls, the wind and the sun were all similar to the event 12 years ago and she found it a beautiful tranquil spot, that is until some Polish girls arrived and turned on a loud radio.
From here we drove to Shaldon, parked up and took the foor passenger ferry to Teignmouth and had another late lunch. Strangely I didn't have HE&C (Ham, Egg and Chips - foodie ed) but had peri-peric chicken in a bun at the Riviera on the sea front. Was fine, but nothing to write home about. We wandered about Teignmouith for another hour or so, and found on our wanderings that all the interesting pubs are to the north of the harbour if you face Shaldon (that is to your right - travel ed) - looked like a good place to have a pub crwal in - and in fact we had spotted what appeared to be Stag Do in progress whilst we were eating lunch. They were all dressed in football costumes, and were not a patch on the guys in the Yellow Wigs and bright red shirts that I spotted in Bristol the other week.
We took the ferry back to Shaldon, collapsed into the car and headed back to Abbotskerswell for a date with a swimming pool and a body massaging water jet at The Priory.
I could go on a bit more, for those that have reached this far, well done and I need to sign off for the moment.
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