Sun day update, the sun came out and we wandered in the St Gothian Nature Reserve.
The sea was beautiful, but didn’t call us fearful of a sandy bed on our return. Beaches with fine sand are for the last day of a mini-break when we don’t have to sleep on a bed that furry paws have embellished with sand.
Tramping about on sand dunes does not seem to have the same effect.
On our return we found a very cosy church, filled with colour.
And a grave that celebrated the life of the archaeologist who researched the extensive history of humans in this magical part of Cornwall.
Unusually his wife, a prolific writer is commemorated on the edges of his grave.
Thank goodness for a photo archive. We are off for our annual end of the summer weekend in the campervan. The good weather however has not come with us. Just one good photo from our evening walk.
One good photo.
Photos aside we had a great long coastal walk exploring all the old tiny bungalow and chalet lanes where pre and post war dwellings are being turned into minimalist architects holiday aspirations. In accordance with the end of the season. All cafes closed at 4pm. We set off at 4:30 and by 7:30 when we returned we were wearily in need of a cup of tea and a wee.Triumphant though because we had managed to stay one foot ahead of ominous rain clouds that hovered just across the bay.
2023
Nobody needs to see those rain clouds so the same bay from 2023 will bring much better quality joy. Although the National Trust does use a photo that I could have taken today to advertise the area.
Possibly the most prolonged and windiest nights of our camping career brought the rain, eventually, to our sliding, campervan door. Today may be a book day.
Mythical creatures on a mystical night. We camped overnight under a full moon and read books about mythical creatures.
As luck would have it the mythical creature in the book was a Leviathan which we had visited earlier in the day.
Overlooking Plymouth Sound for overnight camping we were not troubled by the low sad songs of unhappy Leviathans. Instead they jumped and frolicked in the bright moonlight which was untroubled by clouds or any other weather predicament.
The Leviathan and a full moon at StonehouseThe Leviathan and Plymouth Hoe
It helps, of course, that Nana drew a Leviathan a few years ago.
For tide-time reasons we have moved to another bay for our evening swims this week. The peaceful arrival of a Tall Ship was in marked contrast to the business- like Naval vessels or Ferries that keep us fascinated at Firestone Bay.
Mount Batten was a prehistoric trading port, dating back to the Iron Age. It has been a key location for the defence of Plymouth and was an Air Force Base where Lawrence of Arabia was stationed. It has, over time, developed into a water sports hub since the Air Force moved out. All a bit hotch potch with no clear development plan. The area is currently in the process of being upgraded and made more attractive to tourists and visitors of all sorts. I suspect I have never mentioned it in a blog but it is a regular spot for us to dog walk and sometimes camp overnight. Free parking by a beach is always a good thing.
The sea temperature this week is a balmy 16 degrees C. Last year the waters of Plymouth Sound never reached such heights, even during August or September so to do so by July 1st is quite lovely.
Another lovely thing is to swim , drink a cup of tea and then go straight to sleep after a gorgeous sunset. No shower, just lovely salty skin and slightly damp hair. The damp dogs are less appealing.
Farewell June, you were a funny month. One moment too hot to handle and the next, raining so hard that unusual places flooded. And then in the middle of another heatwave a sea mist rolled in and we could barely see which way to swim.
Swimming with fog horns.
Welcome to July 1st,🌞lets see what interesting weather you have in store for us.
Saturday arrived with a nasty twist in its tail. Hannah has Covid
She felt rotten but the sun was out. We do still take Covid seriously in this house and choose not to mingle with people. But a campervan to lurk in is a perfect plan . A bed on wheels that can be parked anywhere is a great solution.
Wembury was our destination of choice and by 4pm we were the only people about. A nearly monotone walk occurred.
Hiding out in a van with limited phone signal gave me the chance to read a whole print edition Saturday Newspaper. So complete is my reading that I can fully justify buying a Sunday one. Happiness gleaned from adversity.
#900, I should write something epic and meaningful. And as it happens I can say that yesterday just like life, was about the journey not the destination. Although the destination was certainly the plan.
Cawsand, as viewed from the round window was the destination, but the weather got in the way. Heavy rain kept us prisoners in the van in a rather dull carpark so we chose to relocate to a car park with views . We had lunch, books and newspapers with us and all the facilities of our campervan. We drove to Maker Church and enjoyed the views. There are footpaths from Maker that link to the nearby South West Coastal path, we have parked there often. But never since we have had a camper van and the luxury to enjoy a lunch with comfy seats and a view. Then the rain stopped. The church and churchyard were bathed in bright sunlight. We decided to walk the dogs in the ancient churchyard.
The old churchyard was full of blue and white bluebells and a smattering of wild garlic.
The fragrance as the hundreds of flowers warmed up, was unexpectedly powerful, not sweet but heady and musky with a hint of garlic. Since I have never heard of a bluebell perfume I assume it is a redolence that is hard to replicate by the beauty industry. I could have rolled around like an excited dog in fox poo. Obviously I didn’t do that but a smell so gorgeous could easily make me do giddy things. What I did do is study old grave stones.
I love this one wearing a spring garland.
If I were ever to write a novel I would search old graveyards for character names. Yesterdays top name for a character was Philadelphia Jago.
Philadelphia Jago
Although unphotographed there was an unusual amount of Samson or Sampsons buried in the old bit of the graveyard. I wonder if that is a Cornish thing or if the name was just much more popular 200 years ago. My son is a Sam but his full name of Samuel means ‘name of God’ or ‘God has heard’ . Had I called him Samson or Sampson his name would have been far more appropriate as that means child of the sun and he, very much, is a sunny kind of person. I wonder how well Samson would have worked for him in the classrooms of the nineties.
Maybe I should finish this 900th ponder with some views from a country churchyard. They were spectacular.
Below is the morning question from my blog host. Is camping only considered camping if an overnight has occured. Yesterday was definitely camping light. Hours avoiding rain in a snug van with enough to read and eat and then much later than planned we arrived at the actual planned destination of the day. But that is a blog for another day.
Yesterday was one of those repetitive blogging days when I do a regular activity. About once every four or five weeks, our dogs go to the groomers in Wembury and I get three to four hours to do whatever I want. Unhindered by the needs of two dogs. Sometimes I get on with regular life admin but mostly I take myself to Wembury beach which offers a variety of me-shaped entertainments. A Coffee shop, an excellent swimming beach and the South West Coastal path in two directions. Yesterday was a little different as the weather was shocking and I had driven through a flood to get there. There was no phone signal and the rain was drenching. I had one essential task that could be performed in the local Post Office. Beyond that it was just book reading in the campervan with cups of tea from a thermos flask. Hardly the stuff of blogging gold. But the weather and tides had other plans for the day. The header photograph is not black and white but exactly as the coast presented itself on arrival. The wind was a warm, but strong, south westerly and an abnormally high tide was due at 5pm. In no time at all our little brown campervan had many friends in the car park. Campervan’s and regular vans bringing hoards of excited surfers to the beach. Maybe fifty vans being unpacked by rubber clad enthusiasts eager to make the best of the day on their boards. I watched from the comfort of the van and the hours passed, but soon enough the tea had worked its way to my bladder and I decided to walk to the public loo rather than use our onboard facilities. The power of the sea was amazing in a relatively small bay. The surfers or the weather had brought many onlookers who, just like me, stood on the cliffs and watched the spectacle of nature and the little black specs who were riding the waves. The sunset coincided with high-tide and nature threw out a light show to end the afternoon.
This birthday invite gave us a big shock yesterday. Despite living in London at the time we were there at the beginning of Strong Adolfos. We went to their soft opening. The shock was that they have only been open 10 years. This is definitely a case of the years of Covid-19 restrictions causing a concertina effect on our mid-term memory.
How can it be only 10 years. I would be much more comfortable with 15 years. So much has happened in this last 10 years and we have been to Strong Adolphos with so many different people it seems a little crazy to have squeezed all those happy memories into just 10 years. Especially when we factor in that for almost 2 years we were unable to visit.
Strong Adolfos is on the Atlantic Highway on the North coast and roughly the mid point of the county. It has always been a convenient place to meet friends and family who were holidaying or living in Cornwall. For us, as dog walkers, it is close to the Seven Bays. Large sandy beaches where we can walk the dogs and have a swim.
There was no swimming yesterday but a couple of hours of dog walking and sun catching in a miraculous break between rain storms. The wind direction and tide was absolutely ripe for surfers.
Swimming would have been a bit bonkers but away from the surf zone we paddled knee deep in the incoming tide and the dogs had two hours of free running and socialising on the beach.
We had two hours of pondering the 10 year conundrum. Hannahs mum has been dead for nearly 8 years and she loved the vibe at Strong Adolphos. She very much loved independent cafe culture and the people watching that goes with it. She used to like perching on the high bar stools at the window bar.
Crazy that she can only have done it for 2 years max. I know my mid term memory is now utterly unreliable how did 10 years feel like 15. There will be pondering beyond this blog today.
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