The secret swim - with a bonus sea slug

Anna, Yaara and I were walking along the Salcombe estuary when we saw an enticing little gate in the hedge.  Well naturally we thought, 'what's down there?' especially as we were tantalisingly near the water.  We made our way down a very overgrown path, to find a metal gate at the bottom, which astonishingly wasn't locked. It led to some little stone steps down to the rocks and the deliciously alluring looking water.  The perfect swim spot! The sun was blazing and we went in off the rocks, just like you do in Turkey or Greece, and headed upstream where we found a lovely little beach.   It was the end to a perfect day, which had already started well when Anna and I had spotted what we later learnt was a sea lemon (a sort of sea slug) along with its eggs, which looked bizarrely like wontons.

Sea lemon top right and its eggs, bottom

Swimming at Starehole

There are some awfully funny place names in Devon, and Starehole Bay - or Starhole as it's sometimes known - is one of them. Maybe because when you first clap eyes on it you stop and stare. It is stunning, with a wonderfully dramatic approach: you walk along the western side of the Salcombe estuary, around some rocky turrets - Sharp Tor - at which point you get your first glimpse of the beach. Today the setting sun cast a massive spotlight down on the water which made it all the more enticing. Once in the sea we swam along the shore, marvelling at the rocks towering precipitously above us. As we looked up we saw distinct bands of colour, starting with the petrol blue sea at the bottom, then the hard grey of the rocks, the mustard yellow lichen above it, and then the green grass of the cliffs. The water was clear and delicious.