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| Where I tried and failed to swim |
This Easter weekend the weather has been all over the shop. It was a beautiful warm sunny day on Good Friday (when I was working, natch). Saturday, Sunday, and now Monday have seen hail, sleet, sunshine and angry downpours. On Sunday we set off for the coast near Coleton Fishacre, and as we approached the sun was shining but there were black clouds threatening. We parked at Coleton Camp and made our way down past fields of sheep and January King cabbages to Scabbacombe Head. We headed towards Pudcombe, because I wanted to try swimming at Ivy Cove, where fellow blogger
Chris likes to go. Well that proved quite challenging as it involved quite a bit of rock climbing, and there were strong winds and a rough sea so in the end I wimped out. I was determined to get a swim though, so we decided to walk back to Scabbacombe Sands, via a different lower path. This turned out to be quite a detour as there were numerous hairpin bends, but it was all worth it because we saw a gannet. Miracle of miracles I had my binoculars with me and so got an amazing view of it bombing along parallel to the shore, beating its great ink-dipped wings It was a steep slide down a muddy field to the beach. As I was getting ready to swim somebody up there decided to go apoplectic, hurling down rods of rain. So it was a quick dash to the water and a skinny dip, but the swell was considerable, and I wasn't wearing shoes, and kept slipping on rocks underfoot, so didn't manage to get properly submerged. Some days things just aren't meant to be. It was a beautiful walk on a stunning bit of coastline though. Oh, and we saw a seal.
2 comments:
Ivy Cove is A) only for goats and B) only when calm. The lower path is more interesting, there are weasels that live in the bottom field, I see one fairly often and there are several more clambers down to interesting swimming spots and when I was that way a few weeks back there was a chap watching dolphins with his binos. There was a dead gannet on Scabbacome Beach last Wednesday, big bird, massive beak!
If it's rough at Scabbacombe always swim straight out from the stream, it is sand all the way out, always.
thank you so much - great advice. I'll look out for the weasels next time, and definitely want to return for more aquatic exploring on a still, calm day.
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