My new toy

14.3 at Sharrah 

I have a new watch which takes the temperature of the water.  (As well as doing all manner of other things: it has a barometer, an altimeter and no doubt will take my inside leg measurement if necessary).   I am fascinated and am fast on my way to becoming a water temperature bore.  This weekend, at Sharrah Pool, the water was 14.3, and in the sea at Bigbury it was 17.9 - no doubt a reflection of our wonderfully warm and dry September. I am particularly looking forward to using the watch as the temperatures go down in the next few months!  I am going to start keeping a "Captain's log" - click on "Water temperatures" at the top right hand side of this page.....

17.9 at Bigbury

Spring at Sharrah

I hardly dare say the S word - being more used to Storms and Soakings in recent months. But walking through the woods along the Dart today I saw some primroses which made my heart lift. There were various landslips along the path, but the river glistened below, clear and shiny and green....I guess the rocks and river bed have been scrubbed clean by all the water rushing through. The water moved lazily through Sharrah Pool, making casual tendrils of bubbles on the surface.  As we swam upstream, the cold burnt our limbs, but we got used to it as we fought the current.  I looked up and saw a great crag up ahead, like a castle standing sentinel over the pool.  It's the end buttress of  Bench Tor, but in all the years I've swum in this spot I've never noticed it before.