During my time in North Cornwall I took the opportunity to explore the amazing western coast of Cornwall. Unfortunately the weather was less than ideal and I only stopped at two spots on my road trip. I started outside Launceston where I was staying and drove up to Bude, taking the coastal path towards Widemouth (apparently pronounced widmouth), Crackington Haven, Boscastle and Tintagel. The plan was to stop at these places and enjoy the views, and visit Tintagel Castle.
I did manage to stop at Widemouth first thing as the rain had yet to really set in. There was a strong wind and light rain and a mist over the sea. But I did enjoy my 15 or so minutes walking around Widemouth, looking at the rocks and just enjoying seeing the Atlantic Ocean! The rocks at Widemouth Bay are really interesting. Some of them are arranged in rows, like the spines of some ancient fossilised creature and most of the rocks have veins of lime traced through them.
Widemouth Bay is also home to this random rock sticking out from the smooth flat rocks on the beach. It is called Black Rock (imaginative!).
Some of the lines of rock.
Patterns in the rocks. Sadly there was no life hiding in the rock pools.
SAND!! Lovely sand. This beach is apparently lovely in the summer.
Crackington Haven was my next stop on my wet and rainy roadtrip. The road down to the bay is very steep (but the road up the other side is even worse! There is a horrible hairpin bend up there!). This tiny bay also boasts some pretty amazing rock formations on the beach as you can see from this shot.
Rocks have fallen from the cliff...
Like the tail of a dragon.
Veins of limestone I think,
Once I left Crackington Haven I did not stop at my other destinations, due to the weather and my lack of change for parking! But I did drive through Tintagel and all the way down to Camelford where I will be spending some time between Easter and July! I'm very much looking forward to exploring this coastline on a beautiful blue-sky day and watching the sun set over the Atlantic Ocean once again.
Yesterday (Sunday), I joined my lovely landlord and -lady for their weekly dog walk away from the farm. It allows the dogs to really run and play for a bit. Because the weather was so perfect (clear, not warm!), we headed to the coast south of Exeter. Branscombe Bay looks out at the Channel so not ocean but amazingly pretty in the sunlight.
Letting the dogs run before putting them on the lead to walk down to the beach.
A rare sight lately; the sun in a blue sky!
The walk leading down to the beach. Because of previous high tide flooding, it is forbidden to scramble up or down the rocky bank.
Release the hounds!
The eroded cliff.
Waiting for the stick!
Now that's a stick. Notice, though, only three dogs. Remember that.
Ash always gets the stick first, the other two just wait for him to return from the deeper water. Perhaps they're cheering him on.
Ash was very proud of his huge stick. It was as long as he was!
"I'm n-n-n-otttt c-c-c-cold. Thrrrrow it ag-g-g-gain.
Remember I told you to note only three dogs waiting for the stick? Well here's the reason.
Danny. Loves. Rocks.
The bigger, the better.
And Ash loves his stick!
I couldn't resist looking back at the view behind us. the clouds thankfully didn't give us any rain.
A shoe hanging from a piece of driftwood. Perhaps there's a story in it?!
I found a vantage point to look down at the antics of the dogs.
And Danny found another rock. A bit too big...
But that's never stopped him before.
He nudges it with is nose to move it, tries to pick it up, barks at it, barks at whoever is closest. Sometimes said person will throw said stone. Sometimes we'll just laugh!
One happy dog!
Danny and the stone. This sequence is cute and sad and funny all at the same time. He found another stone that looked like a good size to pick up...
Until the waves receded and its real size was revealed.
Oh no! The water is back!
"Where is it?!"
You can almost see his shoulders sag in disappointment!
"Sniff."
And so he tries a bigger stone.
Not sure how he managed to move it!
But that one was just toooooooo big, even for strong Danny.
And so he retreated with a smaller, more manageable rock.
Meanwhile Ash was still celebrating his giant find.
And trying not to show how cold he was!
The two obsessive dogs. One with another stone and one with his log.
Danny playing all by himself!
My vantage point was a large rock that had either tumbled from the cliff somewhere or been slowly eroded until it was separate to the cliff. It had a lot of salt deposits on and in it. This one made me think of a lion at first. What do you see?
The sun giving a taste of the sunset to come.
Danny decided if no one else was going to throw a stone for him, he would try me...
And so he waited patiently for me to climb down.
The layer in a cuttlefish bone.
Veins of salt in the rock. some of these you could break off and crumble. Others were too solid.
More salt rock.
Some cool seaweed.
Like roots.
A strange hole.
We didn't stay for sunset but I was able to watch the sky burning up from the car. By the time we arrived back at the farm, the sky's colour had disappeared. Just. It took moments.
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