There’s a steady rain coming down this morning, and there’s a 15-20 mph north wind blowing that howls through our windows and hammers the rain against it - conditions that make us glad we can just sit around the room all day and keep warm if we want. With a restaurant downstairs we don’t even need to step outside if we don’t want to.
The rain gradually abates as the morning wears on though and by noon it stops completely and promises us a four or five hour window. It’s not a day that tempts me to hop on the bike so I head off on foot toward the lighthouse and Rachael does the same, starting maybe twenty minutes after me. It’s dry for the moment but the day has a raw, elemental feel to it with a high of only about 55, an overcast sky and the forceful wind pushing me south toward the lighthouse and making me anxious about getting too close to the cliffs lest I get blown over the edge. I’m very impressed by the number of walkers and their dogs that are out making the most of the break too - Brits are certainly a hardy breed!
There’s a special day coming up though that I really want to set down while it’s fresh in my memory so I’m going to make short work of this one and mostly tell the day with photos.
Today’s route. I’m just going as far as the headland just past the lighthouses but Rachael will continue another two miles beyond that before turning back.
This is the boat launch just below our hotel. I think the script here is that they’re commercial and you can hire on for a birding tour beneath the cliffs, which would be amazing on the right day. This isn’t one of those days though.
This stretch from the North Landing to the headland is spectacular the entire way with one eroded inlet after another, the south-facing cliffs lined with birds sheltering from the wind.
She’s caught up with me, as was bound to happen. We’ll walk together for about five or ten minutes, exhilarated by the bracing conditions and the wildly whipping grass in the meadow until I’m stopped for a shot and she continues on.
And here’s the older one we saw last night, shown again because there’s more to say about it. It’s a Grade II listed structure, and the oldest lighthouse still standing in England. It only served as a daytime landmark though because the plans to light it at night were never realized because sufficient funds weren’t realized to fuel the flame.
Another cliffside shot worth stopping for. It really would be worthwhile to come back on a good day and get a good look from below on one of those boats.
Just past the Drinking Dinosaur I come to a viewpoint down on the cove below and see a few seals in the water. I try my best to get a shot of one, but nothing comes out until a pair of them struggle up onto a bench above the waves. Its not much of a shot - shooting conditions are difficult because the wind is so strong that it makes it hard to hold the camera steady and makes me feel insecure this close to the edge.
I’m reasonably happy with the shot I get though, and move on. Before long I pass a couple walking the other way, stopped staring out with their binoculars. They ask if I’ve seen anything interesting this morning so I tell them about the seals just around the bend ahead and point to where I’d seen them. There are seals, they ask with feigned surprise and thank me for the tip. A few minutes later though I feel like a dope when I come to a large, sheltered beach writhing with seals - there must be hundreds of them out there. I imagine them snorting with amusement once they think I’m out of earshot.
It takes me awhile to realize that many of those dark spots down there are seals. When I zoom in for a closer look I’m startled by how many there are. The beach is writhing with them.
This is the natural spot for me to turn back, though Rachael continues on for a few miles more. The walk back to the hotel is a quite different experience to what’s come before though because now I’m walking into a 20+ mph headwind the whole way - as will Rachael, who is quite exhausted by it by the time she makes it back to the room. It seems to be blowing even more fiercely now than it was earlier.
I don’t stop for many photos on the way back because I’ve seen it all before and am ready to get out of the wind; but I do brace myself to take a video of the wildly waving grass, a vision we’d like to remember.
The tide’s gone out quite a ways in the last two hours. There’s a steepish staircase down to the beach that’s a temptation, but it’s resisted.
The photos below are from Rachael’s phone. She didn’t take many though because she knew I was covering for us today, and because it’s really pretty hard to take a shot in this wind.
This is a view from the other side of the cove with all the seals. She didn’t see them, because her camera doesn’t zoom well enough.
