Thursday, 27th August 2015
Hello
Goodness me! I’m so far behind with these blogs! Usually, as you know, I write them up on the same day as the walk, but we had a quick ramble the day before driving up to Scotland (for a wee bit of exercise before spending a week sat in the car) and then I got so busy checking out house viewing timings and home survey reports that I hardly had time to pack my jimjams let alone write a blog!
We stayed in a lovely wee cottage in Aberfoyle, Perthshire, but the internet connection wasn’t the greatest which means it would be painfully slow to upload pictures. I knew that I would get so frustrated that I might just throw the laptop into the lake – which happened to be right outside our lounge window – so I decided to have a week off and write it up when we got home.
The downside of all this is, of course, that now I have three blogs to write in retrospect! Because we actually did manage to fit in a wee ramble or two between houses and driving. Anyway – more of that later. Here’s a picture of the aforementioned lake and I’ll get going on writing up.
Enjoy!
RRxxx
Halzephron Cliffs, Church Cove and Poldhu and back again (4 miles)
You probably know by now that this is one of our favourites, especially when time is short and we just need a quick breath of fresh air and some exercise. It’s been raining for nearly a week and todays the first dry day but, as always on these cliffs, it’s blowing a hooley and there’s buckets of mud underfoot. We’re well kitted out with our waterproofs and gaiters though so we splash through the lanes to the headland above Gunwalloe Cove.
There are blue skies despite the wind
Ahead of us, a kestrel is taking advantage of the dry day to hunt – how do they hover in the air for so long when the wind is blowing so hard? The answer lies in its feathers of course which it can fan out so that it is using the wind for support. Here he is, just having spotted dinner and on the way into a dive.
He did this two or three times as we walked past but didn’t come up with anything to eat, so maybe he was just practicing (or unlucky).
We walk on down to Church Cove and across the beach, where the recent rain has turned the stream which generally crosses the sand into quite a forceful river. There are butterflies hovering over the sea holly:
and walking across the bridge towards the golf course more are below us at the water’s edge:
Moving on towards the steep path alongside the golf course we pass a Parliament of Rooks scavenging their way across the beach:
And then its that uphill stretch before the descent to Poldhu Beach, today swarming with surfers. We sit with a cuppa and watch for a while before making our way back to the car – up and down and up again!
Total miles walked this year: 547.5
Associated artwork for Ricketyrambler by Mr RR:
http://www.andrewmajorart.co.uk
http://www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk/Andrew-Major
ricketyrambler 