Category Archive
The following is a list of all entries from the Environment category. Noteworthy entries are filed topmost.
Higher than a kite..well, kestrel!
To top off our trip to Salcombe we spent a few hours on Friday doing a short hike along the coast path. We parked the car at the hotel at Soar Mill Cove and walked out from there. The hotel is up a fairly long, grassy hill from the lovely, unspoilt valley-enclosed beach at the cove, and was the formal start of the walk. Parking costs £3 for the day, payable at the hotel reception. We must have made a sight standing in the lobby of the 4-star hotel in hiking boots, khakis rolled up to mid shin, baseball caps and sunglasses!
Fee paid we ambled off down the hill. As soon as you are away from the hotel all you can hear is birdsong. We counted four or five different types of butterfly, including many silver-studded blues on the path in front of us and to the left a mixed hillside of sheep and cattle amused themselves by running down the slope towards a pair of loud, fighting pheasants, then stood, staring.
Once at the beach the valley sides rise up steeply each side andyou can follow the coast path south towards Bolt head, one of the most southerly points of Britain, or north towards Bolt Tail and Hope Cove. Out plan was to turn left and go south to Bolt Head, have a spot of lunch and then turn back. The walk on paper would be only about 5-6 miles but included some steep climb - the most serious of which was just over the first bump. After a few days of diving, and given the hot sun we didn’t fancy anything more taxing.
Turning left we mounted the first short climb and as we hit the end we saw the steep climb up to the rolling tops of the cliffs that awated us. The path up was a mix of worn mud, shale, rocky steps and grassy slope. We were glad of our good boots and marvelled as some of the other footwear we saw whilst on the wander. I am sure that soft, white, slip-on moccasins do the job fine when all is going well, but I wouldn’t fancy trying to regain a foothold once I had slipped in them, and I am not sure how well they support an ankle on sometimes uneven terrain!
Sweating and puffing we reached the top and from a rocky point we had the first wonderful view. Flat, blue sea with starlight twinkles from a high sun, sailing boats below, and a coastline that signalled the dramatic end of England as green heaths and field stopped abruptly and fell straight down into the ocean below.
From hear the path meanders close to the cliff edge, up and donw over the undulating cliff-tops. The predominant environment is gorse heath, but occasionally this gives way to grassy meadow, where man has exerted his power as far as he can. Aafter a while a final drop heralds the last climb if Bolt head is your target and end up on a ridge, jutting out to sea, with a WW2 battlement at the very end, and some perfect little rock stacks as nature’s picnic table, giving views to the mouth of the estuary and a small bay on one side, and the coastline to the north, whence you have come, on the other.
We sat in the sun and brought out the water bottles and small snack that we had packed. Lazing there, smiling and admiring the view my gaze was caught by something that came past Caroline’s head, on the other side to me, as it wheeled in front of us, and slightly below it was immediately clear that it was a kestrel. It swung along the grassy edge of the cliff below us and then turned to come back again before passing over our heads to return to hovering, in classic kestrel style, over the long grass behind us.
The silence was shortly broken by the faint hum of some folk playing around in a powerful RIB below. I may have had more time for them if they were diving, of course, but the boat was just having a hoolie. It sped right across the entrance of the estuary, past sail boats before doing “doughnuts” in the bay below us. We could hear shrieks from the women aboard so I suspect that it was all done to impress!
Legs rested we set out on the return leg. The sun was hot and high and a judicious reapplication of the SPF 25 was needed, as were frequent gulps of water - now less than cool! The views were still stunning however and we walked along with that constant half-smile that comes with just being relaxed and happy. As we reached the beach at Soar Mill Cove I was very tempted to abandon boots and socks and go for a paddle, but the thought of making the last walk up the hill to the hotel with sandy feet deterred me and headed straight up.
I must admit that I was shattered byt he time we reached the car. Lots of practise and training is needed if we are to fulfill our aims to walk the Inca trail to Machu Pichu late next year, but it will be worth it, and if the training for it can be as enjoyable as that small hike along some of Britain’s most beautiful coastline it will not be too great a hardship.
How to eat an Elephant…
The answer is, of course, one bite at a time. I took my own tiny bite in the name of sustainable food over the weekend.
After a long time looking for a local, organic vegetable box scheme to reduce our reliance on the evil Tescos I spotted an article in our quarterly village paper promoting a company call Ethical Foods. Although it didn’t do exactly what I was after I was impressed enough with their mission statement of improving food supply that I had a browse through their site. Continue reading this entry »