







Another good walk which is very close to the edge of the cliffs in places is the walk to Dunscombe, just up the road from Salcombe. Most of this walk is nice and flat and the large hills can be avoided mostly, if you don't enjoy walking up large hills.
It is quite busy up here as again it is part of the South West Coast path and I meet many people along the route. There are a lot of rare butterflies and it is good to see the butterfly hunters armed with expensive cameras these days instead of the nets of old. I also saw a very bright bird with a yellow head and a red body, not a goldfinch although we had three of those in our garden for twenty five minutes the other day, eating seeds from the plants, a rare sight here.
There is some fine ancient earthworking on the edge of Dunscombe cliffs, not even marked on the maps, but some beautiful serpentine shapes covered in lovely long grass. I always dislike the fact that when you visit an old site in the UK they are always titivated and tidied to take all the romance out of the place and turn them into a site for cream teas and giftshops. The English seem obsessed with cutting grass and turning the country into a manicured lawn. I will go back and photograph some of these workings for you at a later date.
It is intensely hot here at the moment which is odd for the middle of summer, as usually it is raining and chilly about this time of year, we almost don't know what to do with it but we enjoy it as much as possible as we know that it is all too brief.
A large storm is coming across from the west and I think it wise to head for home. I hear the sound of approaching thunder from where I am in the woods and make it home just as the first raindrops start to fall, good timing for once.
Tragic though Michael Jacksons death surely is, on the plus side it has pushed Iran out of the news here as much as is possible and so hopefully buys them a bit of time. People here don't give a shit about Iran and the election but we are having it shoved down our throats in the news everyday, Iran is evil blah blah, doesn't it remind anybody of anything? People have really short memories here, they do however care about Michael Jackson, so good on you Michael.