After the rain there is another hot summer day so I can get up Salcombe Hill and walk for a while.
I have a map of the area and noticed that there is an interesting looking footpath that I haven't walked up yet, so locating the road on the other side of Salcombe I walk up what appears to be a small private track that leads to a farm. As I get closer I begin to get the impression that the place is a bit run down as there are abandoned cars scattered around. The farm turns out to be a cabin near a large chicken shed. I am expecting that at any moment a dog will start barking but all is deserted. The lane should turn into a footpath somewhere. I walk around the perimeter of a long electrified fence but cannot find any trace of the footpath; every direction leads to a dead end and I am starting to wonder if the path is obstructed, but eventually I notice what looks like a good footpath on the other side of an electric fence and a hedge. I can't get to the path without damaging the fence and it begins to dawn on me that I have misread the map and I am in fact in completely the wrong place. I scurry myself back out again slightly thankful that it was deserted. A good lousy piece of map reading on my part.
I have a map of the area and noticed that there is an interesting looking footpath that I haven't walked up yet, so locating the road on the other side of Salcombe I walk up what appears to be a small private track that leads to a farm. As I get closer I begin to get the impression that the place is a bit run down as there are abandoned cars scattered around. The farm turns out to be a cabin near a large chicken shed. I am expecting that at any moment a dog will start barking but all is deserted. The lane should turn into a footpath somewhere. I walk around the perimeter of a long electrified fence but cannot find any trace of the footpath; every direction leads to a dead end and I am starting to wonder if the path is obstructed, but eventually I notice what looks like a good footpath on the other side of an electric fence and a hedge. I can't get to the path without damaging the fence and it begins to dawn on me that I have misread the map and I am in fact in completely the wrong place. I scurry myself back out again slightly thankful that it was deserted. A good lousy piece of map reading on my part.
I get around the corner, closer now to the edge of the cliff which has good views back towards Sidmouth and eastwards up the coast towards Beer, (it being the last white cliff in the photo's)This is the quietest place that I have been for a while.
There are no roads within hearing distance, and I can hear nothing mechanical of any sort, in fact I can't really hear anything apart from the sound of the wind blowing through the grass. Farther along there are some birds and then a few sheep, pottering away in the late afternoon, but the silence here is striking.
When I first came to Devon as a child one of the first things that I noticed were the unusual bright red puddles in the red earth. Back home, earth was usually a dark brown colour, or could sometimes be a bright rusty orange clay. The red surprised me and it took a few years to properly appreciate these alarming red puddles.
10 comments:
I was going to ask you if those puddles were supposed to be so red, but I guess they are :) You see, Silv has set the computer so that colors are really bright/vivid and to me pictures that are posted here are much more vivid in color than what I see in real life. Apparently that's just me though as both Silv and my kid say that it's accurate as does everyone else that I've bothered to ask.
Anyway, I'm glad for you that the farm you ventured on was indeed deserted, although it could have been an interesting adventure if there were people there. I can just imagine a sweet old lady and her husband inviting you in for tea and crumpets :)
Cheers Skye. The photo's are sometimes a little darker than real life as I like to saturate the colours slightly but they haven't been altered in any other way. The red puddles really are quite red.
An invitation for tea and crumpets would be very nice. Crumpets are good for Autumn and Winter. Some prefer muffins but I like me crumpets.
I don't get that many invitations when out walking but I do like to have a bit of a chat if I meet anyone. It's good to smile and at least say hello, especially up on the cliffs.
Look a lot like pools of blood to me. What Yuh been up to on those lonely walks in the woods John?
Cheers Silverfish, hope you're ok out there. Yes they do look like pools of blood. Nothing to do with me though officer, I was just perambulatin'.
Lovely Lovely. Some of your best yet.
Thanks very much Nobody. I spent a couple of days last week doing one of my favourite things which is walking in the fog. I moved slowly through the woods on top of the hills collecting pictures. Just in case anyone was wondering if I was still taking pictures of the woods, there are plenty coming up. Autumn is upon us now though it must be Spring coming in Australia.
Ha! All that Northern Hemisphere carry-on about Spring arriving. Well it's our turn now. The temperature this weeked: 30C. Or to put it another way, 'beach'.
And does that mean you have foggy photos for us John? A tricky beast fog. Anyway, something to look forward to.
Blimey nobody, that sounds pretty hot for spring. I only understand temp. in old money so 30 would be about 86 I think. It was 20 (68) here today and that is plenty hot for us at this time of year.
Foggy photo's coming though probably not for a while as I have a bit of a backlog. I have recently taken my ten thousandth photo with the new camera so a bit of catching up to do on the blog front and more walking tomorrow.
Nice work on Howard G Fass and the Snow Lion Foundation. Can't say I've ever heard of either.
Hello John!!
how is it all going??
I see you have been out walking.
A chat when your out?
very good.
I see skye commented on the puddles, they are quite different, I noticed them right off.
All the puddles around here are brown, muddy brown.
Funny thing, while on my 'out and abouts' I have seen numerous shit bags hanging and waiting for pick-up.
I then get this image of Tom Cruise our chosen shit fairy, wearing a tutu of course.
(A tutu does suit Tom Cruise, and socks with sock garters)
Flitting about gathering shit bags up.
It is funny
Hey cheers Penny! All has been going well here thanks, we've had a good few weeks of mostly settled sunshine so good weather for being out and about in.
There are Chanterelles in the woods at the moment and there are enough berries this time of year to eat your way through the woods if you wanted to, Whortleberries being particularly abundant.
I think our fairy must be working hard as I haven't seen as many shitbags around lately as there used to be. Thanks Tom!
I see that some parts of Australia looked like Cities of the Red Night yesterday. I was reading the Night of the Red Sky prophecy of Stalking Wolf as recounted by Tom Brown Jr. recently and it is interesting to see nature getting as in your face as this.
It looked a bit like Mars or something and must have been strange to wake up to. Spooky and not more than a tad apocalyptic to my eyes.
New photo's here soon hopefully.
vf word 'scrag'
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