Oystercatchers
by Exe Estuary
Sunset
from River House
|
All the way to Straight Point it was shingle
beach beneath crumbly red clay cliffs, with few shells except some brought up
in seaweed holdfasts. A path up from
the beach halfway along, marked on our OS map, no longer existed and we had
to retrace our steps to Budleigh and take the Coast Path on top of the
cliffs, skirting the golf-course.
Walls had wall pennywort and further on we came across wild madder,
cross-leaved heath, tansy, and dodder on the gorse. Alexanders was prominent with its shiny
black swollen seeds. Descending at the
far end we discovered a path up from the end of the beach. This served the large holiday camp of
“mobile” homes occupying the land between this bay and the next, except for
Straight Point itself, used by the Royal Marines for target practice. The sound of guns was almost continuous
throughout the morning.
After
the point came
Entering our destination of Lympstone we passed lots of stone
parsley. Our hotel for the night,
River House, neighbouring the church and the harbour, offered great views of
the sunset from the dining-room: a peaceful estuarine scene of gently rocking
boats and a few common birds such as herons.
|
Alexanders
on cliff
Pholas dactylus
|
Day by day account of our walk around the coast of England, and the Welsh and Scottish borders, with notes on natural history.
Introduction
When we started walking the coast of England we had no intention that this would become a major lifetime project. Having to make a last-minute arrangement for our summer holiday in 1987, we said "Let's go to the nearest piece of coast and see how far we can walk along it." It turned out well and we started adding further stretches of coast, initially once every two years, but soon annually, or even twice a year.
We had always enjoyed the coast - there is something refreshingly "edgy" about having the sea always at our side, and one of us was into marine molluscs. We also enjoyed long-distance walking and had long been involved in general natural history recording. This project enabled us to combine all three interests.
You soon discover when embarking on a project like this that you need a few rules, which evolve from the first experiences. Our main rule was that we should walk as close to the coast as possible, which meant beach-walking whenever we could (unlike the official coast paths that largely remain above shore, recognising that at high tides the beach may be inaccessible). The route should also be capable of being a continuous walk, so that when we came to an unfordable river we walked inland along its banks to the first place at which we could cross, whether a bridge or a ferry.
We only carried light packs, so that at the end of each day's walk we had the problem of getting back to our car where we started. Initially we walked back, but soon realised we would be walking the coast twice this way! We used public transport whenever this was available - buses or trains, sometimes adjusting our start and finish points to make this easier. Failing this - and it was often not possible - we would phone for a taxi (an increasingly costly option over the years). Having our car with us gave us more freedom as to where we could stay at night - and after a day walking and only light food we were usually ready for being spoiled by a good meal and a comfortable bed! Even so, we stayed on the coast itself whenever there was a decent option.
Each walk was made for enjoyment, it was not a route-march to see how quickly we could get it finished. We therefore took it gently at times when passing through pleasant scenery or where there were many plants or creatures to record.
In terms of biological recording, we systematically noted every bird, butterfly, creature or sea-shell that we came across, sometimes spending time searching for the shells. We could not record every plant in the same way - there are too many common ones - so we were more selective, noting all coastal plants and any others that were not run-of-the-mill.
In our daily posts, edited from our original diaries, we include a star-rating from no star to **** according to our subjective estimate as to how special that day was from the point of view of natural history. This score (and our daily records) will, however, have been affected by the weather - it is difficult to appreciate the environment fully, for instance, in torrential rain, and there are many more butterflies and other insects to be seen in warm sunshine!
A summary of all our natural history records on the walk can be found using this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1LLGD55lKRHYXd1SGU1QndrcUU/edit?usp=sharing
Friday 13 December 2013
South Devon 4/8/1994: Budleigh Salterton to Lympstone
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment