In the last week of July 2020, we revisited our place of 'milk and honey', a misnomer of our own creation perhaps, dubbed idealistically from our first visit, in search of escape. This second visit came just over a year from our first and at a time when we are experiencing life in a pandemic.
Thinly veiled from view, Ilfracombe wears its scars of decline; behind some of the resorts natural and manmade beauty. Off peak and beyond the green and grey, the blue and warm red of hills, water, sandstone and slate, gift shops and cheap hotels begin to crumble leaving benefit hostels to claim their space. Still the glimpses of its finer features, the sea against stone, water racing against beached monoliths, the green hills that interrupt the view of sea and the patchwork of victorian seaside properties against a harbour are the greater - impervious and beyond mire.
We returned, also, to the Dorchester Hotel. This little bed and breakfast, perched in a victorian terrace on the steep hill that takes its course up out of the town to the South, was as friendly and welcoming as we remembered. Large bay windows gave us a view, from the breakfast room of the terrace and road below.
Lee Bay - 28th July 2020
We returned to Lee Bay; this time, on foot, over the green, 'roller coaster' path, ascending the Victorian Zig-Zag path to the top of Ilfracombe Torrs then following the land hugging grass and rock outcrops of the South Coast Path. A sea of tidy grass flat with expansive views and the occasional sight of cattle grazing in fields to the side of our path.
After the green highlands of the cliff top, we arrived at the houses that mark the road down towards the village of Lee and our feet began the descent down through the narrow hedge lined lane. Butterflies and insects cling to the greenery and fly through the air in numbers we don't see at home.
The valley of the fuchsia's welcomes us again with its quiet greenness and its peace. The village has a church and a pub. Its church has a shop that sells local art and crafts. We visited and Steph bought a postcard art pad.
Many people were at the bay. On this second visit, the tide was in. We sat on the pebbled beach to have lunch and drink tea from our camping stove. The rock pools and slabs of fractured weathered rock were less accessible on this visit but no less like a visit to another; primordial planet.
Clinging to the scars of coastal erosion, a green tree stands.
Rock, grey and silver, polished by sea and air and shaped to stand still against the blue sky,
stand before our feet and dwarf us.
Saunton Sands - 29th July 2020
Along the coast from Woolacaombe, Saunton Sands is an expanse of sand and dune that attracts sun seeking holidaying people in numbers. We took our space on the beach with just a picnic blanket between us and the sand. I took my feet and legs out to explore the dunes and paddle in the sea.
Combe Martin - 31st July 2020
On our last day, we travelled northwards along the coast too Combe Martin. On this sunny, warm morning the beach was busy and we took our camping chairs down to a spot where we could look out to sea and watch the people who were enjoying the water. Some people were taking borrowed kayaks out to sea while others swam in the protected harbour pool. The beach is a tidal sand with rock pools to each side of the access to the harbour. After paddling in the water, I explored the rock pools and caught sight of a distant cave that I couldn't quite access.
As a last moment of this holiday, the boats, sand and water and the pleasure being shared here by so many from sand, sun and water was a joyful way to finish our trip.
