September 2008
Monthly Archive
Saturday, 13th September 2008
Went to Clovelly. As its web site says, “one of the most famous villages in the world”. Well, maybe, not sure about that. But it was full if Italians and Germans making the most of the weak pound and strong euro. It is beautiful though, a very steep, very old fishing village, with no cars. People transport stuff up and down the cobbled streets on sledges.
Part of the reason it has been preserved is because the whole village – i.e. the land, the coast, the houses – is owned by one family – only the third since the Norman Conquest. It now must get most of its income from tourism – one of the few villages where people still live where you have to pay to go in – actually, possibly the only village. But it was worth it, and for the residents, fair compensation for the hordes of tourists who must overwhelm the place in summer.
We decided to look for a place to stay in Bude that evening. Never having been there, I thought it might be a giant Butlin’s camp, but actually, it was a really nice place, with a great free open air swimming pool on the beach. We found a place to stay, the first one we asked at, getting the last available room.
We had a walk on the beach, a picnic, some wine – and phoned Helen and Andy to see if any great XCs had been done that day, because it looked really good. Fortunately not, other than Kai who had done some massive 500000000km triangle or something from the Mynd. Everyone else, I think, was stuck on the hill.
Back to the B&B, for wine in our room and a movie – they had lots of DVDs and videos you could borrow for the evening. A great bed and breakfast place.
Friday, 12th September 2008
We started off with a couple of walks in Lynton/Lynmouth; the first through the Valley of the Rocks, and the second part of the coastal walk. Both were stunning coastal scenery. It rained a little, but mostly it was bright and sunny.
We drove on slowly along the coast – Saturday the plan was to go to Clovelly, so we headed in that direction, taking a detour to Combe Martin and Ilfracombe, both of which I’d visited as a child, and both of which were very disappointing. Ilfracombe in particular has ruined a perfectly good sea front by building a couple of cooling towers there, pretending to be a theatre. It’s incredible what architects think is good design, and what planners think is acceptable. We decided to drive on…
Driving past Woolacombe, we saw some paragliders flying, so decided to go and have a look (even though we hadn’t brought any gliders with us, intending just to have a walking and sight seeing holiday). It’s ok as a site, coastal flying, not as nice as Rhossili, but much better than the mud flats of Thurstaton. The highlight was watching a hang glider pilot launch with no helmet, and one of his side wires reinforced with glider ties. At least he clipped in….
We then spent the next three hours trying to find a bed and breakfast to stay at; they were either closed, had no vacancies, were full due to a wedding (the entire town of Westward Ho!), or had a festival on. Eventually, we found a hotel in Bideford, where the festival was. Went to the fair, which had possibly the least amusing fun house in any fair anywhere. Back to the hotel via the pub, and bed.
Thursday, 11th September 2008
Having finally seen a good forecast for more than two days in a row, we decided to try and take the holiday we’d be hoping to take most of the summer, and went to Devon and Cornwall (Judith has never been to Cornwall).
On the way down we stopped off at Cheddar Gorge. The gorge itself was really nice, the caves were wildly overpriced, and you couldn’t just pay for a cave – you had to pay for the cave, a walk, a museum, plus a couple of other things, so it was pretty expensive if you were short of time and just wanted to go in the cave, which we did. So we went for a walk through, and round the top of the gorge instead. We got off the beaten track (i.e. we got lost) and had to take the scenic route, which was quite exciting, as we never knew if we were above a shear drop. We got down ok, albeit through lots of bushes, down rock falls, etc.
We headed off south and at one point we thought we’d never leave Somerset, but eventually got to Devon. Every road in Devon seems to be 1:4 gradient. We ended up in Lynton and Lynmouth on the Exmoor coast. Never been there before, but it turned out to be a really beautiful place, although most famous for a flood (like Boscastle) in 1952, when 34 people died. We bought some food, and watched the surfers, who were doing more paddling than surfing; then went and found somewhere to stay for the night.
Wednesday, 10th September 2008
Judith 11 Sep 2008 | : Archery
Strong winds today. We went and did some archery, but the arrows kept being blown off course. That’s my excuse anyway. I have discovered that it doesn’t make a difference having a spectator. I’m rubbish anyway. Ho hum… LMSC committee meeting tonight, so a late one.
Tuesday, 9th September 2008
Judith 09 Sep 2008 | : Miscellaneous activities
Rubbish weather. I did a podcast with Mark Dann of
Beyond Extreme this morning, called ‘You’ve got your CP – What next?’. I then spent an hour editing it, only to lose all my work by not saving it. Talk about school-girl error! I had to do it all again, but it can be heard now in the podcast section.
Next few days looking a bit better. Windy tomorrow, but might be sunny (ish).
Monday, 8th September 2008
Judith 09 Sep 2008 | : Archery, Flying
The forecast was for a dry, maybe even occasionally sunny day. Yipee! Course it didn’t work out that way. The forecast deteriorated as it got closer and it became apparent that it would be pretty cloudy. We went to the Long Mynd to fly before the direction would change to SW. Three people were already in the air, so we set up and Geoff flew to Black Knoll, where he got low and had to slope land. He made it part of the way back later, but had to walk the rest of the way once the wind turned and it was no longer soarable.
I flew out and chased some birds which promptly flew off (typical!) and I just made it back to below take-off and had a hike back to the launch. After this it went very, very light and turned S.
Some people went to Clatter, but the sky became completely overcast, so we didn’t think it was worth the trip and went to do some archery instead. We called into
Beyond Extreme on the way to give back the Sigma (I’ve bought the Apen II), and the lovely Rachael gave us tea.
Michaela came with us to the archery field to keep score and umpire between us. Having an audience definitely affects our accuracy. We were rubbish.
Went to the Horseshoe’s open mic night again this week. Brilliant as usual.
See photos of today. Thanks to Michaela for the pics!
Sunday, 7th September 2008
Although the forecast was for rain in the afternoon (plenty of it), it never materialised. So we had the first dry day this month. It was very cold and grey though. After a morning of pottering about we saw Nigel on his microwing and a couple of hang gliders on the Long Mynd, so a cup of tea later we headed out. It was gusty, but perfectly flyable for a HG, so Geoff got ready and had a pleasant hour soaring.
I sat in the car trying to keep warm until the wind started to drop and Chairman Dave and I motivated ourselves to brave the arctic conditions with phrases like “I suppose that’s what we came for” and “go on then, if you will I will”. The enthusiasm was palpable.
We were however, rewarded with a nice evening flight. Silky smooth. I got up to cloud base with no effort at all and then had to pull big ears to keep out of it. Geoff flew my glider later, although he couldn’t get comfortable in the harness.
In the evening, we headed off to the Station Inn in Marshbrook for a few pints to celebrate Graeme’s 60th birthday.