< Previously – Lyme Regis;Misty Fossils, Viaducts & the most Boring Walk In Britain
Luckily after the crushing boredom of the Seaton – Lyme undercliff coastal walk, I decided to go back to Seaton and check out Branscombe, a National Trust village via Beer. Although be careful what you wish for – it was exciting for other reasons, a hair-raising minibus ride, getting stranded and a day later, stopping a dog attack! Still a peaceful time at Hooken Cliffs and Stanton St Gabriel, but still exhaustion and eczema lead to an exit from an Exmouth ending
I took the 378 again from the Pinhay stop, and then changed onto the 899 bus. Axe Valley Mini Travel is a small family/community bus company that just serves around the Axe Valley and the operative word for the 899 was small – a minibus but still a bit too large for the road to Branscombe.
An encounter with a wasp – the driver hated wasps – and having to reverse for half a mile because of a car that came the other way, and the very up and down nature of the roads made it a dramatic rollercoaster ride. Fun though, reminded me of travelling with the post/school buses in remote parts of Scotland. Beer looked nice (the village, not the drink) and I made a note to come back and visit.
Transcript
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Just had the maddest bus ride ever. You know those little tiny, tiny lanes that are in
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Devon, we’re now in Devon, so it’s Devon motorways I suppose, and Dorset. Well, can
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you imagine having a large minibus, not a mini-sized and quite big sort of minibus,
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dashing up and down those at high speed, colliding with greenery, and also there’s a
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driver with a wasp getting in, and there was also pasted JCB and there was another car
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who had to reverse for a half a mile. You know, we’re very tight corners, but zooming,
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I mean, I’ve not had a journey like that since being on the post-buses up in Harris and
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Lewis, this sort of hair-rising journey, but in a fun way, but still like. So I’m in Branscombebe,
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which is the other side of Seaton, it’s Seaton Beer, yes it’s a place called Beer, and there’s
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even a Beer head, which is quite funny, I find it quite funny, but anyway. And then
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next one around is Branscombe, and there seems to be quite an interesting head at Branscombe,
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that was a very interesting head at Beer. But it’s only a few miles from Seaton, obviously
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I’m having an easy day after the drama of the horrible, frankly horrible, exhausting
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and not that interesting journey from Seaton to Lyme Regis yesterday. So I’m just standing
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by some platinum platimum, platinum platimum jubilee. I wonder if that’s intentional? Queen Elizabeth
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Platy Mum jubilee, June 2002, 22 benches, or one. The other ones seem to be similar things,
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but very posh, very new benches. Platy mum, I hope that was intentional, the Platy mum
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jubilee. I suspect not. So I’m hoping for more cliffies, but because there are buses
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here, although I’m not totally sure. I just kind of jumped on the bus, it’s a bit silly
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to say that, but I know that there’s buses back from Seaton. So I will walk back to Seaton,
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which is what I’m planning to do. And you know, it shouldn’t take me several hours,
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but that could be famous last words, who knows what the train is like. But I think there’s
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buses here as well, not as frequent as the 378, the start was the 889, I think it was,
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I suspect there’s a rural service going up and down. I think you could do an amazing
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TV series just tracking one of those small local bus companies with, you know, does rural
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things, because there’s always things like, look, how’s it in the way, and all this drama.
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So she was going so quick around the corners that someone’s shopping fell down and it was
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all that sort of stuff. Yes, let me see, there’s, there’s buses, there’s a nine o’clock-ish
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bus from Seaton, then 45, 145, which shouldn’t matter, so when I, oh, it was a very good
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interchange because it was just basically there. I noticed yesterday that was a case
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and that’s why I, I was like, oh, I’ll do, I’ll do that bus. And then there’s a, either
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a 245 or a 415 for not school days, which will be this day, coming back from Sidmouth,
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which is where it goes to. I know nothing about Sidmouth, so I thought Brad’s going
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to be as close enough to have a look at where I can always walk back. 525, so I can always
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get a bus back to Seaton if I want to, although I think, I think that gets back too late for
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the buses to connect in the 378, I’ll have to look at that. Yeah, oh, Saturday, not Saturday,
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not school days. School days only and then not Saturdays and it’s not Saturday, no, it’s
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Saturday. So yeah, you can get back at 5, unless it’s a Saturday and then you are a
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bit screwed because you’ve only got a, you’ve only got a, a bus at 2 o’clock. It’s a bit
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weird because usually, usually from Sidmouth, you usually have a bus, late, late buses on
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Saturdays, which is a bit strange. Yes, so I’m going to have a look at Brad’s
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mouth and then see if I can find where the coastal path is, if it is around here. You
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might just say, oh fuck that shit. After the arduous and difficult tea of, of that incredibly
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boring, it’s not arduous, not difficult, it’s just boring, groundhog day of a path, maybe
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they’ve just gone, nope, we’re just not bothering out. No, there should be a, I should pick
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up the, the coastal path somewhere. I’m, I’m a bad person, I didn’t do much research
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as I should have. I knew there was buses, I knew that there were several buses a day
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on the 8, 9 route, I did look at that. And so if you see there’s several buses going,
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you know, that is unlikely to be, you know, just one bus coming back because they have
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to come back. So, um, yeah, so I’m going to head towards Seaton along the coast and
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try and make that, because I’m not walking. If I’m walking, I’m walking inland, seriously.
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I’m not walking on that coast again. So we shall see.
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So now a proper tentcast just in my tent. It’s, the sun clock has woke me up, although
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it was a cold night. Um, no, I put on nearly all my clothes, I was right, but it was, uh,
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yeah, it’s the one thing we have to dress for bed, put all your clothes on as well as
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all your, you know, the thermo rest mattress I’ve got and the, and the supposedly three
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season sleeping bag, which I need to get a better one on, I need to get a proper four
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season one of, because it’s really only two seasons at best. Um, and then of course in
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the morning you take everything off and you try and, you try and get some air in because
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what happens is you get boiled by the sun and such as camping. Yeah. Yesterday was a
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good walk. Actually, even though I didn’t get much work done, I did a drawing of the
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church at Branscombebe, which is one of the oldest churches in Devon. It’s sort of 10th
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century, 11th century. And you can tell that because it’s, as I said before, it’s like
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you’ve got this little turret part, which is very much like a mini castle, but even
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more so than other ones. There’s not a little tiny, tiny, there’s no window. It’s kind of
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at all, almost like defensive little slips and it’s, you know, like, like sort of Norman
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Castle, so it’s, that always means very old. And of course, as usual, there’s added a mob
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bits to it. The main little tower is old. And you have that little turret down the side
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as well, which I find fascinating because it’s either you go this main sort of square,
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single, you get the round turret just to one side. Yeah. Very, very, very, very, very,
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very, very, looks a bit lopsided actually. You’d expect kind of you’d aspire and symmetry.
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And then I walked from the Branscombebe church on the Kettle Pass to Beer and then seating,
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but unfortunately I messed my bus, so I had to take a taxi back, which was annoying because
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of no way of getting back, but rather walking through the evil pass or walking along the
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road, which is unwalkable at that time. And it might have been Lumpass, my feet hurt anyway,
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because it was supposed to be a short walk, not a long walk, but the problem is I misjudged
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the walking at Beer because it’s really, really easy going. It’s about Hooken cliffs or
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Beer Head, Beer Head or anything. Beer Head Seaton is, you know, very simple. It’s nothing,
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you know, anyone could do that. And then it does get much more interesting after that.
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And I have to say, you know, there should have been a sign saying it was difficult.
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That was difficult and arduous, but there wasn’t. It’s just a bit strange. I did. Oh, that
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walk was not difficult. I just had this sign, whereas that was actually the bits that were
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like, oh, no, this is getting a bit kind of like very steep steps. And often it’s not
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steps and very sort of, you know, the intersections were literally at the side of a cliff on the
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little bits. Amazing views from one part, which I hope I did know the name of it. It’s
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not another Chimney Rock, but something similar to that. You know, literally you’re the side
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of a sort of chalk escarpment. And someone had got a very scary rabbit path around the
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side and aged a little bit out there, but without my pack on, but I wasn’t going to
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go out there because it’s like, even I got dizzy just going back. I was actually just
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looking for the sea breeze just coming around the corner. So really nice bits, which I will
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revisit and tempted to actually do that. The cliff walk today, because if you go approach
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from Beer, you can go up to the Hooken Cliffs and there’s some, there’s a Coast Guard house
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and some archaeological sites up there, which would, you know, that would be quite a simple
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walk across those cliffies. And then maybe go and do the painting thing that I didn’t
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do yesterday. Because unlike the other undercliff walk, which this is another undercliff walk,
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you could actually see the sea and the cliffs and you had sections where you could see,
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you know, things you didn’t have just walked through a wood and you could have been anywhere,
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which is what the Seaton and Lyme was like. It’s like you just hardly have a sword seat
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or you know, the trees are so overgrown, you can see the cliffs above on the other side.
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So you’re walking between the cliffs and the sea, but you can’t see either. And that’s
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why I look so annoyed about that. It’s like, what is this? And last night was great because
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one of the reasons I wanted to get back is that someone was making some food here. And
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so we had a barbecue. And so I had a bit of wine and some crisps, but the, yeah, it was
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really nice to chat with some of the people here and the owners. And yeah, that was lovely
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and warm. And as soon as I moved away though, oh, it was how cold it was and when I had
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to shower and scuttled back into bed and, you know, to attempt to put everything on,
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I could possibly, literally almost all my layers and went up in the air and sort of went
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to bed and I was all right actually, but it was, it was cold during the night, even cold
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at last night when I didn’t do that. I didn’t put any extra things on and I was freezing.
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It’s just, the better weather, it’s been sunny, so I’ve just stayed. I didn’t go home. It
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has been great, but that doesn’t mean at night it’s, you don’t get much cloud cover. It just
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gets very cold. And of course I didn’t bring my base layers. I mean, as I say, I left in
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the second heat wave, so, you know, I was like, should I bring a base layer? It’s just
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all stuff to carry, but yeah, you don’t expect it to go that cold. Well, I kind of do, but
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you know, I was hoping my summer rest and my sleeping bag would be good enough, which
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I actually weren’t for the last couple of nights. Yeah, I’ve had my base layers, I mean,
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incredibly toasty, but no, no, no. So maybe I should bring those on future trips, but
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it’s all just extra weight and I already have to do it crap as it is. So yeah, I think,
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I think that’s what I’ll probably do today is maybe get back to Beer. Beer is lovely.
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Beer is lovely, yeah. Older Beer drinkers say, yeah, of course Beer is lovely. Beer and
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definitely lovely. And more investigating. Branscombe is a National Trust site, so there’s
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a forge and a bakery where I got a very dry thing called a Lumberjack, which is because
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of the gingery flatjack. It was a bit kind of a collection of seeds, you know, a
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seed cake, but it was like, you know, how dry. I’ve noticed that was a gluten-free, I have
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some biscuits, gluten-free biscuits, and they were like that as well. They weren’t from
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around here, but they were very much like, where’s the boys here? So yeah, I think Beer
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is worth investigating. This time not getting trapped by the bus not being there. And I
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have to remember that Beer there is not a strange reason that Beer, as I said in the
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review section, the bus stops. The bus doesn’t go earlier, but as I say, the section I’m
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planning to do, you know, I can walk back to scene. That’s a very simple walk. It’s
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about a mile, so. And it is not hard to rest at all. It’s a very simple walk. So I can
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do that in a short time and get the bus. I can’t really afford another taxi. It was
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lovely, it was lovely getting back early and not having all that stress walking up from
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the coast. Yeah, I can’t afford to do that. But it was just the case of, there was no
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other way of getting back from the scene without walking six miles. And again, it would mean
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that horrible previous walk or trying to find something in landway and you’d still have
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to walk six, at least six miles. No, I would say having looked around Seaton, Seaton itself
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is not that interesting. It is very much a dishevelled seaside town with, you know, a
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classic pebbly beach and lots of erosion going on trying to defend off. But you know, it’s
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good for the Tescos and it’s good for the interchange. It’s not really good for much
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money. So anyway, I’ll speak to you later.
Branscombe as I said is mostly owned by the National Trust, and is well preserved – I checked out the Old Forge – which is the only surviving working thatched forge in Devon, which given the combination of thatch and fire is not that surprising! I got a cake at the Bakery which is a nice cafe, a rather dry gluten-free flapjack which came to bite me later as I was short of water. I then checked out St Winifred’s Church which I drew in fountain pen, it was a nice warm day, and one of the oldest churches I’d seen – from at least 995AD.
As you can see, the turret/castle look is in full effect in early Saxon churches, which had to be defensive against raids, and hidden from the coast.
From the church I followed the path through what seemed like the church allotment (?) to the coast up a steep hill. I could see cliffs! I could actually see the sea! all the stuff I was denied on the dreadful walk the day before. Is it too much to ask for a coastal walk to actually see the coast? (sadly, quite often yes as I’ve found).
I followed the coast and walked past Beer Head onto Seaton. I thought I was done with undercliffs and debated whether I should take the high road over the top of the cliffs or the low road under them (I probably should have taken the high road as it turned out). Hooken Undercliff looked interesting and was – I’d agree with the South West Coast Path that the walk was moderate – more ‘uppy downy’ but great views of the cliffs and the turquoise sea, the white rock, and even a few bits where I ventured onto the rabbit paths around one of the cliff heads and it was risky. A proper coastal walk.
An odd idea of signage though in places – can’t avoid the obvious warning signs around here – painting on pebbles? I resolved to come back and paint the cliffs at the Beer end – I couldn’t stop I had a bus to catch. Or did I?
I rushed onwards at Beer – the undercliff section unlike the previous day had taken much longer, and so I was late. I rushed the short very easy section from Beer to Seaton, but I missed the 5pm bus. Yes the buses stop very early around here. Not fancying walking along the ‘Devon motorway’ to Lyme or doing the Most Boring Walk Again, I caved in and got a taxi, which meant I was back really early at the campsite.
Warm days without cloud meant surprisingly cold nights, I really wished I brought my base layers but I left in a heatwave, but it became obvious that my old Karrimor sleeping bag was not good enough even for a British summer. After another cold night I headed back on the bus to check out Beer and paint those cliffs and explore some interesting things I had to sprint past on the failed attempt to get the bus.
I saw from the map that there was the remains of a Roman Villa, and a 1920’s wheel house and a former coastguard tower. There was no sign of the villa as I walked up from Beer, not even bumps in the ground. The remains of the wheel house were visible as a concrete platform, and the tower proudly proclaimed it had been ‘tastefully converted’ into a fairly horrible modernist house. So cliffs it is then.
i settled down in the hot sunshine – I did get a bit burnt and painted the cliffs sitting at the side of the path. Like the previous day it was quite busy here with people heading down to the beach carrying masses of inflatables, chairs and gear wearing flipflops and shorts. Not prepared for the scrabbly path with a very steep drop!
The painting was the second attempt – I didn’t have a piece of paper big enough to cover the panorama of the cliffs, and abandoned the first one even though I think that outcrop was more interesting actually. Not sure this piece was that successful. see the photograph below for what it really looked like.
It was a quite quiet day apart from the many people in tshirt and shorts passing by. That was to change shortly.
Transcript
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back to Beer and it’s a lovely place I’ve been looking around it’s a you know
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very very picturesque you really nice place so I think the way I see it is
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sitting is like Margate to to Beer’s Broadstairs that’s how it kind of is
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it’s like you know it’s chalk and cheese and there’s only one thing I would say
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and this is kind of a bit of a rant about water because there’s all this
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posh was like oh get rid of single use and then someone like Beer doesn’t
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have even have a single tap or a single refill station which is a
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surprising for somewhere so kind of a bit more upscale a bit more posh whereas
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Seaton has those just around the corner I think Lime has them as well
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certainly has places you can get water and it’s one of the things it’s it’s it’s
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you know for walking you’ve seen hot weather you need access to water and so
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many of the public toilets have got this horrible mixer systems so the hot
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water cold water can’t drink them I suppose you could but probably not a good
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idea because probably surprised people outside the UK that the way that the
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hot water tanks work here is that they sit the water just sits there and so
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it’s certainly not a good idea to drink hot water it’s very hot like boiling but
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you know if it’s if it’s it’s warm water it’s probably got pasties in it they
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could all drink it at a pinch but it’s usually not a good idea so so yeah I I
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found a secret one if you go into the Beer Head camp the caravan site or
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Maldi home you know it is caravan site it’s basically a holiday home buck and
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you go to what I I not only went into one of their sort of washing up
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maintenance room you know the washing up room and and use one of the taps there
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because I tried to get some at I think that there’s two places that refill the
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refill app which is what I use which is why I know there isn’t any taps asked
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around as well and knows oh I don’t know no no mate
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it’s like the Bay View cafe does but there was a massive queue there and then
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the met and then the Dolphin Hotel which is which the refill app said it was on
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on the wrong road so it said it was on the road I was going up on the coast and
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I’m sure about that I’m sure I passed on the way back and it is it’s on 4th street
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not common road and yeah so it every place should have one of these every
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place I would say every public toilet in England should have a refill station it
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wouldn’t be hard to install because everybody got water you know it’s not
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hot water so it’s cold water you know obviously maybe not every single toilet
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it’s got you know it’s using fresh water to flush and places are using some
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kind of reclaimed water or all local water isn’t meant to be drunk but most
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most places have proper plumbed water so it would be really easy to do and I
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think every place should have it because we’re going to get rid of you know all
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these bottles and all this you know you start living a bit more sustainably you
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need to do that and you know it’s it’s got to be in that sort of culture and it
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used to be better in Victorian times, Victorians had so many because of Cholera
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and and all of that there became a sort of a big campaign for public clean
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fountains with clean water and good sewage systems and so used to have
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Victorian fountains everywhere the only the Victorians they’ve got better more
04:10.600 –> 04:17.160
access to free water than we do now it’s crazy and the problem about having a
04:17.160 –> 04:23.680
shop or a cafe whatever do it is well what happened yesterday is I asked for a
04:23.680 –> 04:27.680
you know I asked somewhere if they could fill up my water then bought a drink to
04:27.680 –> 04:30.360
sort of like reward them which I shouldn’t have to feel to do for a
04:30.360 –> 04:37.400
start and then she actually didn’t fill up water bottle fully so she filled it
04:37.400 –> 04:43.360
sort of you know partway and it was just a bit weird I was like okay I feel like
04:43.360 –> 04:48.160
I’ve paid for this water tax and then actually then it’s not actually got my
04:48.160 –> 04:53.360
full full bottle of water so you know I understand you know the water costs
04:53.360 –> 05:01.760
some something but I would say that the endless you know pile of single use
05:01.760 –> 05:07.200
plastic bottles is way worse than anything like that and a lot of people
05:07.200 –> 05:13.960
do have water bottles now or they reuse plastic bottles and so it’s just so
05:13.960 –> 05:16.960
convenient to actually have a little refill site so yeah if you if you’re
05:16.960 –> 05:22.760
ever in Beer you’re like oh no I need some water head to the Beer Head
05:22.760 –> 05:31.040
mobile holiday park and you will find a station right by the they have like a
05:31.040 –> 05:36.320
bistro cafe thing that seems to be 24 hours and I don’t know how in quotes
05:36.320 –> 05:39.480
official is because it’s not on the on the refill app it should be really if
05:39.480 –> 05:46.200
it’s any form of but I suppose it’s not in not strictly public access but yeah
05:46.200 –> 05:49.600
I mean that that’s another way you could get water is just hijack it from from
05:49.600 –> 05:54.960
camping sites which is yeah I’m sure the camping site owners would like really
05:54.960 –> 06:01.440
but you know it’s an emergency you do it but I much prefer if you know I went
06:01.440 –> 06:07.120
you know I’m out of time looking to a toilet somewhere you know in some quite
06:07.120 –> 06:12.400
seaside quite well-known town or or maybe a little place or big places and say
06:12.400 –> 06:19.400
it’s been not single refill tap or like in what happened with the place I’m
06:19.400 –> 06:28.240
trying them a name at the moment place near White Nothe – Ringstead they have a
06:28.240 –> 06:34.160
refill thing on the outside I was going wow I think I mentioned that on here but
06:34.160 –> 06:39.960
then it closes them and the the sort of award-winning public toilets and the
06:39.960 –> 06:45.120
award-winning refill station is not 24 hours and there’s a real problem with
06:45.120 –> 06:50.640
that sort of oh we can refill here up here it’s nice but if you’re walking
06:50.640 –> 06:54.280
outside of those hours I think it was quite limited around here you know at
06:54.280 –> 06:58.800
lunchtime closing and you know maybe not for cafes and restaurants but you know
06:58.800 –> 07:03.440
a lot places seem to close at four or five or you know so if you’re stumbling
07:03.440 –> 07:06.160
over a headland and you’re just parked and you run out of water and you’re
07:06.160 –> 07:10.560
really thirsty and you just get to an ever as close and it’s not a single drop
07:10.560 –> 07:15.880
of water I’ve had that with villages and you know and towns before now searching
07:15.880 –> 07:21.680
around to find a single drop of water that’s just seriously we’re a developed
07:21.680 –> 07:26.680
country it would just be everywhere for free to be the one thing that should be
07:26.680 –> 07:31.920
everywhere because you know you need everyone needs it you know it’s you
07:31.920 –> 07:36.320
know you can’t can’t be drinking dotty water although I do have a little filter
07:36.320 –> 07:42.400
thing so that sort of thing so I’m just gonna walk up to I’ve taken the direct
07:42.400 –> 07:48.000
route I watched she went a very very exhausting hot making way up through the
07:48.000 –> 07:53.240
holiday park which is partly just because it’s obviously bloody tarmac and
07:53.240 –> 07:58.840
it just reflects the sun you’re by baking away but I’m gonna go there’s a
07:58.840 –> 08:03.840
bridal path along directly to Hooken Cliffs past apparently some Roman
08:03.840 –> 08:09.960
archaeology and there’s also some 1920s is some kind of wheel industrial wheel
08:09.960 –> 08:15.360
thing on the on the actual the headland itself so you know on top of the cliffs I
08:15.360 –> 08:19.520
walked underneath yesterday so that’s what I’m basically going to do today and
08:19.520 –> 08:24.840
then walk back and then walk down and do some work if I’ve got time which I
08:24.840 –> 08:30.480
hopefully do this time make sure we don’t miss the bus I’m gonna give it
08:30.480 –> 08:36.280
plenty of time although from here from from the non-raughty bit the non sort of
08:36.280 –> 08:41.400
butch bit with lots of downies which I’m not going to go down there very much
08:41.400 –> 08:46.520
from this side it’s much easier to access that stuff whereas yeah if you
08:46.520 –> 08:52.200
have come from Branscombe it’s all like you know and so I’m expecting it sort of
08:52.200 –> 08:57.360
easier to get to see today but I’m gonna leave plenty of time to get to see and
08:57.360 –> 09:01.040
because I don’t want to I don’t want to miss it I don’t want to miss that bus
09:01.040 –> 09:06.720
again I can’t afford another 18 quid I can’t afford it the first time but it
09:06.720 –> 09:14.400
was a case of like how do I get home so anyway I’ll speak to you soon yes I did
09:14.400 –> 09:24.520
a watercolour that’s planned from the foot bath that I did the previous day the
09:24.520 –> 09:31.840
tour to the top there’s like a little bench yes bench almost which side
09:31.840 –> 09:38.840
of the cliff and the promontory and did I what a color which was you know it was
09:38.840 –> 09:49.080
actually quite I got quite baked not not in that sense and it was okay it’s the
09:49.080 –> 09:56.160
artwork for this episode it’s I do think I have a conversation with a French
09:56.160 –> 10:01.360
couple who were staying at the campsite and moved on who were sort of going
10:01.360 –> 10:06.000
home I think a day or two ago and different Normandy and we talked about
10:06.000 –> 10:09.520
art and getting back into art and that’s the stuff and she was saying she saw one
10:09.520 –> 10:12.760
of the pieces I did without any lines and maybe you should do more of that and
10:12.760 –> 10:19.000
I think you probably should so I might try that today walking down to a place
10:19.000 –> 10:22.880
so we sort of doing a recap because the only bus service running is the
10:22.880 –> 10:29.840
breather bus service so we’re actually back in St. Gabriel’s Chapel on the
10:29.840 –> 10:35.920
St. Gabriel’s Chapel Gabriel Stanton also remains of Gabriel Stanton and we’re
10:35.920 –> 10:40.800
going we’re taking it less up he way we’re not going over the golden cap but
10:40.800 –> 10:50.760
we did early in the trip so yeah it’s a sort of an easy day it’s a Sunday so I
10:50.760 –> 10:54.520
don’t want to dry that so I might try to be able to do watercolour then the lines
10:54.520 –> 10:58.720
or the lines if I needed you know and try and keep it sort of very loose so I
10:58.720 –> 11:04.360
think the way the way that probably works well with my abstraction yes but
11:04.360 –> 11:09.720
there was a quite what’s to talk about yes or I wasn’t just recapping yesterday
11:09.720 –> 11:15.320
well it isn’t happened yesterday I stopped a dog running sheep I did my
11:15.320 –> 11:20.920
whole full shepherd act usual not pass Gandalf I’ve got the beard I’ve got the
11:20.920 –> 11:28.240
stick and yeah there was when I was finishing up doing the watercolour there
11:28.240 –> 11:34.400
was a couple of went past with a dog and then as I was walking up I almost got
11:34.400 –> 11:39.160
knocked over the cliff by one of their dogs because it did I didn’t realize they
11:39.160 –> 11:46.520
had another dog behind them and so they did that little dog whistle you know and
11:46.520 –> 11:51.720
that was annoying enough but I didn’t say anything but I did shout did shout
11:51.720 –> 11:58.880
careful the dogs I’m not sure if they heard me and then because I kind of
11:58.880 –> 12:08.160
tried to go to the bridal way I yeah I was not sure about which way to go I
12:08.160 –> 12:14.200
actually went across the fields and then back and then so I then headed back
12:14.200 –> 12:18.800
across the field you know actually we don’t want to go bridal way I’ll go the
12:18.800 –> 12:22.920
coastal way because I need to go back I’ll need to get back to the coastal way
12:22.920 –> 12:30.000
anyway to walk up from Beer to season so I was like well yeah it’s you know
12:30.000 –> 12:37.080
something I’ve got to do it’s not a you know so so I was happily heading over
12:37.080 –> 12:40.960
when this stampede of sheep came towards me you know we’re literally all the
12:40.960 –> 12:44.640
sheep on the field was running and there was a dog behind that was that other dog
12:44.640 –> 12:49.280
and they were peeping away but the dog was just ignoring them and so I got in
12:49.280 –> 12:55.040
the way of the sheep and just at the you know no no stop you know bad dog such
12:55.040 –> 13:00.400
stuff and actually the dog then stopped and then snapped out of it and then
13:00.400 –> 13:05.880
ran back but I didn’t have words I almost had words I was really angry was
13:05.880 –> 13:09.920
that couple because it’s basically I think some people shouldn’t have dogs I
13:09.920 –> 13:14.120
mean the one I stopped was probably a slightly like the older not a puppy but
13:14.120 –> 13:18.760
kind of you know quite a young dog I mean you know sort of a bit older than a
13:18.760 –> 13:23.760
puppy but you know I don’t mind the other one but it was just like if you can’t
13:23.760 –> 13:28.240
control your dogs and you don’t put them on leads near sheep you know they’re
13:28.240 –> 13:31.600
very lucky their dog didn’t get shot the signs everywhere saying you know if
13:31.600 –> 13:36.640
dogs were worrying sheep they can be shot you know you know and so they’re
13:36.640 –> 13:41.440
very lucky the farmer wasn’t around and it’s that kind of thing because we’re
13:41.440 –> 13:46.880
walking through the fields there’s the path to the fields there’s not very
13:46.880 –> 13:56.080
many fences you know it’s very kind of like you know it’s kind of thing that
13:56.080 –> 14:01.440
you know if that happens more often than the sheep get hurt the landowner will
14:01.440 –> 14:04.880
just go sorry no everything has to be fenced off and we’re all well you know
14:04.880 –> 14:10.080
it spoils it for everyone you know so yes I was proud of my sort of good act
14:10.080 –> 14:13.320
for the day but seriously I’m not so annoyed with that couple I was speaking
14:13.320 –> 14:17.520
to I had to end up shouting in the distance control your fucking dog you
14:17.520 –> 14:25.980
know seriously I went but let’s do it I don’t they heard me but I accidentally
14:25.980 –> 14:29.960
shouted another couple and I apologise I always had to you I know it wasn’t your
14:29.960 –> 14:42.520
dog it’s another dog and so they attack me please that’s not the mood to be
14:42.520 –> 14:45.160
attacked by a dog
14:45.680 –> 14:55.520
not after that episode not more dogs how the hell do we get what what is going
14:55.520 –> 15:03.320
here it seems like every gate every gate you meet it’s got a different system on
15:03.320 –> 15:13.800
it it’s just like can we standardize can we standardize the gates or something
15:13.800 –> 15:29.000
I mean seriously but yeah every single gate has got a different locking system
15:29.000 –> 15:32.920
of different you know so I think there’s a big thing of saying oh you know I
15:32.920 –> 15:37.720
always closed my gate so I was you know there’s livestock and everything but the
15:37.720 –> 15:41.480
problem is is you spend about half the time trying to work out if you lift or
15:41.480 –> 15:48.160
push or pull or and it’s all like can you just choose one method of opening a
15:48.160 –> 16:01.360
gate and stick to it you know it would be a nice thing if you stick to one way
16:01.360 –> 16:11.480
of doing it because they’re all different ways you’re out to have a nice walk you
16:11.480 –> 16:16.040
just try to rustle it back in the problem
16:19.400 –> 16:23.920
I’ll have to end this because I’m I have to wrestle with this gate to get it back
16:23.920 –> 16:27.800
in again and they say close the gates well it would be nice if the gates are
16:27.800 –> 16:33.840
very easily closeable and also easily openable but I suspect the landlords the
16:33.840 –> 16:39.280
farmers intentionally make things difficult a bit like the pass I was
16:39.280 –> 16:44.560
on earlier that just just nothing but nettles and brown balls it’s yeah they
16:44.560 –> 16:51.560
don’t clear the past because they don’t want people to use them but yes so so
16:51.560 –> 16:57.000
yeah that was my good deed but yeah speaking to another couple and with
16:57.000 –> 17:00.080
their dog and they said we always you know even though our we know our dog is
17:00.080 –> 17:04.120
good around sheep we always if it’s around there we are if it’s around sheep we
17:04.120 –> 17:13.920
don’t know you know around things you know we always put them on the lead so it
17:13.920 –> 17:19.680
just yeah that may be a bit annoyed but otherwise a very good day I rushed back
17:19.680 –> 17:26.560
to Seaton and I left plenty of time I left an extra 15 minutes I knew it was
17:26.560 –> 17:34.560
about half an hour those are an hour from Beer there to be ahead to Seaton
17:34.560 –> 17:41.040
where the bus was that was about right is about an hour but I left an extra 15
17:41.040 –> 17:48.640
minutes which I’m glad I did and I can get an ice cream and also I almost missed
17:48.640 –> 17:52.800
it anyway because I didn’t realise I didn’t spot the other bus stops two
17:52.800 –> 18:00.200
bus stops at the seafront at Seaton there’s a southbound and a northbound so
18:00.200 –> 18:11.760
it was like I felt very dumb but I got it didn’t have to pay a taxi fine for
18:11.760 –> 18:19.000
walking past five o’clock and it’s a completely different way of and a
18:19.000 –> 18:26.800
really difficult thing to open but yeah seriously if they try to make the country
18:26.800 –> 18:29.000
side
18:30.000 –> 18:37.200
accessible there’s really struggle with that because you have to be quite but
18:37.200 –> 18:49.640
to even lift that case and into an open field oh how I love open fields like this
18:49.640 –> 18:59.160
I’ll have to look on the coos see a desire path so let’s go that way hopefully
18:59.160 –> 19:08.800
coos don’t have horns no always quite funny at the campsite where the field
19:08.800 –> 19:16.080
next to us is cows all around Devon there’s so many different nose it’s so
19:16.080 –> 19:26.440
creamy it’s so many cows around here and yes it’s when you actually the munchie
19:26.440 –> 19:33.560
time you get stampede of cows make a lot of noise like hungry hungry hungry yeah
19:33.560 –> 20:01.480
they make a lot of noise
20:01.480 –> 20:12.680
about the mental states so yes anyway it’s waiting on it was oh and then I
20:12.680 –> 20:20.960
went into lime regis and did a drawing of the seafront so I did another piece
20:20.960 –> 20:24.880
because I felt like just think of one more color wasn’t enough and it’s still
20:24.880 –> 20:30.360
only like five six o’clock then walk back and I got a very horrible Pinot
20:30.360 –> 20:36.360
Grigio fizzy Pinot Grigio in a can never see that please don’t bother I mean
20:36.360 –> 20:45.840
fizzy wine is actually quite nice sweet but that was sour yes and so I did a
20:45.840 –> 20:50.400
drawing while I was sitting on the front and then came back and they were
20:50.400 –> 20:55.800
doing another barbecue so I I don’t have loads of food I’ve not actually eaten
20:55.800 –> 21:01.800
all that stuff I got in Tesco’s not all of it but a lot of it I’m not eating yet
21:01.800 –> 21:06.480
and I had a fish and chips yesterday I had a piggy day really but because I was
21:06.480 –> 21:12.520
like oh free food they were in very kindly offering me some other some of
21:12.520 –> 21:22.680
the foodie and it was very very nice lovely so you know it was nice last
21:22.680 –> 21:29.560
couple nights to go back and live in a barbecue and and fed me so yeah I now
21:29.560 –> 21:37.560
have a lot of knocking in pasta to drag back or discard which is annoying so
21:37.560 –> 21:42.800
anyway we’re on our way to this chapel and paint the ruins of the chapel
21:42.800 –> 21:47.200
I think I’m going the right way looks this bit looks familiar actually this is a Muddyford
21:47.200 –> 21:52.600
Lane I’m pretty sure this was a lane that was struggling up going the wrong way I
21:52.600 –> 21:57.120
might even recording a podcast when I was doing that but yes when I got a bit
21:57.120 –> 22:02.680
lost last time I was here this time we have a bit more knowledge of it or a
22:02.680 –> 22:08.880
search because you want to go to St Gabriel’s Chapel the ruins off not the
22:08.880 –> 22:16.000
the one in Morcombelake which is a new one and you don’t want to do the Golden
22:16.000 –> 22:21.800
Cap I have researched this and there’s two ways one from the Ship’s Nap or Ship
22:21.800 –> 22:29.120
Nap it’s the same as a road and that is a mile walk from there I’m going back that
22:29.120 –> 22:31.680
way because it goes back a well so obviously you can tell that’s an old
22:31.680 –> 22:37.000
way because if it goes past of St Wite’s well that’s probably the way
22:37.000 –> 22:42.280
the people who were pilgrims would go doing little pilgrimmy chapely tools
22:42.280 –> 22:48.080
and the way I’m going down now is from the post office which isn’t there
22:48.080 –> 22:51.880
anymore of course there’s nothing in Morcombelake it seems to be a dead
22:51.880 –> 22:57.840
town this is sort of a dead tea shop and obviously wouldn’t be open today anyway
22:57.840 –> 23:04.120
so maybe it’s working there during the week but it’s nothing today obviously so
23:04.120 –> 23:10.280
this is like two sort of trackway pathway ways to go down which are not
23:10.280 –> 23:16.200
trafficking and they take about a mile each and because it’s it’s not going
23:16.200 –> 23:25.000
over the cap it’s like you descend about 70 or meters so it’s not horrible so I
23:25.000 –> 23:30.280
know occasionally when I came down this road originally it’s the same on they
23:30.280 –> 23:33.920
you occasionally get some tractors up here but it’s you know otherwise it’s
23:33.920 –> 23:38.480
not it’s not a it’s not a seaside beach route there’s no beaches around here
23:38.480 –> 23:44.160
there probably are but you wouldn’t get down to them so yes there are ways to get
23:44.160 –> 23:50.680
to and I was researching this on the bus that’s how I was like it must be all right
23:50.680 –> 23:56.680
you know there are several ways down to to the chapel without going over the
23:56.680 –> 24:01.040
golden cap you can go gold gone cap if you want yeah I didn’t fancy doing it
24:01.040 –> 24:06.960
again today so anyway I’ll speak to you soon and hopefully we’ll have a nice
24:06.960 –> 24:13.200
painting of the chapel and maybe we’ll see what the wells like and yeah it’s
24:13.200 –> 24:19.480
the Sunday bank holiday Sunday Monday I’m gonna possibly go back to Abbotsbury
24:19.480 –> 24:23.440
if the weather’s not crappy because let’s say that’s one of also I want well I
24:23.440 –> 24:27.880
wanted to go to Axminster today to check out the you know the interlinks and
24:27.880 –> 24:37.000
stuff Axminster but yeah I might do that tomorrow or today if you know if I
24:37.000 –> 24:40.920
finish quicker and then decide to go up to Axminster I could do it depends on
24:40.920 –> 24:46.160
what all the buses work out what in the last buses are but I I didn’t realize
24:46.160 –> 24:55.120
Axminster has a railway link so yeah it’s oh this is the right way
24:55.120 –> 25:02.200
I might have gone the wrong way which I but yes I do recognize the rude shitbush farm
25:02.200 –> 25:14.160
but the so yeah I’m sort of I’m 50-50 and it sounds you know deja vu again to
25:14.160 –> 25:23.240
say hey should I stay or should I go but I have a possible assignation with a
25:23.240 –> 25:30.560
gentleman in London that could happen if I go back but I’m so close to actually
25:30.560 –> 25:34.280
doing Exmouth and Sidmouth and then that will be the last of the jaunts or
25:34.280 –> 25:38.520
apart from one little bit there’s like a five six mile walk at Kimmeridge which
25:38.520 –> 25:46.680
that is a difficult one because the only campsite nearby has not only no no hot
25:46.680 –> 25:52.840
showers it does have anything no toilets at all I’m not sure if he’s
25:52.840 –> 25:56.760
in got running water I think it does but there are no toilets or toilets in some
25:56.760 –> 26:00.920
of the things nearby but no toilets on site I’m not sure if he’s even running
26:00.920 –> 26:08.200
water so I need to work out the logistics of doing that bit I would
26:08.200 –> 26:13.560
love to do it because that’s the last connecting piece of this Swanage from
26:13.560 –> 26:19.920
Dancing Ledge or Worth Maltravers area, a lovely pub at Worth Maltravers
26:19.920 –> 26:28.080
something like Cross Compasses or the Cross Keys, so you’ve got that but
26:28.080 –> 26:34.120
around Kimmeridge and now I have the water purification thing and that makes
26:34.120 –> 26:42.840
that possible if I again get stranded with no water oh crap there’s a car
26:42.840 –> 26:53.840
I get stranded with no water then I’ve got a way to purify it but yeah there’s no
26:53.840 –> 26:57.520
way to get through
26:57.520 –> 27:15.760
I’ll drive these massive cars down here like BMWs and you know it’s massive
27:15.760 –> 27:22.120
4x4s I wonder why there’s no space for anything anyway how about the driving
27:22.120 –> 27:29.040
so yeah this is gonna end up being a long podcast but I’m not sure what I’m
27:29.040 –> 27:52.680
gonna do about the Kimmeridge bit because I don’t want to stay looking for yeah
27:52.680 –> 27:56.960
I was trying to find this I went the wrong way and then I found a car a massive
27:56.960 –> 28:07.320
BMW which is not good on this right I know I know that now I can see the sign
28:07.320 –> 28:13.640
I didn’t know that down the road because there’s no signs on the other star
28:13.640 –> 28:30.320
easy than over the cap anyway I’ve done that so yeah I don’t know what to do
28:30.320 –> 28:36.080
about the Kimmeridge part I don’t want to stay in Swanage because to be
28:36.080 –> 28:41.280
really honest pretty much all of the Swanage sites not only be winding down
28:41.280 –> 28:47.520
at this time they’re a bit of a nightmare and it’s not a nice place to
28:47.520 –> 28:53.560
stay definitely never never again California Farm that’s just that’s what
28:53.560 –> 28:59.960
somewhere banned list there might be a site that’s sort of a bit nearer but it’s
28:59.960 –> 29:05.000
all just like you know the other option is Lulworth because that’s the exit
29:05.000 –> 29:08.320
point so it’s based on Kimmeridge to Lulworth like four or five miles maybe
29:08.320 –> 29:14.160
maybe a bit longer it’s very rugged no out points over there’s a few out points
29:14.160 –> 29:19.080
but there’s a military range so there’s limited out points depending on
29:19.080 –> 29:25.120
whether the range is working and it’s all a bit too you know it’s all a bit too
29:25.120 –> 29:30.760
much so yeah I don’t know whether I’ll do that again on this trip or well again
29:30.760 –> 29:36.880
and do it do it full stop not do it again because the last time I got to dance
29:36.880 –> 29:43.120
I did Dancing Ledge Swanage the Dancing Ledge and I ran out of water around
29:43.120 –> 29:48.680
something comes it’s not like not Scratchy Bottom there’s a Scratchy Bottom but
29:48.680 –> 29:55.120
it was something bottom here and I had to do a very hot exhausting no water it
29:55.120 –> 30:00.040
was hot day walk all the way all the way to up to
30:00.040 –> 30:07.160
Worth Maltravers and the pubs there but I was so so so thirsty and since then
30:07.160 –> 30:11.960
that’s the reason why I carry way too much water we’re talking about litres and
30:11.960 –> 30:19.200
litres and litres now not one 750 or 150 I had a 500 mil or 750 whereas now I
30:19.200 –> 30:26.840
carry 70 over a litre today I’ve got even more even up we won’t need it
30:26.840 –> 30:35.240
would also carry it’s a complete absolutely complete overkill but I carry
30:35.240 –> 30:43.960
a water purifier filter so if it ever happens again that I’m stuck because
30:43.960 –> 30:48.200
there was there was cattle things everywhere so it was like there was
30:48.200 –> 30:52.640
water I just you know wasn’t sure if I could drink it you know it’s kind of
30:52.640 –> 31:01.200
standing water this is the right way so yeah I’m one I want to see if I can do
31:01.200 –> 31:08.360
that one but as I say the don’t want to go back to Dirtledore don’t want to go
31:08.360 –> 31:13.080
back to Swanage just see what do my research and see if there’s any campsite
31:13.080 –> 31:19.160
you know walking distance I can go to that has toilets that’s a minimum
31:19.160 –> 31:23.520
toilets and even a cold shower will be alright but you know let’s say the site
31:23.520 –> 31:31.400
the site on the state of there is near there is meant for caravans really so
31:31.400 –> 31:35.080
it’s got no toilets I’m not sure if you’ve got running water which is a bit
31:35.080 –> 31:40.520
hardcore because you know I do have my waterproof eye but you know I don’t really
31:40.520 –> 31:44.680
want to start getting that one well I don’t have to pay to be that wild
31:44.680 –> 31:51.160
campy that’s the problem so yeah there’s that but I’m tempted to at least do the
31:51.160 –> 31:55.560
Sidmouth Exmouth bit when the traffic really starts and where the you know
31:55.560 –> 32:03.120
public transport is on back on after the bank holiday and before things start to
32:03.120 –> 32:08.720
really wind down and then go back early September it will be September by then
32:08.720 –> 32:14.840
will be September by but yeah go back to first week September so we do spend
32:14.840 –> 32:41.480
three weeks so anyway long ramble but yeah so anyway I’ll speak to you soon
I was just finished and heading up the path holding my plastic watercolour box flat so the piece would dry flat when I heard the peep of a whistle from the couple walking ahead of me. A dog barrelled up the tiny path at high speed and nearly knocked me over the edge. I was angry about this and stomped up the path. I saw the couple at the gate struggling with their dogs (turns out they had two) talking sternly to one of them, and I almost had words about controlling their dogs.
I wish I had, maybe what happened next would have been avoided.
I crossed the field heading back to Beer and suddenly I am besieged by a stampede of panicking sheep running towards me. Yes those idiots had not put their other dog on a leash and it had run at the sheep, worrying them, and they were ineffectually peeping away on their whistle. The dog was having a whale of a time, but the sheep were freaking out and running fast. I did my best ‘You Shall Not Pass!’ shepherd act and shouted at the dog to stop, waving my stick like a staff. Thankfully it then stopped, puzzled at why it was in trouble, and ran back.
Some people should not own dogs. I’m guessing they are the sorts who got dogs in lockdown, but are totally useless at training dogs. They are very lucky the dog wasn’t shot by the farmer, although it should be them that should be shit. I shouted that they should ‘control their fucking dog’ at them and stomped off. Too much drama for a day.
So after that drama, and the fact that the next day was the weekend so no buses from AVMT I decided to take the X53 back to Golden Cap and head to the chapel at Stanton St Gabriel that I wanted to paint a week or so prior. This time was the cheating way via not the Golden Cap car park as planned but overland from Morcombelake, I saw there were two interestingly ways to head to the chapel on the map, one of them via a well and the trackway I started walking up last time rather lost, and the other via some houses and fields. I chose the latter for starters as it was near the new chapel, rebuilt near the road.
There are records of the parishioners of Stanton St Gabriel complaining about having to walk 2-3 miles to get to church on a Sunday (usually a mandatory act) so eventually the now-ruined chapel was built. When the village was abandoned, mostly because of people working at the ropewalks in Bridport and the remote desolate locale, the village moved up to what is now Morcombelake and rebuilt the chapel there. It’s a fairly modern church (Victorian), really a small chapel, with apparently a badger problem (see sign). I wanted to get a nice picture of the chapel but houses and hedges were in the way.
So I walked down the road and down the hill towards the original chapel, and backs of houses and a steep road gave way to fields. This was a bit confusing, with a lot of paths, and eventually a nice stream which was tempting to draw, but I had come here for one thing – Stanton St Gabriel and it’s ruined chapel.
Eventually I found the path arrived at the old farmhouse – apart from the chapel, a few signs and a recreated sheep run, that’s all there is left of Stanton St Gabriel – and made my way around to the chapel. Phew there wasn’t anyone lurking there – although that would change throughout the day – and I recced the place for good drawing and painting opportunities. I toyed with drawing from the inside of the chapel, or the interesting stone bits left on the floor – but that view, it had to be.
So I settled down on the bank to draw…and watched the many walkers pass by exclaiming such gens as ‘Is this a house?’ (yeah, houses always have arched doors and are in the shape of a cross…) or even pissing against the hedge next to the chapel asking their S.O. to ‘keep a look out’ when I was just behind it. A voice of God ‘I can see you’ was tempting!
I am not sure why I wasn’t wearing headphones but I found it amusing the disconnect between the inane exclamations when they thought they were alone, then the sometimes awkward scurrying away when they saw me there when they realised I’d heard them!
Transcript
00:00.000 –> 00:19.480
I just got back from St. Gabriel’s Chapel and I did a watercolour which I kind of hated
00:19.480 –> 00:26.880
at the start. I did what I said I was going to do which is I worked with a watercolour
00:26.880 –> 00:31.640
then a bit like the way I did one of the Corfe Castle pieces. It’s very good to listen
00:31.640 –> 00:39.240
to that. So I started with a watercolour then drew in the detail. It requires a lot more
00:39.240 –> 00:46.160
effort to make sure the watercolours are sorted in the right place though it is erasable.
00:46.160 –> 00:52.720
So I’m not sure really. It frustrated me and then when I added the pen in it was like
00:52.720 –> 00:59.440
I was thinking I should leave it as I know it can’t, it doesn’t work. So at some point
00:59.440 –> 01:08.480
I will get to a state where I can just do watercolours without lines but not yet. And
01:08.480 –> 01:14.080
then I did a graphite piece from another angle. Though I actually was leaving it at an even
01:14.080 –> 01:20.160
better angle. It would have been right by the path and I liked being up on the hill away
01:20.160 –> 01:34.320
from the many, many people who wander by or are blackberrying with Jacinta and Tarquin
01:34.320 –> 01:48.880
or er you know that sort of thing. You know having a piss in the bushes. That was happening
01:48.880 –> 01:53.600
as well and I was on the inside of those bushes. They were like look out for anyone. I’m being
01:53.600 –> 01:57.600
being a disembodied voice and saying well there is someone behind the bushes. I don’t
01:57.600 –> 02:08.440
know if you heard me but it’s quite funny being the voice of God. But I’m about to cross
02:08.440 –> 02:15.360
the old railway line because you can cross one or two parts of it with the path with
02:15.360 –> 02:25.360
the footpath. You can’t walk along it. Apparently they tried to sell the viaduct for a pound
02:25.360 –> 02:33.600
to the Cannington Farm people and other people and found out thatm you had to, you know it’s listed
02:33.600 –> 02:48.800
so you had to, erm, maintain it. So it was a bit of a poison chalice. evening. But yeah
02:48.800 –> 03:04.560
so it was, erm, oh let me get my breath back. Yes no I did a few good pieces. I think it
03:04.560 –> 03:11.960
reminded me of Corfe Castle in a way. That way of working. Weirdly churches and chapels
03:11.960 –> 03:21.560
have come up quite a lot. Not intendedly in this trip. But it’s certainly been brought
03:21.560 –> 03:27.880
to you by the, because with also the Bat Hole, the whole Bat Head, the Hole, the whole cave
03:27.880 –> 03:35.480
of Bat Head is a similar arched shape. So yeah this, this trip has been brought to you by
03:35.480 –> 03:46.520
the arch, shape arch. That sort of heightened arch. But yeah so it’s, it’s a beautiful
03:46.520 –> 03:53.000
place. It’s kind of odd to be back there. And both hearing the conversations because
03:53.000 –> 03:58.680
I wasn’t wearing my headphones. So I heard all the conversations like, “Is it a house?”.
03:58.680 –> 04:07.160
No! How many houses do you have a, have an arched doorway like that? Hmm like me a
04:07.160 –> 04:16.920
church. And also in the shape of a cross. It’s a bit of a giveaway. Not for some people.
04:16.920 –> 04:29.160
And then I came back. I’ve gone back to back early. It’s still, it’s still late afternoon.
04:29.160 –> 04:34.080
I’m going to try and get some food on or maybe I’ll do some work here. I’m not really sure
04:34.080 –> 04:43.520
what I’m going to do. Because of course it’s Sunday. I’ve got the last bus back. Annoyingly
04:43.520 –> 04:49.440
I got back to the bus stop a few minutes after the previous one had gone because I left lots
04:49.440 –> 04:55.520
of time. And it turned out that yeah you can actually get, like if you go up the trackway
04:55.520 –> 05:03.160
although it’s a one long walk of the hill. So those 80 meters is pretty much a continuous
05:03.160 –> 05:11.200
incline which is a bit, a bit exhausting. I hear a para, that sounds like a parascender.
05:11.200 –> 05:19.880
I can’t see anyone there. So yeah it was a bit of, but there’s a really nice two ways
05:19.880 –> 05:27.240
to get there. One is that I’ll be downy and goes down the, the valley with the stream.
05:27.240 –> 05:34.440
But it’s a bit kind of fiddly. It’s like lots of little paths and you know and the signs
05:34.440 –> 05:39.400
sort of direct you but it’s all a bit all over the shop. Or there’s the old what would
05:39.400 –> 05:47.160
be the Pilgrim track which goes past St. White’s well which is deemed to have curative properties
05:47.160 –> 05:53.480
and that’s obviously the Pilgrim way because it’s the old track and the well. And St. Wite
05:53.480 –> 06:04.320
is a sort of interesting saint. It’s a she. But they don’t really know who she was but
06:04.320 –> 06:09.520
she certainly dates back to the early church like 6th century maybe Danish anchoress as
06:09.520 –> 06:13.760
in those people who got walled. I was reading about this. Those people walled themselves
06:13.760 –> 06:19.640
up in churches which is like what the hell anchorites. That’s pretty hardcore. Oh there
06:19.640 –> 06:26.360
they are. You can see parascender. I’m not usually get paracenders around here. Maybe
06:26.360 –> 06:33.200
they’re doing the viaduct. But the, but yes so it was, and this thing is when you see
06:33.200 –> 06:44.960
Whitchurch it’s the relics of St. Wite, W-I-T-E are in Wichurch. We also know St. Candida
06:44.960 –> 06:52.200
but it’s one of the, it’s one of two places about from Westminster Cathedral and the place
06:52.200 –> 06:55.960
in Folkestone that actually kept their relics everywhere else the relics were destroyed
06:55.960 –> 07:00.640
in the Reformation. It’s actually by accident because it’s completely forgotten about this
07:00.640 –> 07:08.080
St. and it didn’t look too much like a shrine. They just left it. So this sort of
07:08.080 –> 07:19.320
was a weird kind of tomb. It was actually a relic tomb. So I think, But I think that that’s
07:19.320 –> 07:25.720
a pre, the Wikipedia kind of backs it up because it’s so early. There’s so many places
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like Whitson, Whitson Friday, Whitsun Tide, Whitchurch, Whit’s, all these Whit’s go back
07:33.360 –> 07:39.240
a long way. I think it’s obviously an older god who’s been co-opted as a saint into the
07:39.240 –> 07:44.320
church. I mean there’s, there’s some, somebody has posited that idea in the Wikipedia and
07:44.320 –> 07:51.360
made a lot of sense because you see Whit’s everywhere. The White’s Whit’s. And I do wonder
07:51.360 –> 07:59.440
if the whole thing was, it’s related to Wight spelt, W-I-G-H-T, whole zombie thing
07:59.440 –> 08:04.400
because the reason why I say that, you know, we can’t get around this far. I was wondering
08:04.400 –> 08:09.840
if we could get, we could follow the track around. It’s the night we can. I’ll go my
08:09.840 –> 08:15.000
leisure way. I was wondering if we could actually follow the other side of the, there seem to
08:15.000 –> 08:21.880
be a bit of a desire path. You can actually walk along some of the, not officially, but
08:21.880 –> 08:28.880
some of the old bed track because the footpath here crosses it, but that part isn’t gated,
08:28.880 –> 08:32.760
but actually meet a gate at the other end. There’s a sign saying, it’s your
08:32.760 –> 08:39.720
own, you know, danger keep out. Apparently. I’ve not been up there, but similarly across
08:39.720 –> 08:49.160
the viaduct there is a gated and it’s private property. So yes. But yeah, the whole Whit
08:49.160 –> 08:53.960
thing is very interesting. So I suspect an older, because that’s what happened to those
08:53.960 –> 09:04.320
older Celtic gods like, you know, Easter, you know, Eostre. They quite often got made
09:04.320 –> 09:10.160
into saints. So there’s a possibilities it’s a Mother Goddess, but I do wonder if, because
09:10.160 –> 09:22.000
the white WIGHT is very old as well and spelt WITE, so similar. I do wonder whether white
09:22.000 –> 09:31.280
or wite or heavy is actually a, that her special power was to be reincarnated when
09:31.280 –> 09:36.280
dead, because if she was an anchoress, she was probably, you know, walled up inside of
09:36.280 –> 09:45.160
a church. Oh, I’m just going to give her a style. Excuse me. She’s put walled up in
09:45.160 –> 09:50.520
a sort of, you know, not a style. She’s walled up in a church, which is what anchorites
09:50.520 –> 09:55.520
were done. They were literally walled up into churches. That’s sort of a hermit, but kind
09:55.520 –> 10:01.760
of a permanent hermit that couldn’t escape. It’s really kind of quite gruelling and quite
10:01.760 –> 10:07.400
sadistic, and a lot of them were women. So they thought that she was a Danish, or sort
10:07.400 –> 10:20.760
of, came from Denmark. You know, a woman, but they don’t really know. So the whole sort
10:20.760 –> 10:31.440
of wight WIGHT thing would actually be on, on a brand for an anchorite? Because imagine
10:31.440 –> 10:36.920
they thought someone had died and then she comes back from the dead. To spend more time
10:36.920 –> 10:46.680
being locked in a few metres cell, you can’t move out from. She’s quite, she’s, yeah,
10:46.680 –> 10:55.240
being buried in the wall. There’s some quite horrible stories about anchor rights, the
10:55.240 –> 11:04.560
church being raided by pirates, and they refused to leave, and they get burnt alive.
11:04.560 –> 11:18.200
I don’t know if I can get through are here. They get burnt alive by the, can I be bothered to
11:18.200 –> 11:24.760
go that, I can’t really be bothered to just scale over, over. There’s a way in the campsite
11:24.760 –> 11:33.840
where you can jump over a gate in the back, but it’s just exhausting. So I’m probably
11:33.840 –> 11:41.920
just going to go the usual way, if I can get through this field, which I think they can.
11:41.920 –> 12:05.000
Anyway, I’ll speak to you soon.
I think the watercolour came out well – love the sky, but feel I focused on the view of the bay towards Charmouth too much, and maybe the chapel should have been higher? The green is Stonebarrow Hill I think – the hill that gave me so much grief last time. So feeling the chapel was getitng a bit shortchanged I did a solo Lyra of it in my sketchbook. I had my lunch and then moved off, goodbye to Stanton St Gabriel, I’d spent about 3 hours here, it was very peaceful (strange walkers aside). I headed up the track I got lost on last time, finally heading up that hill towards St Wite’s Well.
As I explained on the podcast which you can hear at that link or listen or read the transcripts above, St Wite (either pronounced Witta or White, I’m not sure) was probably a Danish woman from the 6th Century, who became an anchorite – the people who thought monasteries were too easy and asked to be walled into the wall of a church! I suspect though Wite to be a lot older, given the fact Whit- and Wight are everywhere, especially religious festivals like Whitsuntide and many Whitchurches which are very old.
In fact there’s a place I didn’t go to up the road called Whitchurch Canicorum where St Wite’s relics are still there – during the Dissolution her remains were missed, so it’s one of about three places that retained their saintly relics – one was a revered King (not thet St Edward we talked about before, Edward The Confessor) so Henry dare not touch that, and another saint in Folkestone. I learned this when I got back, I saw the sign to Whitchurch at Morcombelake but didn’t want to miss my bus.
What I did see was St Wite’s Well, a classic pilgrim’s route from the chapel to the church. It is said to have restorative properties, but actually looked very murky and poisonous? berries were soaking in it. I’d not drink it – in fact there was a sign advising not to. Amazing greenery has sprang up around it though – in contrasts to the Leper’s Well I saw the next day, which was very stark.
It wasn’t exactly leprosy that was affecting me over that night and the next, and indeed on-and-off for weeks – it was a chronic condition though: my eczema. It was the 18th day of the trip and it flared up again, and this time would not go away, despite using some creams on it the nice folks at Cannington Farm gave me. Usually I take anti-histamines and soldier on, but both types stopped working. The problem was back at Eweleaze during the second heatwave of 2022 I’d got really badly prawned on my neck. This irritated the eczema, which then made the sunburn itch, don’t rinse, repeat. Stupidly I had not brought either my steroidal cream or Dermol 500, because I only had large tubes or bottles.
During the gloom and rain/fog it had gotten better, but now it was back with a vengeance, given I had to wear clothes even at night it wasn’t getting any respite. So the next day I took an emergency trip to ‘lovely’ Axminister – it was closed bar the big Tescos – and had a look round the Minster as well, but really I was too tired and wanted to head back.
Sadly the other antihistamines and creams I got didn’t help, and this meant I wasn’t sleeping well either. I headed into Lyme Regis from the campsite along the wonderful River Limb walk, very nice…and then sat down and promptly fell asleep on a bench. It was around lunchtime and exhaustion just hit me like a truck, 19 days of travel and walking. I had a look at the Leper’s well, and headed down to Lyme Regis beach. I sat on the rocks at the East Cliff and painted and drew the tide coming in. Extreme plein air once again! Maybe that would wake me up?
I did three pieces in my A4 sketchbook called the King Canute series with Kuretake Brush Pen and wash at first, and then added the Inkense paints later. As I was doing this, kids and photographers were risking the waves, either looking for crabs or shots – the latter risking their equipment as the waves crashed in. I had to move back a few times. Kids were screaming ‘one more crab!’ cos they’d been promised four crabs and didn’t want to leave the beach. I didn’t want to go either, but sensed it was the end of the trip. Time and tide waits for no man.
It was annoying cos I worked out I had about 20 miles to go and then the whole coast had been covered, 16 miles from Branscombe to Sidmouth and then Exmouth and then the small 5 mile bit I missed around Kimmeridge. I had looked up local campsites, but knew that going on was risky, especially as there also was a bad weather front also coming in 3-4 days. It was the the exhaustion, not eczema that decided my exit strategy away from Exmouth though.
So with a heavy heart I headed back – I did have a friend to see in London who was visiting, and I got back and slept most of three days, I was so tired. So I think although I toyed with going back in September that never happened, so Jaunt 4 is for a future trip.
Transcript
00:00.000 –> 00:17.880
Exmouth or Eczema? Yes, I’m sorry I’ve been, there’s been sort of a few distractions
00:17.880 –> 00:26.800
about podcasts, though I have a one that needs to go up and then down this one,
00:26.800 –> 00:31.840
or maybe I’ll put this one on and the other one on from yesterday. Right, I’ve painted,
00:31.840 –> 00:36.600
as you know it’s a, that’s from a couple days ago actually, yeah, I haven’t
00:36.600 –> 00:43.040
podcasted for a couple days. The reason why I say eczema is that I got burnt,
00:43.040 –> 00:53.080
sunburned during the mini heatwave, the second one, and then I kind of went away
00:53.080 –> 00:59.760
during the, during the wet sort of damp? period, and then it’s back again with the
00:59.760 –> 01:04.600
warm weather, and there’s a few problems with that, because one I didn’t, I do have
01:04.600 –> 01:08.960
a cream which the people here gave me, which is a gentle version of what I take
01:08.960 –> 01:14.720
at home. I have these big pump bottles for my eczema, and with everything else, I
01:14.720 –> 01:19.000
mean basically I have a whole bag of medicine type stuff, you know, and you
01:19.000 –> 01:25.360
know, toothpaste and whatever, and I did think, should I bring the creams and the
01:25.360 –> 01:28.560
storoidal creams, and I didn’t because it’s like, well I’ve got antihistamines,
01:28.560 –> 01:32.440
which is, which does work, but that stopped working the last couple days, I
01:32.440 –> 01:37.160
tried both types, cetrizine and loratidine, and it stopped working, and so I’m
01:37.160 –> 01:42.560
actually thinking of going home, so it’s the 19th day. I made it past the bank
01:42.560 –> 01:49.760
holiday, it’s another Tuesday, and I think it’s good to head back. It’s so
01:49.760 –> 01:55.720
annoying because it’s, I’m like 16 miles from the goal of finishing the whole
01:55.720 –> 02:02.400
thing, but also bad weather’s coming in next weekend, Friday, Saturday, so in a
02:02.400 –> 02:05.920
few days it’s going to start raining, and that looks like a bad week, like rain,
02:05.920 –> 02:11.160
rain, rain, rain, rain, rain. So I’m 50-50 about when I pack up, I’ll go on
02:11.160 –> 02:16.280
somewhere else, but I think the eczema thing is the thing that’s kind of
02:16.280 –> 02:23.040
deciding me to go back, because I was always planning to probably go back
02:23.040 –> 02:28.960
around this time, and then I was like, oh no, I’ll continue, and then the eczema hit,
02:28.960 –> 02:35.000
and even though I’ve got a t-shirt over it, and I protect it from the sun, it is
02:35.000 –> 02:43.040
very, very difficult to control it, because the problem is in camping you
02:43.040 –> 02:45.560
have to generally have to wear clothes all the time, because you’re wearing clothes
02:45.560 –> 02:49.240
at night, which rub against it, and it doesn’t like polyester, but of course
02:49.240 –> 02:53.920
because I’ve tried the traveling with cotton, and the problem is as soon as
02:53.920 –> 02:59.080
you wear cotton, no I have cotton mix on at the moment, but against it when I’m
02:59.080 –> 03:03.280
protecting it, but yeah, if you have cotton t-shirts they get wet and they stay
03:03.280 –> 03:09.400
wet, that’s always kind of a trade-off between yeah, my eczema hates synthetics,
03:09.400 –> 03:18.480
but you know, wet cotton against it is even worse, so it’s kind of, so that,
03:18.480 –> 03:22.720
and of course I have to wear, because it’s colder now at night, I have to wear a lot
03:22.720 –> 03:29.720
of sort of things in the sleeping bag, because sleeping bag is crap, so
03:29.720 –> 03:36.960
that’s kind of a reason to not go on, because even covering it with a t-shirt
03:36.960 –> 03:40.480
when I’m out, and putting factor 50 on, as I have been, even when I got burned, I
03:40.480 –> 03:45.960
had factor 50 on it, because it’s always been a problem my neck, it still got
03:45.960 –> 03:50.840
really, you could feel it’s sort of being very rough, very, very painful, and it’s
03:50.840 –> 03:55.400
never really totally gone away, it sort of went away, got better when it was, when
03:55.400 –> 03:59.640
it was horrible, it was horrible weather, but it wasn’t so sunny, and now it’s kind of
03:59.640 –> 04:02.720
come back with a vengeance, and the antihistamines have stopped working, and I
04:02.720 –> 04:07.160
don’t have my steroidal cream with me, and I don’t have the Dermol either, and so
04:07.160 –> 04:11.720
other things kind of help, but I’m like, if it’s gonna get worse, it’s a really bad
04:11.720 –> 04:19.080
idea to keep going, so yeah, that and the weather means I’m thinking of, I’m
04:19.080 –> 04:24.160
definitely backing up today, but I’m thinking of heading back, which is a bit
04:24.160 –> 04:29.280
sad, I say I’ve only got about 16 miles of the coast to go, and there’s a little
04:29.280 –> 04:32.560
bit off in Kimmeridge, where there’s about five miles up in Kimridge, and then I’ve
04:32.560 –> 04:39.480
done the whole of the Jurassic Coast, but maybe come back in late September, and
04:39.480 –> 04:43.320
do a little sort of quick thing, if it’s the weather’s all right, but certainly
04:43.320 –> 04:50.080
looks like this sort of wet weather front is coming in on in a few days, and so
04:50.080 –> 04:57.280
I couldn’t get it finished, I need a good week, I think, to, you know, a good four,
04:57.280 –> 05:05.040
five, six days of decent weather to do that, especially if I’m moving, because
05:05.040 –> 05:09.760
the problem is, as there is buses that run along the coast, so I could kind of do
05:09.760 –> 05:17.920
some of it, if we’re moving along the coast, they probably might have to
05:17.920 –> 05:23.400
move a few times, you know, because just because it’s, it’s easier, although the
05:23.400 –> 05:27.640
bus service, it’s really good, there’s a bus service to Exmouth, Stagecoach, which
05:27.640 –> 05:33.080
runs quite late to Budleigh Salterton, and then it sort of ends early to going
05:33.080 –> 05:38.900
through to Seaton, so that’s a good sort of interlink, or
05:38.900 –> 05:48.360
Sidmouth, and that’s a good interlink for that area, and so, you know, that’s good,
05:48.360 –> 05:52.480
I mean, there’s the option of going going to Sidmouth, and then, though there
05:52.480 –> 05:57.320
doesn’t seem to be a campsite around Sidmouth, I can find, but there are campsites
05:57.320 –> 06:04.080
near Exmouth, and there’s one near Salcombe Regis, looks really good, there’s one
06:04.080 –> 06:09.440
that looks really good,a holiday park, right, very much like Durdle Door next to a cliffs, but it
06:09.440 –> 06:14.080
doesn’t seem to have, weirdly, it seems like it’s booked out, which I don’t,
06:14.080 –> 06:18.280
doesn’t make sense for just after the bank holiday, but maybe they are, but it
06:18.280 –> 06:21.360
doesn’t either, they’ve got availability, but it might just be their system,
06:21.360 –> 06:27.480
because their systems are always shit, so yeah, I don’t know, I think given that
06:27.480 –> 06:34.320
I’ve only got like, is it today, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, three days of good weather,
06:34.320 –> 06:41.480
I think it’s probably a good time to go back, even though I don’t want to, because
06:41.480 –> 06:46.760
of that, because of the Exmouth, and because of only going to have three days, and then it’s
06:46.760 –> 06:51.720
going to have to end anyway on the Saturday or Friday, because of the
06:51.720 –> 06:55.080
where the front coming in, and it looks like it’ll stay like that for a while,
06:55.080 –> 07:02.760
for a week or so, or two, so the weather is going to break, so yeah, I feel bad
07:02.760 –> 07:08.000
kind of ending it, I feel bad sort of ending the whole thing, I feel bad sort
07:08.000 –> 07:16.360
of finishing, but you know, I wasn’t intending to do it all in one thing, if I
07:16.360 –> 07:23.880
did I would have started earlier, but I, yeah, so joint four is not impossible, or
07:23.880 –> 07:29.640
even joint four or five, mini-jaunts, they will, and if I do, I will podcast those
07:29.640 –> 07:35.760
as well, and document them as well, but it would be nice to do something this
07:35.760 –> 07:42.480
year, and then I’ve got bigger plans for next year, with maybe, maybe going abroad,
07:42.480 –> 07:48.480
France, I’m speaking to a French couple here, just say, I should come and camp in
07:48.480 –> 07:55.240
Normandy, it comes like that, you know, early spring, summer, apparently it’s
07:55.240 –> 08:01.200
better than May-June, or around elsewhere, but kind of do it for a long
08:01.200 –> 08:07.920
time, but yeah, I mean like I’ve been doing, you know, hardly any nice
08:07.920 –> 08:14.880
meals, it gets a bit boring eating sandwiches all the time, but yeah, it
08:14.880 –> 08:21.360
is, you know, that would be quite good, and I’ve got other plans as well, regarding
08:21.360 –> 08:24.120
the plein air stuff, because talking, it’s interesting just talking to that
08:24.120 –> 08:31.480
woman, Anais, and hello if you’re listening, I just, there’s a few things
08:31.480 –> 08:35.280
of like, actually yeah, you know, because I was advising her to go and find
08:35.280 –> 08:40.320
organisations and people to work with, and I was like, well, why don’t I do that,
08:40.320 –> 08:45.440
because, or why don’t I start that, because I don’t think in this country it’s so
08:45.440 –> 08:50.680
rare to see people out doing what I do, it is really unusual, I’ll tell you all
08:50.680 –> 08:55.040
comments on it, and you know, a few places, yeah, you get lots of people
08:55.040 –> 09:04.560
drawing, quite a lot of urban sketches, but everywhere else, not really, so yeah,
09:04.560 –> 09:08.760
I’m starting to think, there probably is a Plein Air Society, but you know,
09:08.760 –> 09:13.920
something like that, and then organise events where we go out and do things,
09:13.920 –> 09:19.760
and try and build up a bunch of people who are growing out and painting and
09:19.760 –> 09:22.600
drawing, because I think this kind of seems to have fallen out of favourance
09:22.600 –> 09:26.800
country, and other countries like France, it happens a lot more, whereas here it’s
09:26.800 –> 09:33.680
just a rarity, and that needs to change, and that will be quite interesting to try
09:33.680 –> 09:41.600
and start something like that, and you know, and have a promote that, because if
09:41.600 –> 09:45.560
there is a Plein Air Society, they’re not doing their jobs, because I’m probably
09:45.560 –> 09:50.160
driving everyone cars, we’re doing oil paints in their studio, which is what a
09:50.160 –> 09:53.400
lot of people do, they’d go along to the sketch, and they’ll do an
09:53.400 –> 09:56.560
oil painting in the studio, that’s not plein air painting, you paint it there,
09:56.560 –> 10:02.200
and then it’s very, I don’t want to be very didactic about it, but it is, but
10:02.200 –> 10:08.520
anyway, but yeah, I think it’s probably time to go home, so as much as I’m
10:08.520 –> 10:12.480
tempted by those three days, it’s more the fact that, or the fact of moving
10:12.480 –> 10:14.880
somewhere else, and then actually a few days later it’s going to get shitty
10:14.880 –> 10:23.320
weather anyway, and my neck, my neck, my back, I’ll stop that, stop that I’m singing,
10:23.320 –> 10:29.040
right there, to keep, not this podcast is PG, but yeah, it doesn’t really apply,
10:29.040 –> 10:34.160
but anyway, so yeah, I think I think I’m going to head back, luckily it’s very
10:34.160 –> 10:38.160
easy to get out of here, it won’t be easy to pack up everything, it’s very easy to
10:38.160 –> 10:42.920
get out of here, it’s just a short bus ride to Axminster, and then I can get,
10:42.920 –> 10:49.320
you know, I’ll get a ticket to Axminster to Weymouth area, and then I can
10:49.320 –> 10:53.720
literally just ride on that, all the way to Woking, and it’s a direct connection
10:53.720 –> 10:57.840
to London Waterloo from Axminster, so it makes it very easy to get back here to
10:57.840 –> 11:02.720
Cannington, you know, and around here, so I think this is going to be a good base
11:02.720 –> 11:11.640
for Jaunt 4 or 5, you know, for future Jaunts around here, and
11:11.640 –> 11:17.600
finishing that bit, and then we can hop down the coast using the AVMT buses,
11:17.600 –> 11:20.520
as long as I don’t come down here on a weekend, or I stay here for a weekend, and
11:20.520 –> 11:26.280
then obviously Sundays I don’t run, but yeah, it’s been a really good
11:26.280 –> 11:31.560
time, and it’s weird to think, 19 days, it feels like it’s been a few weeks,
11:31.560 –> 11:36.120
it doesn’t feel like almost three weeks, that’s what it’s been, I’m certainly
11:36.120 –> 11:41.640
around here, I’ve been kind of just gelling around yesterday, heat fatigue
11:41.640 –> 11:48.320
hit me, like a truck, I went to Axminster to pick up some anti-histamines and see what
11:48.320 –> 11:52.920
they had, and some food, which I want to eat, because of course I’m going to have some of it now,
11:52.920 –> 11:58.240
but with a lot of it I’m going to have to track back home, it’s fine, it’s stuff I like, but
11:58.240 –> 12:06.000
we’ll see how much I can take, and I might have to jettison some stuff, and then I was
12:06.000 –> 12:08.960
so, I was recording a sleep on the bus coming back, and I think it was just the
12:08.960 –> 12:12.360
fact that I’ve been, I’ve been working up constantly in the night, by my
12:12.360 –> 12:20.160
eczema, and then, you know, I was actually fell asleep on a bench, walking down the
12:20.160 –> 12:25.200
River Limb, which is a really nice walk from Upper Lyme, Tub Arms, there’s a path
12:25.200 –> 12:30.120
going all the way down, River walk is quite cool, that was good, then I went and
12:30.120 –> 12:34.800
had a coffee, I had to try and wake up, and then I did some work on the shore of
12:34.800 –> 12:44.960
the waves coming in, and the, you know, just sat on the near the undercliff area,
12:44.960 –> 12:51.880
there’s lots of, there’s lots of, you know, rocks, and the rocks were covered
12:51.880 –> 12:54.960
because the tide was coming in, so it’s like a King Canute thing, and one of the
12:54.960 –> 12:59.800
pieces is called King Canute, as it was literally washing, you know, I was backing
12:59.800 –> 13:05.240
off, I was painting it, so there’s a few pieces there, a few final pieces, which I
13:05.240 –> 13:08.520
need to take pictures of, I don’t know, I did take pictures obviously, on the rocks,
13:08.520 –> 13:13.520
and yeah, it’s quite funny because when I was doing it, there was these kids having
13:13.520 –> 13:16.760
meltdowns saying, I wonder if, “one more crab, one more crab”, because they were
13:16.760 –> 13:20.000
crabbing, and they found four, they were allowed to find four crabs, or catch four
13:20.000 –> 13:24.800
crabs, and they were like, oh, “one more”, and it was weirdd, so they were literally
13:24.800 –> 13:29.080
standing right by me on the rock promenade, and it was just like, “I’m trying to paint here”,
13:29.080 –> 13:33.000
and I was worried about getting, you know, my stuff getting knocked over by
13:33.000 –> 13:38.200
dogs and kids and stuff, so it was a little bit chaotic, someone actually put
13:38.200 –> 13:42.080
their camera on a tripod when the waves were crashing in, and then when stood,
13:42.080 –> 13:45.680
it was often doing a selfie or doing a long exposure, but it was just like, that’s
13:45.680 –> 13:49.840
a bit dangerous, because it was one of those little ones, I think it was a phone, or a small
13:49.840 –> 13:57.000
camera, and it was like, yes, that’s a good way to lose your camera, or phone, anyway,
13:57.000 –> 14:01.840
I think yeah, I think this is probably going to be the last one for Jaunt 3, I might do a
14:01.840 –> 14:08.320
quick one on the way back, but yeah, and I think the artwork will probably be one of
14:08.320 –> 14:12.800
those paintings, they’re probably obviously King Canute, because it’s about the tide
14:12.800 –> 14:41.160
coming in and time changing, but yeah, I’ll speak to you soon.
Previously In This Series
- Jurassic Jaunt 3.1 – Uppy Downy Fail – White Nothe and Durdle Door
- Jurassic Jaunt 3.2 – Golden Caps and Big Willy Giants (Cerne Abbas)
- Jurassic Jaunt 3.3 -Satanists, Windy Beacons & Foggy Knolls
- Jurassic Jaunt 3.4 – Lyme Regis Fossils, Cannington Viaduct & Most Boring Coastal Walk EVER
- Jurassic Jaunt 3.5: Beer Dog Attack, Chapel Rewind & An Exhausting End
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