Thursday, March 1, 2012

Day 7: Cliffs and fog

Distance: 12.5
Ascent: 3463 ft (I know it's a repeat, but 3463 ft!!!)

The day began on the foggy quay in Fowey waiting for the little ferry that would take us across the River Fowey to Polruan. It was so foggy we couldn't even see Polruan only a quarter mile across the water. We weren't really sure the ferry was even out there until it emerged from the mist maybe 100ft from the dock! This was taken at the start of our ride, looking at Fowey, before we even left the dock!


Riding the little ferry,


watching the town disappear into the mist gave me a real sense for how this is the place where Daphne duMaurier found her inspiration. Part of my prep for the trip was reading Jamaica Inn, but we just discovered another neat fact I didn't know. Daphne duMaurier wrote the short story that The Birds was based on. She got the idea when she saw a farmer ploughing his field with zillions of seagulls swarming around. Just like we saw yesterday!


Hmmm, ok, not a great picture, but it was pretty cool. You can totally see how the seagulls could become menacing.


See!

The walking these last two days has been spectacular along the South West Coast Path. Spectacular and grueling. The climbing is intense, but the climbing and walking along cliff tops hundreds of feet above sea and rocks is terrifying, at least to me. I forced myself to stop and look out and sometimes even down because it really is amazing scenery, but I was glad to have my walking sticks for a bit of extra security in case of wobbly legs.


So today we have our last night on the coast. Tomorrow we head north.

Location:SW Coast

7 comments:

  1. Great photos today! Vicious seagulls? Seriously? Careful- you might get bombed- but vicious?!? See any teeth?

    Kim

    ReplyDelete
  2. The coastline looks amazing. If I was there I would be sad to have to leave it. Also glad to see dad rockin the fedora

    ReplyDelete
  3. I wonder how long your beard will be at the end of the walk. Are you trimming it or just letting it grow?

    ReplyDelete
  4. So were you able to make peace with the fact that you rode a few hundred meters in a ferry (the only stretch you will not walk!)?

    ReplyDelete
  5. great reflections - makes me wish i were there with you. julie

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love the first and last photos. I was surprised I wasn't more scared walking along the cliffs on the West Coast trail cause sometimes the path got really narrow and looking back on it it should have been terrifying. It's so cool that you saw the seagulls swarming around too!!

    ReplyDelete