Woolacombe Sands

I got up at 7:00 a.m. to listen to BBC 2 for the weather report. They said, "It was a dreadful day yesterday, but it's getting better. Up to 17 today, but still plenty of showers for this morning." From this we deduced that after some point this morning it would stop raining, and we debated about what to do. However, when we saw blue sky out the window at 9:00 or so, we decided it was our day for Woolacombe Sands, a giant beach that Kate had set her sights on.

(The news report preceding the weather forecast was, well, surprisingly 'tabloid' for the BBC. They led with the story of the team from Devon heading off to London to press the case that the Cream Tea should be recognized as a special food under EU law, like champagne. They interviewed several team members, one of whom said, "It should go quite quickly, unless we run into some red tape in Europe." Which implied, first, that he really had no idea how the process worked, and second, that he didn't think he lived in Europe. If we're not in Europe, where are we?)

We set off just before 11, with a bit of light rain still pattering down, but blue sky still in view. As we approached Woolacombe, the blue sky grew bigger and bigger. We passed many holiday parks, and the number of VW campers increased noticeably. We parked by the beach, and beheld the miles long stretch of sand, but with most of teh activity right at this end. Thee RNLI lifeguards were there, with the red-&-yellow flags marking out the area to swim in, their special truck and a jetski on a trailer. The were loads of people there, and a chip cooking truck out on the sand.

Galen and Will jumped right in. The tide was rising, so every now and then Kate and Morgan had to move their stuff back higher up the beach. The water was very cold (all the other children had wetsuits on, but not these hardy Canadians), but as the waves would recede across the sand it would pick up its heat and it was quite warm when it returned to the sea. When the sun would come out, the sea was a beautiful green and blue, almost Carribean. The waves were big (about 6 feet) but they would break quite far out and they were very mellow when they reached the beach. There were lots of surfers, including some parents with their children.

We also got the watch the RNLI practising. They took out the jetski and roared around in the surf.

We ate lunch, bought some chips for dessert, walked down the beach and then Galen and Will wanted to go back in. They put their suits back on (we would change in the car, even though available for hire were not only wetsuits and body boards but also a line of multi-coloured beach huts) and dived back in! They lay in the path of oncoming waves, and Galen rescued moon jellyfish being washed ashore, by lifting them up on pads of sand. Finally, Will was practically blue, and they had to come out. Will also said his leg hurt, and when we found two thin red lines on on it we surmised that he had been stung by one of the mysterious blue jellyfish we had seen. (Will said, "There was a jellyfish swimming with us!") But it was a minor thing, so we set off.

We next walked around the coast a little way to Barracane Beach, a tiny pocket beach, only about 15 metres wide, between vertical walls of rock. The beach was all shell bits, and adjacent to it was a fantastical landscape of rock and tide pools. The strata were turned vertical here, and the way they had eroded made little walls and walkways. The surf was rolling in right at the same level just off shore, giving the impression that we were below sea level in a walled garden. In the pools were limpets and seaweed.

At this point we began to realize we were actually getting sunburnt on the backs of our necks, so we turned to leave. One more bit of business though: we went into the touristy streets of Wollacombe Village to buy some ices.

On the way home we detoured where it said "Superstore" in Braunton, but when Kate saw it was a Tesco's, she said "Keep on going!" So we just kept going. Missed a turn in Barnstaple, and in the confusion that followed I instinctively pulled into the right lane in an intersection. Got out of that awkwardly, and found our way back to the right road. Stopped now at the Sainsbury's in West Barnstable, and went in to get apples and milk. As always, shopping was a delightful adventure, and we emerged with all sorts of other treats as well: Battenberg cake, mint Polars, olives for Will, Fox's ginger cream biscuits, dark chocolate Hobnobs.

Made it home about 7:00. Dinner, Laundry, Reading... and to bed.