Exmouth 2021 - part 1

Yay, time for a travel post at long last! Two weeks ago I took myself off down to Exmouth for a few days; my first little trip away since late 2019. I'd booked it a couple of months earlier, and was looking forward to getting away and spending some time on the coast.

Monday 5th July

There were delays on my train journey so I arrived in Exmouth about an hour later than expected, around 2:30pm. I bought a coronation chicken sandwich as a late lunch from the M&S next to the station and found my way to the house where I was staying; my Airbnb was a local resident's spare room. (She was a Verified Superhost and had loads of good reviews, so I was pretty confident it would be safe and comfortable.) She was nice and had a gorgeous calm-tempered greyhound, her home was lovely and quirky and very clean, and the room was quiet and cosy. I always tend to linger in my room for an hour or two whenever I arrive somewhere, I guess to sort of work myself up to going out and finding my way around a new place. The weather was miserable and if I'd been in a hotel or B&B I would have stayed in, but as I was in someone's home (and on holiday) I felt like I should spend as much time as possible not there (though I'm sure she wouldn't have minded) - so I went out again around 4:30.

To avoid the heavy grey clouds, rain, and strong and chilly breeze, I decided to go to the cinema; Supernova, a drama starring the greats that are Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci and set in the Lake District, was showing at 5:45. The cinema was an independent one, which is really cool. I had the screen to myself, and want to see all the films they showed trailers for (the Marvel trailer for not just Black Widow but announcing all their films for the next few years was particularly exciting, haha). The film was very good; quiet, modest, understated, with a moving story and brilliant performances. I don't usually get snacks at the cinema but bought a small popcorn, and that along with the other snacks I had with me ended up being my tea, my evening meal, even though I was out again by 7pm and could have found somewhere for dinner. Afterwards I went to the seafront and sat in a shelter on the Esplanade, out of the wind and rain, watching the headlands at Berry Head, Torquay, Teignmouth, and Dawlish slowly disappear in the worsening weather.

Tuesday 6th

My host provided a range of options for breakfast and I opted to try some posh Kelloggs protein cereal that turned out to be cinnamon-y and very yummy. She also had a jar of dried cranberries the likes of which I've never seen before - they were whole, and huge, and gorgeous, and I'm kicking myself that I didn't go to the town's zero-waste shop, where I think she said she got them from, to see if they had any. Being a guest in the home of someone I didn't know and sitting in their kitchen trying to make conversation over breakfast wasn't the most relaxing experience; as always I was very conscious of not having questions to ask her about herself or many comments to make in response to things she was saying, especially because she was an interesting person and we had a lot of interests in common. But I'm always harder on myself than I need to be, there wasn't actually very much awkward silence so it wasn't too bad. I loved her home - an old terraced cottage full of books, houseplants, art, mismatched second-hand everything, and cherished items from near and far. She said it was nice to have someone stay for a few days as it's more relaxing, most of her guests are walkers who stay for just one night.

One of the reasons I chose Exmouth was for the walking - the town lies on the South West Coast Path, and is one end of the 26-mile Exe Estuary Trail that loops around the estuary linking together Exmouth, Exeter, and Dawlish Warren. I decided to spend my first full day doing the coast path to Budleigh Salterton, a route of just over five miles/eight kilometres. The first two miles is just along Exmouth Beach. Towards the far end, where the red sandstone cliffs which mark the western end of the Jurassic Coast start to rise, you have to be careful not to get cut off by the incoming tide, especially if you walk around into Sandy Bay at low tide. The cliffs are amazing to look at, and a little daunting to stand under even if they're not as high as elsewhere along the coast. The Jurassic Coast - the 95 miles between Orcombe Point at Exmouth and Old Harry Rocks at Swanage - is England's only natural UNESCO World Heritage Site. Why is it so special (apart from being stunningly beautiful)? You know what, I cannot possibly come up with a better explanation than the experts at the Jurassic Coast Trust:

Imagine your favourite film trilogy. Now imagine that the first film is only ever shown in Scotland, the second only shown in France and the third only shown in Brazil. Annoying right? Now imagine that you stumble across a little cinema on the south coast of England that shows the entire trilogy, all three films back to back with extra scenes and everything. That’s what the Jurassic Coast is like for three geological time Periods called the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous.

Those three time periods of Earth history collectively make up the Mesozoic Era, running from around 250 to 65 million years ago. Rocks that offer an almost complete record of that entire time are spread out along the Jurassic Coast, a bit like the pages of a book.

How literally awesome is that?! I've always had an interest in physical Earth sciences like geology and should actually study it a bit at some point. The red rocks in East Devon are Triassic, the oldest, formed from layers of sand in a vast desert 250-200 million years ago - and there were other, older, grey rocks underneath those. The website linked above has more easy-to-understand information if you're interested, including an image showing which areas of the coastline have which rocks.

Anyway, back to the walk. At Orcombe Point you leave the beach and take the steps up the cliff, then a short walk through some National Trust clifftop grasslands brings you to the Geoneedle, an obelisk showing the different rocks along the Jurassic Coast. There's also a large compass thing in the ground pointing towards landmarks along the coast, which makes you realise how much the coastline curves around. Less than a mile further on was the Devon Cliffs Holiday Park - the halfway point of this route - and the South Beach Cafe, where I stopped for lunch. I ordered a raspberry lemonade and the shredded beef mac and cheese, the latter of which was yummy (especially as it came with a caramelised onion chutney) and satisfying, although the tablespoon's worth of beef was disappointingly more of a garnish than an ingredient. There were steps down into Sandy Bay, which I've heard is nice, but I wasn't in a great mood and just wanted to carry on.

It took me just over an hour to cover the remaining two and a half miles to Budleigh Salterton. The weather stayed good, a mix of cloud and sun with a breeze. The rain falling over the land and sea on the horizon didn't come my way, thankfully. The path was unnervingly close to the cliff edge in places, but I loved looking out over the countryside to my left and the sea to my right; the waves rolling in, the white horses, the shifting colours under sunshine and cloud shadow. Once at Budleigh and on the beach, the astonishing rusty red colour of the water, created by runoff from the cliffs after the recent rains, became more obvious and prominent against the pale pebbles of the beach. The beach itself was impressive too, sculpted by the forces of the waves in a way I hadn't seen before, into a pair of waves itself with steep banks and deep troughs. And oh, I loved the pebbles, the pebbles were gorgeous. Huge, round, oval, smooth, a variety of colours - pinks, purples, yellows, oranges, greys, blacks, stripey ones, spotty ones. I was ever so tempted to take one away with me, but I didn't, one single lone pebble would look out of place in my room, I wouldn't know what to do with it, and it's just generally better to not take things, to leave them and let other people enjoy them too. 

I spent about an hour on the beach, trying to be present and improve my low mood by concentrating on watching the waves, but frustration took over as I struggled with indecision over whether to get the bus back or walk, and what to do when I got back. Eventually, at about 5pm, I decided to walk back, via the 'Exmouth to Budleigh Salterton Old Railway Line', a flat paved route through the countryside. You have to walk through the town to reach it, so I took what I thought was a more direct route from my starting point at the beach but it turned out to be an unpleasant footpath-less on-road route, which put me in a bad mood, so I was very glad to finally reach the path after 45 minutes. Being back among woodland and farmland - and other walkers - was soothing and made me feel slightly better, and I stopped at a bench to rest, have a snack, and just look and listen to what was around me. Cows were mooing comfortingly in one of the fields, clustering in one corner where the farmer was probably putting some food out for them, birds were singing and flitting about, including some kind of martins, a kestrel hovered nearby, and once I set off again a black cat crossed the path way ahead and sat in the vegetation to one side, staring at me as I walked past, which made me smile. 

Eventually I got back to Exmouth Beach, after a long day of walking around 15 miles. I bought a pack of bread rolls from the convenience store on the seafront and went back to the same shelter I'd sat in the evening before, to put together a tuna mayo roll with the can of said filling and cutlery from home I'd brought with me. Once again my evening meal was snacks, more of a lunch, but at least I'd had the mac and cheese earlier. Grey clouds and a slightly chilly breeze were still about but several locals were playing volleyball on the beach, and some kitesurfers and sailboaters were out on the water. I looked through my binoculars at the three cruise ships anchored off the distant headlands. What looked to the naked eye to be some sort of cargo ship turned out to be an ugly hulking Virgin Voyages liner, haha. I headed back to the house, located just one street behind the seafront, around 9pm.

-

Thanks for reading all that if you have! I think when I'm writing these things that I often focus on certain aspects I enjoyed or things I noticed, and I sound enthusiastic and maybe it comes across that I had a good time. Which is why I've mentioned my low moods and not actually having a good time. Sometimes solo travel is like that, for a variety of reasons, and I like to be honest and not pretend. This trip could have been improved by better planning, as I hadn't really planned at all. Anyway, part two about the Wednesday and Thursday to follow soon!

One year down, one to go

The first year of my college course is done! Term finished on the 25th. It's strange to think I'm halfway through already. And honestly it's not a pleasant thought that I only have a year left before I need to have figured out what I'm going to do next - just one more year before I have to return to full-time work. But, I am absolutely loving it. 

My board for keeping track of assignments

In case you don't know or can't remember, I'm doing a two-year Advanced Technical Extended Diploma in Land & Wildlife Management (Conservation); basically Countryside Management, and it's Level 3 so equivalent to A-Levels. Because my application was late getting processed I wasn't able to talk to anyone about the course beforehand, so started off a bit blindly, not really knowing what I was going to be doing. And it's been a mixture, mostly interesting and enjoyable but some not so much - but that's fine, that's the case with everything. 

My favourite unit has been Population Surveys, Ecology & Conservation (PSEC) - we learned the basics of ecology, evolution, taxonomy (classification of living organisms, not to be confused with taxidermy), threats to ecosystems, conservation strategies, legislation, and the whys and hows of doing wildlife surveys. I've also loved and got high marks in the Species ID certificate, which we'll continue next year. The Habitat Management units for woodlands, heathlands, grasslands, and farmland, were all really interesting, particularly learning about the history of the British countryside, how the landscape has changed over the millennia, centuries, and decades. I liked the Countryside Recreation unit, which really highlighted the importance of being able to access the countryside, how unequal that access is, and also how damaging human recreational activities are to the land, wildlife, and conservation efforts, and how difficult it is to balance those differing needs. Not so much my cup of tea were the Machinery and Estate Skills units. I'm glad I was able to have a go at practical tasks like coppicing, hedge-laying, path surfacing, and fence-building, but I have almost no upper body strength and no experience of using tools (i.e. no coordination or stamina) so my goodness I found them difficult, haha! There is a part of me that's a little disappointed I didn't enjoy the practical side more and find it easier, because coppicing and hedge-laying would be a great line of work to get into; I've always had a thing about traditional skills, and these ones are very much needed, and pay quite well. Oh well.

Chopping a tree to lay it and create a hedge

I'm also really happy that I've done well. Having failed my A-Levels in 2008-10, and never actually been taught study skills, I was nervous about returning to education again, and it has been tough. I really struggled with the assignments for several months, getting Merits but achieving them by an unsustainable level of energy, overthinking, perfectionism, late nights, and stress. Thankfully I was eventually able to realise when enough was enough and spending even another half an hour on it wouldn't make a difference, let alone another day. Not long afterwards something else clicked and I had a much better idea of what I needed to be doing to show my understanding (and also to make sure I had it in the first place) - and ended up getting Distinctions for three of my last assignments, which felt amazing! And I feel good about how I did in the exam and synoptic assessment, although I won't get my grade for those until Results Day in August (annoyingly they're not giving us our results for each one, just a combined grade). Even just getting Passes would have been a real achievement for me, so I'm really chuffed, and proud of myself :)

The remote learning over the winter lockdown had its pros and cons, but it was definitely nice to get back to campus in mid-March - although it was 'go go go' for six weeks to get the remaining unit assignments done and prepare for the big synoptic assessment and revise for the exam all before half term at the end of May. After they were all finished, however, the last three weeks of term were lovely and relaxed, spent going out on site visits and doing activities we missed out on due to lockdown, and having introductions to some of the topics for next year. We went to Itchen Stoke and installed hazel faggots (giant bundles of sticks) along the river bank to help prevent further erosion. Working in the shade alongside a beautiful chalk river and going in the water (wearing albeit far too large and slightly leaky waders) on a hot sunny day was great. We went pond-dipping at the college lake. We spent a wonderful few hours at Lymington and Keyhaven Marshes, birdwatching. We visited a local farm, formerly intensive arable but now very conservation-centered, with a range of different habitats and wildlife corridors restored and teeming with returning wildlife, and buffalo grazing the flower-filled meadows. (The farmer is doing great work and more need to follow his example, but he also gave us a first-hand account of how tough it is for farmers.) We spent an hour or two at the lovely Chilbolton Common, a local Site of Special Scientific Interest that has the challenges of having a public Right of Way through it and being a very popular spot on nice summer days because you can actually get into the water, probably the only place along the river where that's possible. And on the last day of term we had a sort of treasure hunt for information all around the campus, followed by a barbecue and a game of rounders - the latter held in a field of knee-high grass dotted with cow pats, haha. 

River practical, hammering in a stake to secure the hazel faggot in place

Next year's units sound really interesting. I can't remember all of them, but they include: ecological concepts and processes, environmental science, coastal habitat management, freshwater and wetland management, deer management, greenwood crafts, and a specialist project which I am extremely daunted by! There's also an option to do a chainsaw certificate, but it costs around £400 for the PPE and the test (it'd cost a lot more doing it independently though), so you have to really want to do it, and I'm just not interested in that sort of practical work. You also have to be physically fit and strong enough to wield the things for lengths of time and drag tree trunks around the forest floor... which I'm not, hahaha. We don't have any work to do over the summer, except a bit of Species ID for a couple of tests in the first few weeks back in September: 20 dragonflies, 20 damselflies, and 25 butterflies and their larval (caterpillar) food plants.

I love what I'm learning about, and I love the learning itself. I wish I could carry on studying after the course is done, maybe go into more depth... but I've struggled enough with the work this year, and with university being mostly self-guided learning I just don't think it's an option for me. And that's fine, it isn't for everybody, even though it's widely considered to be the expected norm. I don't know what I'd like to do afterwards yet, but I enjoy the species ID and surveying so that's something to look into, and I'm doing some surveying with a local conservation charity over the summer.

Chilbolton Cow Common

This year has meant a lot for me. I've passed (well, to be confirmed, but hopefully) and done well in the course, I've returned to something I've always loved, connecting to the natural world more and understanding it better, learning and trying out new things. I'm learning to drive and it's going well. And I've made friends, in college and outside, I'm finding my people, and am getting a bit of a social life, which I'm really excited about, haha.

I've taken myself off down to Exmouth this week, my first trip away since Cornwall in October 2019, and my first fully solo one since the Lake District that August! Yay. I'm looking forward to it. The weather looks rather wet and windy, but hopefully it won't be too bad. So keep an eye out for my blog posts about this trip, coming soon! :)