South West Sea Kayaking

Be careful out there.

After our glorious day of paddling along Devon’s Exmoor coast, we woke up to strengthening winds and choppy seas. As the tide was against us, we spent the morning walking the cliffs and seeking out a rather pleasant Sunday roast at a nearby pub.

When we did finally launch, it was just for the short hop to Lynmouth. The coast just west of Lynmouth is dominated by the Valley of Rocks, a dry valley which might once have carried the flows of the nearby Easy and West Lyn Rivers. The valley is peppered with weird and wonderful rock formations, including granite stacks which tower above the sea.

As we arrived at Lynmouth, so did the rain and the forecast strong winds. It made for a miserably wet night…

The high plateau of Exmoor National Park meets the Bristol Channel rather rudely and abruptly, with an average drop-off of around 300 metres down to sea level. Sometimes the height is lost in steeply wooded slopes, sometimes in England’s highest cliffs. The effect down at kayaker’s eye level, is that everything appears to be fairly big.

We planned to paddle from Woolacombe to Minehead over this Easter weekend, but the lousy turn in the weather beat us, and we only completed half of the trip, as far as Lynmouth. What we did paddle was fantastic.

I returned last night from overseas. Every year I take a group of my 14-15 year old students to Belgium and France in order to visit the battlefields and memorials of the Great War, 1914-18. The photos here show a trip made some years back; the students are now all over 18. Unlike the depicted visit, this years’ trip saw wonderful weather; so much so, that the headstones at  Tyne Cot and the pillars of Thiepval were literally blinding as they reflected the merciless glare of the sunshine.

The tower of Thiepval, pictured above, was designed by Lutyens. The white pillars carry the names of around 72 000 men of the British and Commonwealth forces who have no known grave. Most of these soldiers went missing during the carnage of the Battle of the Somme. This epic Offensive took place between July and November 1916. The British Army suffered over 400 000 casualties, 57 000 being on the first day, July 1st. It is difficult to discern any particular advantage or benefit achieved in return for this heavy price. The trench lines hardly moved and stalemate continued.

Like the Cenotaph in London, almost all of the memorials and cemeteries which are meticulously maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in France and Belgium are made from Portland Stone. 500 000 headstones were quarried from the Isle of Portland in Dorset after the Great War, and a further 800 000 after the Second World War.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.