The mobile phone pic above was taken early this morning with a couple of friends at Old Harry Rocks, halfway through an extremely muddy bike ride. This route screams off the Purbeck ridge directly towards 500 foot cliffs, and then turns to follow the line of cliffs down to Old Harry. Grim grey seas and skies [...]
Archive for December 2011
Early morning at Old Harry Leave a comment
St Alban’s Head tide race 3 comments
The tide race off St Alban’s Head, this morning. A great Christmas Day walk (taking in the Square and Compass pub at Worth Matravers!) but I would rather have been out on the water…
Season’s Greetings Leave a comment
Like the card says. We’ve had a wonderful and productive year, getting some writing done, sharing some great adventures and embarking upon one or two new adventures also. 2012 looks to be an amazing year too. We wish you all well and hope that you have a good one, also! Photo taken here in Purbeck in [...]
Kilchoman Leave a comment
A friend from oop north was visiting today, so she and I had a pleasant paddle out to Old Harry Rocks, to play in the tide race. We chose this spot as it was relatively sheltered from the strong winds forecast. We then got out the bikes and rode up onto Swyre Head and the [...]
The Shortest Day Leave a comment
This afternoon, a couple of us enjoyed a great paddle from Kimmeridge to Swanage. Having read internet reports of zero surf over at nearby Bournemouth, we were surprised to find a moderate rolling swell. This certainly kept us awake. We surfed a few good waves along the Kimmeridge Ledges, and after rounding St Alban’s Head, paddled amongst exploding [...]
Lutra Lutra 1 comment
I’ve just been writing about otters, which prompted me to dig out these images. Britain’s otters are not marine animals. They evolved as river animals, but have successfully adapted to survive and even thrive in UK coastal environments, especially areas with few major rivers. Otters are part of family mustelidae, which includes stoats and weasels. [...]
Rainy Monday Leave a comment
Yesterday I launched from Swanage in the rain, paddled in the rain, played in the Peveril Ledge tide race in the rain, rockhopped beneath Durlston Head in the rain. All good.
A sad anniversary Leave a comment
Whilst paddling the coast between Mousehole and Land’s End, give thought to the agonising sacrifice made by the small community of Mousehole on 19th December, 1981. The coaster MV Union Star had suffered engine failure and was being blown ashore west of Lamorna Cove by a hurricane. The Penlee lifeboat Solomon Browne launched. The all-volunteer [...]
Thanking Dartmoor Search and Rescue Team Ashburton Leave a comment
The photos are all in horrible colours because my camera phone’s white balance was accidentally set to, ‘fluorescent’. This morning I left the house at dawn and ran 10.5 miles; up onto the ridge in the photo above, down and across the valley and then up onto and back along the ridge you see behind (top [...]
The Dart Ledge Leave a comment
I just enjoyed a great start to the Christmas holidays with friends on my favourite river, the glorious Dart. Paddlers judge the water level at ‘The Ledge’, a bedrock slab located just upstream of Newbridge. The Ledge is the put-in for the Dart Loop section (forgiving Grade 2 and 3) and the takeout for the [...]
Sark Lighthouse Leave a comment
Passing Sark’s lighthouse early one morning; if I remember rightly, we were due to be at the northern tip of this Channel Island at 0746 am exactly, to begin an open crossing.
Nightfall at Bond’s Folly Leave a comment
The dodgy photo quality is because these were taken by mobile phone, lit by my mountain bike headlights. I took them on the way home from work tonight, during which I managed to detour and take in a muddy ridge-ride back to my village. The pictures show Bond’s Folly (aka Grange Arch), located atop the [...]
Cromer Crab Leave a comment
As well as having a very nice pier, Cromer in Norfolk is also famous for the locally caught crab, claimed to be the best in the UK. It’s a little known fact that one of my sisters is actually a published expert on this topic.
Cromer Pier 1 comment
Cromer’s pleasure pier was built in 1901, with a lifeboat station added on the end. It was breached in 1940, lest the Nazis invaded via it. It was then apparently realised that the lifeboat station couldn’t be reached, so it was bridged again! The current huge RNLI shed was built in 1998. Cromer was originally [...]
Grey Purbeck seas and skies Leave a comment
With a week of back-to-back strong winds predicted locally, a few of us paddled from Swanage to Kimmeridge in the calm before the storms. The tide races around St Albans Head were running strongly, and I was paddling a less stable kayak than my normal Cetus…so the camera stayed in the bag for most of [...]
Kimmeridge landing Leave a comment
Kimmeridge Bay this afternoon, after completing a splendid paddle from Swanage.
River Waveney Leave a comment
Paddling the tidal River Waveney in the Norfolk Broads, you see all sorts of things. But mainly, you see reeds.
Durlston Park’s Great Globe Leave a comment
I’ve blogged before about the Great Globe overlooking the sea at Durlston Park in Swanage, so there’s no need to repeat explaining its origins and function. I see no harm in plastering more photos of it over the internet, however…
Nothing to see here 1 comment
We were out on the Atlantic coast of Lewis on this particular evening, specifically to look for basking sharks. We didn’t find any. It was rubbish.
Twilight predator 1 comment
This fellow was spotted hunting in the brackish stream behind our tent on the beach at Horgabost, late one evening. Isle of Harris, Western Isles.
