The Day Mark

Contrary to the weather forecast, today turned out to be glorious summer, so we took the opportunity to go on a bit of an adventure. On our usual walks, in the lanes near home, we are used to seeing three distinctive buildings on the horizon: one, St Peter's Church tower in Stoke Fleming, another, the water tower (between Stoke Fleming and Dartmouth) and the third, the Day Mark - a navigational aid built in 1864. As we progress, all three seem to move in relation to each other as we see them from different angles. Sometimes the Day Mark tower seems to lie halfway between the other two landmarks, at other times it seems to snuggle up close to the church tower. Of course, they don't move, despite my jokes, but what I hadn't realised was that the Day Mark sits on the headland above Kingswear - on the other side of the River Dart! Once Mr PP realised I hadn't known that, he proposed that the next fine day we'd go and see it up close. So we did!

After we'd had a good look around we carried on to walk a long section of the coastal path (and its lots of ups and downs) that we'd never done before, with views of the Mew Stone from a fresh angle. Inland from the sea, the fair weather cumulus clouds were building up into towers themselves, which provided an additional spectacle to the fabulous seascapes. (Please enjoy the Extras - so hard to choose today!)

The air was so still that the sea stretched out like a massive millpond. Saw lots of flowers (including wild irises), bugs, caterpillars (Oak Eggars again, I think), ladybirds and butterflies. Most of the latter were Meadow Browns (about every couple of yards there'd be another), but also gatekeepers, small whites and peacocks. I managed to trip and muddy myself, but only have a small graze on one arm, nothing broken, no torn clothes, and I didn't go over the cliff edge, so all-in-all escaped lightly. Certainly didn't spoil our wonderful day! We plan to return when the area where we live is clearer to see - the long distance view was a bit hazy.

Back-blipping by a few hours as, after a bath and dinner, I was simply too tired to sort through 90+ photos when I got home.