Three miles of sea spray, wind and light – Eau de Cheryl is instantly blown to nothingness on Saunton Sands.
I’ve just found the above picture, which I took with my phone in January last year, I think it was. The tiny figures in the distance were in our party, but walking on Saunton Sands is like that: pause for a moment to look at the sea or the dunes and suddenly a great space has somehow appeared between you. Saunton Sands is absolutely crammed with spaces.
They filmed parts of 'A Matter of Life & Death' there as well: great location for a great film.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know that, R, thanks.
ReplyDeleteThe Floyd have haunted it a bit. They put a load of beds on it for the cover of Momentary Lapse of Reason; and apparently some sequences for The Wall movie were filmed on Braunton Burrows dunes behind it. Not such a great film.
Gorgeous pic, but how typically English of you to have taken it in January. I'm always fascinated by how beaches and visits to the seaside are portrayed in English novels, both classic and popular. Over here, we love beaches, but we know what they are for--getting fried, parties, playing with children, hitting on babes, etc. Our dissenters may look wistful, but they are very functional too--they like to look for whales while contemplating how America is destroying the planet. But it is never clear to me why you go to them or what you get out of them. You seem addicted to extra sweaters, turbulent skies, cold seaspray and prepared sandwiches.
ReplyDeleteAre you pining for lost lovers who went to sea and never returned or are they just another excuse to convince yourselves you've earned a pint at the local?
Hmm... a lot of truth in that, Peter.
ReplyDeleteThe populous beaches I mentioned down the road from Saunton (Croyde and Woolacombe) are where the tourists go to do those fun things if there's any sunshine, but for my money the real value of beaches is for a spot of windswept desolation and the contemplation of one's brief mortality in a godless universe. In January.
Also, Hell is Other People, and there's a lot of them in North Devon in August.
Perhaps we value emptiness and space more when we find it because we live on top of each other in traffic-clogged cities.
ReplyDeletePeter, when abroad the English like their beaches just as you describe. We love the idea of white sand, blue sea and a beachside bar and we fly away in our millions to find these things every summer. But British beaches are different. For me they are a powerful reminder of childhood - poking about in rock-pools and building sandcastles in the teeth of a brisk south westerly while Mum and Dad huddled behind the windbreak with a box of sandwiches, some chocolate mini-rolls and a thermos of tea. My memories must be selective, but I don't remember ever being cold (apart from the time I nearly drowned, obviously). I do remember hour upon hour of almost total freedom, roaming about with my brothers until it was time to come back for tea, bath and bed.
ReplyDeleteI think the British really discovered the seaside in the nineteenth century when Queen Victoria decided saltwater swimming was good for her health. Everybody else duly followed suit, even the factory workers of the industrial north who decamped to Blackpool or Scarborough for some fresh air and down-time. The idea of a week or two by the sea became an incredibly popular family activity across all classes and it still is to this day.
Peter:
ReplyDeleteIt's important to remember that what the British call "sand," as in "a sandy beach," is what we in North America call "gravel," as in "we pave our driveway with gravel."
David, I don't think that's true. The good news is that they have lots of sandy beaches. The bad news is they still can't quite manage to get them right.
ReplyDeleteSophie: Your memories remind me of when my parents took us skiing when we were young. Other parents treated their kids to scrumptious junk food in the cafeteria, but mine were true to their British heritage and packed a lunch of sandwiches, which we ate silently in the car with tepid hot chocolate when it was minus twenty outside. Good times, good times, but don't you think one can take nostalgia a little too far? :-)
Fantastic beach photo. Some sandy beaches need help to tidy them up. My hope for tar sands projects is that they leave beaches looking like Saunton Sands.
ReplyDeletePeter, the family that eats packed lunches together stays together. My daughter (10) is already a veteran of the British beach 'picnic'. Google Barafundle Bay in Wales to see where we suffered last summer. I can think of worse places.
ReplyDeleteThanks Eric.
ReplyDeleteSophie - I remember being cold, but only noticing when it was time to go home. Traditional for kids to stand wrapped in towels going "brrrrrrrrrrrrr" while mum says "just hurry up and get dressed if you're cold".
Peter/David - plenty of lovely beaches, it's jus the weather that lets us down. Not all bad news - if it was in Spain, Saunton Sands would have horrible hotels all the way along the 3 miles.
....and they'd be full of horrible British tourists.
ReplyDeleteYes Brit, and getting dressed when you are sticky with salt and can't get the sand out of your pants.
ReplyDeleteI once saw Richard and Judy at Saunton Sands - they're regulars at that art deco hotel there. They looked fabulous, especially Richard in his skimpy trunks. Hope you're not eating...
ReplyDeleteI think the british experience their beaches in much the same way that australians experience their outback. To outsiders it may seem like a desolate flyblown place, but to afficionados it is a place of contemplative idyll, with quirky, idiosyncratic beauty to be found in the unlikeliest rock pool. Plenty of Wabi Sabi in them there dunes.
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