Date: 20180517
Time: 10:00 – 17:50
Distance: 24.3 km
Stay: The Bath Hotel, Lynmouth
Walk
Today I started a little later because breakfast was only from 9:00. After replenishing my water supply at the local harbor store, stage two of the South West Coast Path began.
Of course, the necessary choices had to be made. In all cases I took the heaviest route and I walked to the extra viewpoints. Here are the highlights:
Worthy Toll House, a beautifully designed toll house that has been preserved very well.
The former gardens of Lady Ada Lovelace. Not only because of her first name I have a connection with her, but also because she was the world’s first computer programmer.
Culbone Church, one of the smallest churches in England (10.5 x 3.6 meters) where regular services are still being held. Around the church is an old cemetery. This looks great.
On the way here I pass an older couple, they are at least in their 70s if not older. I have great respect for the fact that they walk this route. Not only is the path occasionally very rough, it also goes up very steeply. I’ll see them at the church later on, so they’re not much slower than me.. I really hope that I will be able to walk these kind of tracks at that age!
Waterfalls, I encounter many waterfalls along the way. Usually I have to cross these. Sometimes with a bridge, but usually just by walking through it.
During the first part there have been many landslides. This causes the necessary diversions. When I see how these are made, I get a lot of respect for those who maintain the path and build the diversions.
Sugerloaf hill, a small diversion with a very nice view. Here I have a break to eat and drink and to enjoy the view.
Sister’s Fountain, a well on the border of Somerset and Devon. That means I have walked the whole Somerset part of the South West Coast Path. And that only on the 2nd day 🙂
Rhododendrons, to the yellow gorse, the purple Rhododendron joins at one point. Not an occasional shrub, but whole mountain slopes. A great view with all those colors.
Foreland, here at Devon’s northernmost point there is a lighthouse and of course I walk there. Further on there is also a possibility to walk to the top of the hill. From here there is a great view in all directions.
Countisbury Church, the second church today and again with an old cemetery.
Weather
It was great weather today, sunny but not too hot (although it is always too hot when you’re dabbling uphill). Fortunately, I had put on my light jacket, but I took it off pretty quickly and put it in my backpack.
Lyric of the day
Because of the name of the bar of the hotel, The Ancient Mariner, today a song by Iron Maiden, of course the great (and long) Rime Of The Ancient Mariner based on a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834):
Hear the rime of the Ancient Mariner
See his eye as he stops one of three
Mesmerises one of the wedding guests
Stay here and listen to the nightmares of the Sea
And the music plays on, as the bride passes by
Caught by his spell and
the Mariner tells his tale.
Driven south to the land of the snow and ice
To a place where nobody’s been
Through the snow fog flies on the albatross
Hailed in God’s name,
hoping good luck it brings.
And the ship sails on, back to the North
Through the fog and ice and
the albatross follows on
The mariner kills the bird of good omen
His shipmates cry against what he’s done
But when the fog clears, they justify him
And make themselves a part of the crime.
Sailing on and on and North across the sea
Sailing on and on and North ’till all is calm
The albatross begins with its vengeance
A terrible curse a thirst has begun
His shipmates blame bad luck on the Mariner
About his neck, the dead bird is hung.
And the curse goes on and on and on at sea
And the thirst goes on and on for them and me
“Day after day, day after day,
we stuck nor breath nor motion
As idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean
Water, water everywhere and
all the boards did shrink
Water, water everywhere nor any drop to drink.”
There, calls the mariner
there comes a ship over the line
But how can she sail with no wind
in her sails and no tide.
See… onward she comes
Onwards she nears, out of the sun
See… she has no crew
She has no life, wait but there’s two
Death and she Life in Death,
they throw their dice for the crew
She wins the Mariner and he belongs to her now.
Then … crew one by one
They drop down dead, two hundred men
She… She, Life in Death.
She lets him live, her chosen one.
“One after one by the star dogged moon,
too quick for groan or sigh
Each turned his face with a ghastly pang
and cursed me with his eye
Four times fifty living men
(and I heard nor sigh nor groan),
With heavy thump, a lifeless lump,
they dropped down one by one.”
The curse it lives on in their eyes
The Mariner he wished he’d die
Along with the sea creatures
But they lived on, so did he.
And by the light of the moon
He prays for their beauty not doom
With heart he blesses them
God’s creatures all of them too.
Then the spell starts to break
The albatross falls from his neck
Sinks down like lead into the Sea
Then down in falls comes the rain.
Hear the groans of the long dead seamen
See them stir and they start to rise
Bodies lifted by good spirits
None of them speak
and they’re lifeless in their eyes
And revenge is still sought, penance starts again
Cast into a trance and the nightmare carries on.
Now the curse is finally lifted
And the Mariner sights his home
Spirits go from the long dead bodies
Form their own light and
the Mariner’s left alone
And then a boat came sailing towards him
It was a joy he could not believe
The Pilot’s boat, his son and the hermit
Penance of life will fall onto Him.
And the ship it sinks like lead into the sea
And the hermit shrives the mariner of his sins
The Mariner’s bound to tell of his story
To tell his tale wherever he goes
To teach God’s word by his own example
That we must love all things that God made.
And the wedding guest’s a sad and wiser man
And the tale goes on and on and on.
