This week we decided to
drive down to the coast. Two reasons: Marcia has been making a few
tiny changes to the book in production (that is the one that will be
published in 2015) and wanted to check to make sure that these were
right and I needed a couple of photographs for this seemingly never
ending saga on books about Marcia's books. It seemed logical to
combine these two requirements and so we set off for Dartmouth and
across to Torcross in order to meet the first part of the job and
then on to Lannacombe just the other side of Start Point so that I
could do my bit.
Even now, after all
these years, I am astonished at how thorough Marcia is: in the past I
have said that if she records that such-and-such a flower is out on
such-and-such a day at such-and-such it is because she has been there
and seen it with her own eyes. Well, here she was being thorough once
again – not that she needed to bother as her memory had proved to
be absolutely spot on.
In so far as any of
Marcia's books are set in a given time (and most of them are although
there is no direct reference to exact dates), this book is set in the
autumn of 2013 – and finishes just before Christmas. Then, in the
following February, storms hit the south coast and caused a great
deal of damage not only to property but to many businesses in the
area.
This was the first time
we had come down to the coast since those storms (to Dartmouth, yes,
but not along the coast) and there is still ample evidence of those
'extreme weather events' as our politically correct weather
forecasters insist on describing them – a very bad habit that has
been taken up by the media generally. A gale is a gale, a storm is a
storm, the tail end of a hurricane is the tail end of a hurricane and
heavy rain is, well, heavy rain. Still . . .
We stopped briefly in
the car park in Torcross line where we, too, enjoyed ice creams. It is interesting to remember that
when I started driving the road was slightly to the seaward side of
this car park and had to be realigned inland after heavy storms in
2001 undermined the road's foundations. Well, the same thing happened
again but this time, fortunately, it was only the car park that
suffered. Last year the cars nearest the sea would have been parked
facing the beach. Now the authorities have had to lay temporary
wooden barriers to keep vehicles away from the edge, parking parallel
to it. This problem is not going to go away and we can expect further
damage to this shingle bank (for that is what it is) until, one day,
it allows the sea to break through into the Ley behind it. This is
not a question of “if” but of “when” and the best estimates
are all placed in this century.
Then we passed The
Boathouse. You may remember that I mentioned this place in my last
blog of 2013 and showed you some pictures of it and the people who
work in there.
Well, this is how it
looks today. Having been battered by the waves – all the windows
were broken and the seas surged into the building – a week or so
later there was a devastating fire which left the property a total
wreck. As you can see, it remains shrouded in scaffolding and canvas.
It is hoped that they will be able to open in time for the 2015
season.
Much the same happened
back in the 1970's when almost all the properties facing the sea in
Torcross had to be rebuilt and a new sea wall was constructed which,
or so it was thought at the time, would make sure the same thing
never happened again.
And so to Lannacombe
which has also changed completely. This was the cove that inspired
“the cove” in Second Time Around.
Here we have Marcia standing by the stream that runs down over the
beach – a stream in which she played as a small child. So far so
good.
Here
we see that tons of large boulders have been piled at the top of the
beach in the hope that they will take most of the power out of the
waves. If this fails the house and, of course, the business operated
from it which includes bed & breakfast and a camp site, will have
to be relocated.
Meanwhile
this photograph shows where the sea ripped away part of the cliff –
where you can see the unweathered red sandstone. The South Coast
Footpath runs just above it and it would not take more than another
small cliff fall for that to become unsafe. Clearly the path could be
rerouted but it would be a very expensive operation. My guess is that
if there is further damage, the path between here and Start Point
will be closed and people will have to walk inland which will be a
long and rather boring detour.
However,
despite all we had a very happy time revisiting these old haunts:
haunts much alive with a number of Marcia's characters. Perhaps one
day she will revisit the cove and find out what happened to the
people living down there during the storms of February 2014.
Meet Martha –
sometimes called Martha Tydfil – who also answers to the name of
Monkey (that best describing her character).
