Salcombe from Snape Point

While South Devon is very picturesque and chocolate box beautiful, in the summer like most sunny places it’s not really great for photography due to the harsh bright sunshine - unless you get up at silly o clock to get the early morning light, which I am not inclined to do on holiday. The scenery as you drive around is breathtaking but there is no chance of stopping anywhere to take photos on the very narrow country lanes, and then if you do manage to find an inlay to stop the hedgerows are so overgrown at the moment that I cannot see over them to get the shot. So while I am loving being here I am finding my photography a bit boring. But then it is a family holiday and not a photography trip.

As most people are having staycations this year due to the Covid restrictions, the U.K. is so busy everywhere you go. In addition, in good weather conditions like this week, it is even busier. The traffic is a challenge -  if you are not stuck behind a nervous driver slowly trying to negotiate the narrow lanes in his motor home than you are stuck behind cyclists or a large tractor with a bale of hay pinned onto the front fork. Still, we are on holiday so have notched down a few gears and are not trying to get anywhere fast - because you can’t. I am sure the locals, while appreciating the extra revenue from tourism, are very frustrated when their home area gets busy and the farmers must be cursing the extra cars on the lanes.

This morning Gavin and I planned to visit Salcombe but I thought it would be very busy being a Sunday and perfect weather, so instead we went to Snapes Point and did a lovely walk with Xena over the headland which gave great views over the Kingsbridge estuary and across to Salcombe. It was lovely to have some open space for Xena to run around although there were sheep in some fields so she had to be kept on the lead there. I did some panoramic shots, the main image is of the view over Salcome, the first extra is looking the other way up the Kingsbridge estuary.

By now it was so hot so we went back to the barn to cool off, before going into Dartmouth for lunch at Rockfish. In the morning Adam and Pip had gone to the hospital at Torbay to get her foot checked out and as it was not an emergency they waited 4 hours to see a doctor, and so by the time they got back in the afternoon they had missed lunch. We had delicious fish, Gavin had red mullet and I enjoyed sole - and fortunately Xena was allowed in the restaurant once again. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing at the barn, it felt too hot to do anything energetic. Tommy arrives tomorrow, he has been enjoying a few days away in the Peak District with his university friends.