Following the rather packed itinerary over the past few days - lots of it unforseen and unintended - we decided to have the mother of all short days today and arrived at tonight's intended overnighting spot at around 9.30am.
It's a place we've used before and one which has traditionally proven a great base for both training and bird watching (pic).
It's an estuarine spot and a place steeped in cultural history, one component of which is that most of the silica clay used in the production of Wedgewood pottery originated here.
In terms of training, Emma did a 6.4 mile run and I had an hour on the bike. The roads hereabouts are very quiet and the vistas over the estuary all very twee. It's just a cracking place to be. It's also extremely popular with locals who visit in droves to walk, run, bike and just generally hang around. We've had a lot of interactions with locals today and without exception we've consistently experienced friendly curiousity and well-wishes.
Let's hope those who travel in vehicles and unthinkingly rely upon those wretched TurnPlacesToShite-type apps never, ever discover this one.
The day's species list has been comprehensive. There hasn't been anything super-rare but of the more noteworthy have been a few black-tailed godwits, a couple of dunlin, a whimbrel and a solitary immature Mediterranean gull. It's been great to have the time to watch birds just doing what they do and to witness the nuances of behaviour and interactions: real bird watching if you will: as opposed to crossing an entire country at breakneck speed just to cast eyes upon a sad and bedraggled off-course rarity in order to be able to tick a list.
The spot also sets is up really well for tomorrow's intended escapade: a visit to the former monastery, fortress and later high-security prison on Spike Island. We learned of this place through the TV show Abandoned Engineering. It's another of those crumbling and foreboding kinds of dark-history places that Emma is genuinely encapsulated by. I'll be watching carefully which priest hole / tunnel / dungeon she disappears into in order that the trip may ultimately continue without having to trouble search and rescue teams.
Post composed at 22:10 on Monday 20th July from our intended overnighting spot N 51.86080°, W 08.17388° / http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:51.86080%2C-08.17388
