We anchored outside the rugged and windswept coast of North
Devon. The sea-state was ‘marginal’ for tender operation, and drizzle and the
odd rain gust made the transfer from ship to shore a bit of a challenge. The
tender ‘platform’ is not more than a precarious step from a relatively ‘stable
ship’ onto a tender boat that dances wildly upon every wave and makes its
‘hatch’ a rather movable target. Never mind, wheel chair bound passengers
insisted upon being transferred to shore despite the conditions, which made for
some dexterous maneuvering by attending crew members.
A bouncy ride brought one into the protected inner harbour,
which at this time exposed it’s muddy bottom – very low tide. We disembarked
upon a ‘pier’ which looked more like a drippy dungeon than a tie up point.
During daily high tide the stone stairs and stainless steel railings leading to
the top would be submerged in sea water.
Boats in the harbour all rested quietly on their keels –
sailboats all seem to have double keels in order to accommodate the frequent
tidal ‘groundings’ without keeling over.
Umbrellas proved almost superfluous, the gusts tried to turn
them inside out, and the rain swept horizontally across the land.
Verity, and imposing metal statue of a highly pregnant women
greeted mariners at the harbour entrance with upright sword pointing
heavenwards and metal books crushed under her bronze feet. Half of her looked
‘normal’ i.e. her outside represented skin – the other half gave anatomical
detail of her innards, from a muscle covered skull down to minute detail of a
metal fetus.
She has been designed by Damian Hirst, as an allegory for
truth and justice, and her stance is inspired by Edgar Degas’ painting ‘Little
Dancer of Fourteen Years’ (1881). She stands over twenty meters high, and was
fabricated from more than forty individual sand castings, her bronze body
weighs more than twenty five tonnes.
A rather odd piece of public art, possibly not to everyone’s
taste.
I walked through the still sleepy town – after all it was a
Sunday and at 9 a.m. in the morning, most towns people are still enjoying a
quiet morning at home. I headed for
Ilfracombe’s Tunnels, one of the town’s beach attractions. These tunnels
were dug in the 1820’s by Welsh miners – by hand – to provide access to otherwise
unaccesible beaches and coast line. In that early era, ‘bathing’ was still a
rather daring activity, men and women took to the waters in separate ‘pools’ or
beaches, bathing machines (changing rooms on wheels and drawn by a team of
horses to and from the water’s edge) plied their trade, and peeking was
definitely a criminal offence.
Today, the ‘gentlemen’s beach’ serves as a romantic wedding
venue (if it does not rain) and the ‘ladie’s pool’ is open to anyone desiring
to take to the water protected by a stone wall, visible 3 hours before and
after low tide. The scent of the sea pervades the air, rocks clutter the sandy
beach making for a rugged maze, birds scream insistently, and waves crash onto
the surrounding rocks.
Devon is a hiker’s paradise, and I took in a small sampling
of it, walking the cliffs of Torre Park near town – the rain fortunately
stopped for a while.
The walk back took me past another one of Ilfracombe’s
‘unusual’ examples of local architecture, the Landmark Arts and Entertainment
Centre, which look somewhat like nuclear cooling stacks, and have caused some
lively local controversy since their stark conical shapes grace the town scape
since 1988.
Back in town, the residents had woken up and the few town
streets were filled with strollers enjoying the drizzly weather, and dipping
into one of the many tea rooms for a truly Devon inspired scone and tea,
accompanied by jam and clotted cream.
Fish and chips restaurants line the
harbour, which by now had filled up some more with water, and previously
grounded boats started to float again.
My preference was for Devon Tea and
Scone, and with a bit of luck I found a table under a large umbrella, which
barely kept the rain from dripping into my tea – but, the view was
entertaining, and the fare simply delicious.
