Quantocks

Last weekend, the last of September, we spent a night in the van on the Quantocks prior to a long walk. It's been a year and a half since we went there for our first ever night in the van which convinced us that we could have some good times using it.

This weekends' was a peculiar walk, as the hills themselves were clear, sunny and bright, but the lowlands to both north and south were occluded by a low mist which sent occasional questing tendrils up onto the higher slopes of the moors, and which obscured the lower woodlands. As our walk took us from the high hills down to the sea by Cleeve, we found that in spite of setting off and returning in bright light, much of the walk was actually foggy.

The coast by the Severn Estuary has low shaly cliffs. With the current controversy over the use of Alaska's tar-shales and the effect which their use for oil extraction would have upon the environment, I was amazed to see the remains of a plant which had been built down by the shore in 1906, for the extraction of oil from these local shale beds. The works were not economical, so closed down soon after opening and have been gently decaying ever since.

We returned to Bristol on Saturday evening, intending to go to the Louie to see a couple of bands in which friends played, but for some reason we were both so tired - exhausted - that we both fell into bed by 9:30 in the evening. Strange. Nevertheless, it meant that both Moonface and I had busy and full Sundays in the sun. I took the singlespeed out into Leigh Woods and tired myself out whilst Moonface and Tommo punished the allotment and garden.

:0)