Love Life Despite Cluttered Beaches, Closed Motorways and Seagull Crap

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I started the day with yet another sad, photography outing, this time back to Beer for the boats that are supposed to be quite photogenic. They weren't as this had got to be one of the most cluttered beaches, making it impossible to get the kind of romantic, golden sun-lit shots on the postcards. It was also not helped by a tractor moving things about - honestly these working people getting in the way of my photographs.

Despite it being early, my parking space had been taken back at the hotel, so I found somewhere else to park. I should have looked at the other cars, as when we got back to the car later it was clear that it was in the main seagull flight-path. My car had only been there a couple of hours and it was covered in seagull crap. The other cars, which had been there all night, were absolutely caked in it.

Our plan was to head to Portsmouth to see some other relatives. We decided to stop half way at Dorchester to visit Maiden Castle. This is not so much a castle, but rather the remains of an Iron Age hill-fort. It is actually huge, apparently the size of 50 football pitches, with a lot of valleys and ridges that were designed to help make an attack difficult. It was great to have a walk round and enjoy the peace and the views over the surrounding countryside. It was not what we were expecting, but worth it none-the-less.

As an added bonus, there was a nearby sunflower field, which was also nice to walk around and through. There were two paths though the 900,000 sunflowers - the shorter of which traces out the word "Love" and the longer of which traces out "Life". We walked the "Life" route and then bought some sunflowers to take back with us.

It was then onto Portsmouth. After something to eat with our relatives, which was again a struggle as everywhere was booked, we went for a walk around the harbour. This has all been redeveloped and includes the rather impressive Spinnaker Tower, which was illuminated as it was getting quite late in the evening.

The drive home was a total nightmare. The A3(M) back to London was closed. The alternative M27 was also closed. The M3 was down to one lane for a large part and finally, and just to rub salt into our wounds, part of the M25 was also closed. Somehow the narrow, winding country lanes of Devon did not seem so bad after all.

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Photos

Beer Beach
Boats on the rather cluttered Beer Beach.

Beer View
Sunrise view over Beer from the coastal path.

Maiden Castle
Sheep on the ridges of the Iron Age hill fort.

Sunflowers
The field of sunflowers near Maiden Castle.

"Life"
Sad, but had to be done.

The Spinnaker
Portsmouth harbour in the evening.