Today we went to a fishing village called Charlestown. And guess what? A man called Charles actually named the village after himself.
We walked down to a beach called Duporth where we scrambled over some rocks and we found a small cove. We also found a small cave which led to another part of the beach. When we got out of the cave there was some rocks you have to climb over to get to the sandy part of the beach, if you know what I mean.
We stayed on the rocks for a bit, will just relaxed, while I played in some rock pools.
When we where going to head back, we realised the tide had started coming in so we couldn't go back the way we came, so we walked across the beach to where the beginning the cliff top path was, because that was the only other way to get out.
When we got back to the camp site, will and I played with a ball just throwing it back and forth, basically just playing catch. We then later grilled come hot dogs and burgers for the first time on the trip, which I was a lot of fun.
Well that was the first day using the grill, I wonder if we will be finding anything in the rock pools tomorrow.....
Today we went to Wistman's Wood/Dartmoor/Devon, to be exact.
We trekked across a path just above a stream, and walked past a farm.
when we finally got to Wistman's Wood we could see that there is no actual path just moss and lichen covered trees and rocks. I think having no path just made it all the better because I've always liked going off the path, and I like climbing over rocks, so it just made it even more fun. And it just added to the spookiness of the forest, because legend has it, that of you stay in the forest after dark the Devils Wist Hounds will come and find you......
Well anyway, on the trees, hanging everywhere, and trust me when I say everywhere, because I mean EVERYWHERE, there are little tiny caterpillars hanging from silk threads.
As we were walking we stopped because we heard a cuckoo, which apparently is a critically endangered species of bird.
I mean come on, can this place get any cooler, there's no path just rocks you have to climb over, there's a spooky legend behind it, there's little caterpillars that hang from silk threads AND there's a critically endangered species of bird.
When we finally got out of the woodland, we walked up to a Tor called Longaford Tor, and let me tell you, it was absolutely blowing a gale up at the top! We then followed the ridge line back climbing over a few rocks and boulders along the way.
All in all, it was a great day!
Well that was the end of week one, I wonder where the adventure will take us next week......
We went to a place called Bellever forest in Dartmoor today. On the way there we saw some semi-wild pony's whom are let out by there owners, the farmers, to graze most of the year.
We trekked through the woodland which was muddy and wet but doable. We came across some fallen trees blocking the path and had to climb over it, and had to give a running jump for the ten year old German Shepherd dog. Once we got out of the wooded area we saw some more pony's.You can also see Bellever Tor which we hiked up to. The walk/hike up to the Tor was a bit wet, because it was like a marsh land, only because it had been raining that day.
When we got to the Tor we climbed up to the top where we found a triangulation point (trig point for short).
It was rainy and really windy on top of the Tor but the view was great. And we sheltered under some rocks for a bit.
Well that was are first tree infested day, I wonder if we will be seeing any more woodland tomorrow.......
Molluscs
belonging to the class Cephalopoda and the order Sepiida, they are
most closely related to squid, octopuses and nautiluses. With eight
arms, two tentacles with denticulated suckers used for securing prey
and large W-shaped pupils and being named for their unique internal
shell, the cuttlebone. They generally range in size from 15-25cm,
while the largest species, Sepia apama, can reach 50cm in mantle
length and over 10.5kg in mantle weight.
Cuttlefish
have the one of the largest brain-to-body size ratios in the world
and recent studies show them to be amongst the most intelligent
invertebrates. Eating other cuttlefish, small molluscs, crabs,
shrimp, fish, octopuses and worms. Their predators include dolphins,
shark, fish, seals, sea birds and other cuttlefish. Their life
expectancy is generally one to two years.
The
cuttlebone that cuttlefish are so famous for is a porous structure
formed of aragonite, that provides the cuttlefish with buoyancy,
which it regulates by altering the gas-to-liquid ratio in the
chambered cuttlebone with the ventral siphuncle.
Often
referred to as the chameleons of the sea, cuttlefish have the
remarkable ability to change the colour and texture of their skin to
communicate with other cuttlefish, camouflage themselves and as a
deimatic display to warn off potential predators. This colour
changing ability is produced by groups of blue, red, yellow, black
and brown pigmented chromatophores above a layer of reflective
iridophores and leucophores. With up to 200 of these specialized
pigment cells per square millimeter, this would be equivalent to
about 359DPI if they were individually controlled.
Even
though they lack the ability to perceive colour, cuttlefish are able
to rapidly change the colour of their skin to match their
surroundings, even in complete darkness, through some mechanism which
is not yet understood.
The
Greco-Roman world valued cuttlefish for the unique brown pigment
which they release when attacked, which they called sepia, a word
still used in modern english to refer to a brown pigment. The
cuttlebone on the other hand was traditionally used by jewellers and
silversmiths as moulds for small objects, and more recently as a
source of dietary calcium for parakeets and other caged birds.
We went to a place called Ringstead Bay on this slightly cloudy day. It is also part of a private estate and part of the Jurassic coast. It is said to hold many fossils, so of course we went fossil hunting :)!!!!!!!!!!!! Ringstead Bay is made up of sand, pebbles and rocks. To put it bluntly. It's also in the shape of a crescent moon and when the waves crash against the shore and then pull out again you can here the sound of the pebbles falling down after being pushed up by the waves, and I think it is a really cool sound. Me and Will found a rock and started chipping away at it, and eventually it fell apart. We are not sure what kind of rock it was but it obviously wasn't very dense and was a softer kind of rock.
Well here we come to the end of our adventure, for today.......
Described as a tombolo, research has shown that it is actually a barrier beach which “rolled” landwards. Eventually joining the Isle of the Portland and the mainland giving the appearance of a tombolo.
Against the cliffs of the Isle of Portland on the eastern edge of the beach at the village of Chiswell, the beach curves sharply forming the Chesil cove, which protects the low-lying village from flooding. Westwards the shingle forms a straight line along the coast, enclosing a shallow tidal lagoon called the Fleet.
The Fleet is home to many wading birds, and at Abbotsbury there is a swannery. The only managed colony of nesting Mute Swans in the world. Numbering over 600 swans with approximately 150 breeding pairs. Records of the swannery exist as far back as 1393 AD.
Stretching 10 miles ( or 18 sources differ) long and 40 feet high, the shingle that forms the beach varies form pea-sized at the north-west end to orange-sized at the south-east end. It's said that smugglers who landed on the beach at night, could tell exactly where they were on the beach by the size of the shingle.
During the Second World War the area was chosen, due to the low population density to be one of the testing grounds for the bouncing bomb and machine gun training for Operation Chastise. Many defences were also constructed around the area. Such as anti-tank blocks near Abbotsbury, and on the western side of the beach Admiralty scaffolding, flame fougasse instalations and minefields further inland.
