Waves, Rock & Storms | Vanlife in Devon & Cornwall
This is a long overdue post from a week exploring the wild, Cornish coastline of Devon and Cornwall back in September. Apologies for my absence. I will be writing an update post very soon about what’s been going on in my life, but I hope to be back on track with probably bimonthly posts on the blog from now on.
But first… let’s whiz back in time a little to a pale pink sunrise at Saunton Sands beach. We had driven down from Yorkshire to Devon the night before, parked up in the dark in little vanny, and set our alarms for something absurd like 6am. Harvey had insisted that we must get up for a ‘dawny’, something he promised would not disappoint! With tired eyes, I reluctantly dragged myself out of bed in the morning and stepped outside into the mild, Southern air. It was already feeling like Autumn in Yorkshire, but here the last days of summer still held on. Pulling on a wetsuit at 6am is really not my idea of fun, especially one that is ‘stiff as an old boot’ thanks to that sustainable Patagonia rubber… However, eventually, I was suited up and my board waxed just as the first leaks of light splayed beneath the clouds on the distant horizon. Golden and inviting.
Barefoot, boards in hand, we tiptoed down to the beach — wide, open and vast. The tide was as far out as it could be, so the walk to the water was just long enough for me to admire the morning glow on sand and sea and to actually get excited to dip my feet into the water. Harvey was right; there was something pretty special about being in the ocean so early in the morning, with no one else around but a few local surfers, the seagulls and the sunrise. The view from the water was breathtaking; a golden pink that reflected off the shining surface of the water and created a warm glow across the entire beach. I wished I could capture it on camera, but I settled instead for keeping it all to myself; breathing in the warm air, feeling the cold water tickle my feet and finding thrills in the little waves that swept me onto my board and down towards the tide.
I made a video series from this week on the south west coastline so I won’t write too many words. Essentially, we spent the week chasing waves and dry rock as storms brewed in the far west, eventually retreating to the safe haven of Dartmoor for some more Autumnal walking when the waves hit 15ft and we didn’t think bouldering, seacliff climbing, surfing or swimming would be an option! Harvey turned 37, climbed a scary E1; I made vancakes (oats, banana and milk) on the beach and really enjoyed getting into documenting moments of ‘everyday adventures’ on my video camera while roaming the coastline in the van.
One of my favourite moments was a morning spent on a beach called Strangles, after staying in a gorgeous little B&B the night before. The beach was wild, isolated and beautiful, and it was nice to just sit and take it all in. It seemed to me a relatively unknown stretch of the coastline that had a very special quality about it. We walked the seacliffs to a pub for lunch, and then back again just before the rain came.
Life felt slow for a week, which was just what I needed. Harvey and I spend a lot of time seeking adventure that life can feel quite fast-paced and tiring. The storm forced us to slow down, spend afternoons just lazing in the van, walk to crags not to climb but just explore instead, and to spend evenings chatting with friends until the early hours.
This trip to Devon and Cornwall has become an annual jaunt that we look forward to every year. As always, nature is unpredictable so the lack of options for climbing and surfing were just something we had to work around. It encouraged us to find adventure in different ways; to slow down, see more and be still.
