Water Sport Weekend
[This is one in a series of blog posts written by Charlotte the Intern. Tune in daily to find out about what she’s been up to, what she has been learning about, and all of the crazy things she does as part of the Manna from Devon team.]
It was a busy weekend for me, but rather than having hair caked with flour and dough, it’s caked with salt water and sand! It has been a weekend of water sports: surfing off the North Coast on Saturday and sailing just out the River Dart on Sunday. Incredibly fun, but also incredibly exhausting! It was a good way to start off festival week, clearing my mind and getting out to have some fun before the craziness descends.
On Saturday, I went with a friend up to Putsborough Sands on the North Coast to do a bit of surfing. I have only surfed once before, and that was 6 years ago, so I wasn’t exactly in surfing shape, but I’m always up to try something out and when you get an invitation to see a new place with someone that knows it well, it’s foolish to say no. Wet suited up and on the board, I clearly had no idea what I was doing, but it felt good to push myself outside of my comfort zone, and with the sun shining amid a blue sky on the broad, wide beaches of the green, craggy North Devon coast, it felt a bit like I had found my own little piece of paradise. Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos, because a camera doesn’t really have a place in a wetsuit. It’s really too bad; the place was so stunningly beautiful!
Then today was sailing, on a morning of strong winds and not a small amount of rain, we braved a little journey out of the Dart. It got a bit hairy at some points, to put it mildly. I do have some photos of that, but perhaps the best way to show you all exactly what it was like is to share this little video. Check out how choppy some of our sail was: here!
Pretty hardcore stuff.
It was amazing, the kind of invigorating experience that feels frightening at the time and then all the more rewarding when you make it back into safe harbor. I love that feeling of being cold and wet, and going under cover to shed your wet clothing and drink that first cup of hot tea. There is almost nothing that feels so satisfying.
Now, sore from the surfing and ready to curl up in a warm, dry bed, I’m feeling glad that I’ve gotten to see a bit of Devon from both the land and the sea. I’m prepared for food festival week now. Bring it on!
Heading out into the rough.
Had a go at steering out in the waves. I wasn’t exactly confident, but at least I look like it here!