Getting down to the beach was never easy and the last stretch was always a slight concern with three children in tow. Thirty years later the direct route has been closed off due to erosion and the last 15 feet requires the use of ropes, the gentler drop to the beach having been washed away by the sea. It is worth making the effort.
Padstow, Boscastle, Tintagel and Port Isaac, respectively made famous by food, flood, legend and soap opera, are overwhelmed with day trippers. Strangles is empty.
And yet, some 100 feet above the beach I catch the faint smell of wood burning and, as we drop onto the beach, to the south, there is the cackle of a minor rock fall. I sense we are being watched.
Well, the-
The ocean doesn’t want me today
But I’ll be back tomorrow to play
And the strangles will take me
Down deep in their brine
The mischievous brain jewels
Down into the endless blue wine
I’ll open my head and let out all of my time
I’d love to go drowning
And to stay and to stay
But the ocean doesn’t want me today
I’ll go in up to here
It can’t possibly hurt
All they will find is my beer and my shirt
A rip tide is ragin’
And the life guard’s away
But the ocean doesn’t want me today
But the ocean doesn’t want me today
The ocean doesn’t want me today
Tom Waits
With thanks to gavinclinch on Blip for making the connection between the place, the images and this Tom Waits track.
northumbrian : light 
Wow, what a place…
I shouldn’t advertise it should I but then access should keep the crowds away – hope you are keeping ok – all the best, R
No, you probably shouldn’t advertise it, Robin! I’m OK, thanks….seen better days!
Heavenly photos. I’d make the effort for those views.
Thanks Julie – the beach to the left of the big rock is Strangles, the beach to the right is Little Strand – “popular with naturists”. Needless to say, we didn’t see any 🙂
Good to know Waits’ lyrics were appropriate Robin. I was a little hesitant in posting them on your Blip but figured you’d appreciate them. Thanks for the shout out. Great photos!
Good to know Waits’ lyrics were appropriate Robin. I was a little hesitant in posting them on your Blip but figured you’d appreciate them. Thanks for the shout out. Great photos!
Thanks Gavin – I appreciated the lyrics a lot – always like to make song connections especially with Waits and Dylan.
What a stunner that first shot Robin!
Many thanks Jo – almost completely as nature intended 😉
What a beautiful place, Robin, but thanks for not sharing any photos of naturists! 🙂
janet
It is, clothed or unclothed 😉 There is quite a lot of gorse on the approach to the beach which must put off everyone but the most determined 😀
And certainly it would put off the unclothed, I would think!! 🙂
That first image….I could just walk into it.
I did Cate – and my feet got wet 🙂 I had my eye on the three seagulls waiting for them to fly off – after all that they are barely visible.
Wonderful shots. I wouldn’t want to advertise such a place either. It reminds me of some of NZ’s west coast beaches.
Thanks Su – the cliff path should be sufficient to put off the “million hordes from Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads” 🙂
“Though nothing, will drive them away
We can beat them, just for one day”
Luvverly stuff.
Many thanks Simon