Hole in the Wall..
I took a trip to a little beach yesterday that is used mainly by local people and at this time of year, local people exercising dogs. It’s a super little beach and allows superb views of St Austell Bay. There’s a nice stretch of sand with some rock pools at low tide and safe paddling for the little ones. However, access to the beach is gained through a small tunnel under the railway and yesterday, this tunnel was flooded. Using my stick to guage depth, I gingerly started wading but with water threatening to overflow my wellies (rubber boots) with every step, it took a while. But probably because of the flooding, once the other side, there was nobody in sight, despite the half-term school holidays.
From the beach you get a good view of the sea wall that protects Par docks. When I was a child, large ships used to dock here to collect the china clay, dug from the local hills, for export around the world. Par docks is no longer used for the loading of china clay and there are plans for its redevelopment as a luxury marina but there is a lot of local resistance.
I was surprised and shocked to find that as a result of the recent storms, there has been a huge hole punched through the sea defences that protect the docks. The huge chunks of granite that make up the wall, have been in place for generations and weathered countless storms but this winter has been exceptional. The granite blocks lay strewn around, clearly tossed aside as of no significance, such is the power of the sea. :-/
24mm f/22 1/40 Sec. ISO-100
24mm f/22 1/60 sec. ISO-100
To give some scale to this image, the square block of rock on the right-hand side in the foreground made a comfortable spot to sit awhile..
Of course, being an inquisitive photographer, always on the lookout for the next picture, I naturally had to have a peek through the wall. With a huge effort, I managed to traverse the boulders on my back-side to get a look at a rarely accessed area. This side of the sea wall is off-limits and protected by security fencing and razor wire..
70mm f/22 1/30 sec. ISO-100
70mm f/22 1/40 sec. ISO-100
Otto Von Munchow, on his blog In Flow, has today launched the 6th round of his search for the best photoblogs on WordPress. Check out the latest round and vote here. It would be so good if the whole blogging community could get behind this poject to ensure we have a unique, representative and valuable resource to access the best examples of photoblogging out there. If you visit Otto’s blog, you’ll also find links to previous rounds.
Otto has been incredibly generous with his valuable time in going through hundreds of nominated blogs and starting to whittle the list down to a manageable size. The least we can do I think, is visit the blogs and take a couple of minutes to vote. You’ll be treated to some incredible photography.. :-)
Cornwall Photographic 
I especially like the first photo. Would love to walk there during a storm . . . whilst tied to an anchor.
February 21, 2014 at 4:54 pm
Well that would certainly be one way to go Emilio.. :-)
February 21, 2014 at 5:10 pm
A bit scary but super beautiful. :)
February 21, 2014 at 6:56 pm
Thank you Katarina. :-)
February 21, 2014 at 7:45 pm
Interesting reportage and photos. And I like Dispersers comment, just to give some digression…
February 22, 2014 at 12:11 am
I did too Bente, thank you. :-)
February 22, 2014 at 7:17 pm
That is so incredible, Adrian. The sea certainly did lots of damage here. Great photos, especially the last one. :)
February 22, 2014 at 3:29 am
Thank you Sylvia. A lot of the sea defences around Cornwall just gave up under the constant barrage. It does now all seem to be over. When is it you’re coming? The weather has been lovely the last few days. It’s going to take a while for the water to subside. It’s quite a sight from the air apparently, flying into Heathrow and Gatwick so no doubt you will see for yourself. :-)
February 22, 2014 at 7:17 pm
We leave here this coming Wednesday, and are going to West Sussex,nowhere near the sea. Glad the weather has improved for you. Hope I’m not sitting over the wing again, or I won’t get a good view.
February 22, 2014 at 7:26 pm
A lot of land under water in West Sussex I believe Sylvia, I think you will see the extent of it as you fly in. It’s going to be nice to see your Mum-in-law, enjoy your stay.:-)
February 22, 2014 at 7:32 pm
Thanks so much. Luckily, her house is not affected, except that she had a power outage for half a day when some trees came down.
February 22, 2014 at 8:02 pm
Terrific scenics!
February 22, 2014 at 5:28 pm
Thank you very much Phil!
February 22, 2014 at 7:15 pm
You did well bringing those skies into your landscapes in a meaningful way.
February 22, 2014 at 5:30 pm
Thank you John!
February 22, 2014 at 7:15 pm
Amazing Blog,Nice to meet You,Regards
February 22, 2014 at 11:40 pm
Nice to meet you too and introducing me to your blog. Thank you so much for visiting!
February 23, 2014 at 11:26 am
Utterly amazing what those storms have done. Bet you’re glad they’re over for now! Thanks for mentioning Otto’s photoblog roundup. I’ve found a few new ones (to me) that I like (as if I needed to spend more time on blogging!) :)
February 23, 2014 at 4:50 am
Thank you Gunta. I know what you mean. There are so many excellent blogs out there!
February 23, 2014 at 11:27 am