This week has been remarkably prosaic. Leaves are falling. I went to the dentist. Some chicken went *truly* rancid in the fridge. That stench took a while to clear out of the kitchen. So that’s me! Happy October. Anyway, where were we? We’d just spent our first couple days on the Channel Islands, so we might as well finish the trip (…which was secretly ending up in August 2011, but I want the titles to match up, you know). Picture dense again – the last day was super pretty. Pretty much not sorry.
Ridiculous
The next day we headed down towards the north part of the island, to go see a natural bridge down at the shoreline. We walked past a pasture area, and then through what seemed a very long area of scrub and grassland, before getting to the bit of the wagon trail that led downdowndown straight to Carrington Point. Notwithstanding the “travel prohibited” sign, we gingerly went down the incredibly steep slope. At the bottom, we headed off left, by the shore, passing through an amazing spectacle of flowers in bloom, just painted across the hillside, bright pinks and yellows and whites against the green of the plants and the brown of the rocks and the blue of the water.
But…but…I *want* to go this way…
Pasture and pond. The grasses were rustling in the breeze.
We walked past a jutting rock coated in both cormorants and cormorant guano before getting to the area with the natural bridge. We circled that, watching the waters pound in and out of the little cove behind it (the waters that had formed the bridge), and then turned back. On the way back to the base of the hill, I did take my time really enjoying some of the crazy flowers and plants. There are these “ice plants”, which are an invasive species, but were fascinating me. They are covered in what looks like hundreds of small droplets of water (or ice), but are really some sort of hard excretion.
Birds in their guano zone
Natural bridge
I don’t normally catch them in mid-air!
Ice plants. It’s not water!
We walked back to the point, and walked out a bit on the peninsula there, looking at shells and abalone and sea lions and generally gazing out at the amazing colors and just…viewing. So so very spectacular. We then walked back up the hill and took an alternate route back to where we started, including some pretty darn steep bits of truck trail, and stopping to take photos of flowers along the way. With the sun out, they were all so incredibly bright looking.
It’s like they were just painted all over the landscape
Srsly – that dude was steep
Proud mama lion
I mean, it’s just that picturesque
We were pretty tired after the walk back, but once at the campground, decided to take a stroll to the creek in the ravine right next to the camp area. It was nice and cool and refreshing down there. We played in the creek and saw ALL the tadpoles and even some grown frogs, and it was really pleasant and quite a change from the overall arid nature of the rest of the island (water water everywhere and not a drop to drink). After playing around down there, we just headed up for some supper, some reading, and some hanging out with some other people at the campsite commingled with some all important wine drinking.
I miss poppies
Froggy!
The next morning…we packed up and got ready for the boat pickup. Boat! The boat picked us up, and we headed on back. En route, we stopped at the Painted Cave, one of the largest sea caves in the world. It is large enough that the whole boat was able to go in, which was pretty amazing. Light light light light….suddenly, less light, just the gaping glowing entry point behind you. It was pretty amazing. Inside, we were able to stare all around and enjoy the view. After that point, the boat left, and took us all back to where we had started from. Fun for all.
Look, a cave!
Looking back out from the cave
