The Awe of Watergate Bay

How lucky I was to be travelling back to Cornwall for a second time within one month and even though there was work involved, it was the good kind of work and there was still to be plenty of holiday time as well. Unfortunately, the journey down was a little ropey. I’d recently been afflicted with a cold/ear infection type illness and was still suffering from a fun game of vertigo every time I tried to travel which meant about four stops on the way down to help me right myself before continuing. We’d actually decided to travel down the A38 instead of the A30 just for a change of scenery and it was a thoroughly pleasant route to behold. Because I tend to holiday along the north coast of Cornwall it’s not often that we go this way but I must remember to do so more in future for even though it’s about a quarter of an hour longer it is just as beautiful.

When I’d been offered the opportunity to go to Watergate Bay for work I jumped at the chance. I’d driven past the bay last year on the way to the Bedruthen Steps and the lure of the gloriously long stretch of sand had firmly secured it’s place on my “must visit” list. I’d heard the name “Watergate Bay” so many times over the years, pretty much always associated with water sports of some form and had filed it away in my mind as something of a surfing mecca of the South West but it wasn't long before I discovered it had oh so much more to offer.

After a mad rush to make the event, a whirlwind of an afternoon and much talking later, all the work was done and packed away so I wondered down to the beach with camera in hand. Well actually, my camera was on my back and my hands were carefully carrying a container with some poor unsuspecting sea critters who’d been mistakenly taken by volunteers and brought up to the hotel where the event was taking place. I’d offered to return them and was very gingerly walked along the beach so as not to swish the water about too much on my way to the rock pools where I popped them back in their rightful place.

Once that little job was done I was free to soak up the last of the day, breathing in deep the salty goodness and watching people playing on the beach. There were so many people enjoying the space in so many different ways. Surfing of course, lots of that, but also just playing games on the sand, walking dogs, walking alone, walking hand in hand with loved ones too, playing in the rockpools, eating from ice creams, it was all going on. Clearly Watergate Bay was a bustling beach. Everyone seemed to be completely oblivious to the slight nip in the air, you would have thought it was summer's eve with the amount of activity going on. And none of that busyness detracted from the awesomeness of the beach itself.

This beach felt epic, with it’s towering cliffs and huge sandy expanses, something about it felt gross and grand and us people were suddenly just mere little flecks in the vastness. From what I had seen up above I knew that there would be a lovely long stretch of beach here and good waves too, but what I wasn’t prepared for was the incredible cliffs. You really can’t grasp from the road above just how mighty they are when you are stood beneath them looking up and it really took me aback. I loved it and only wished that I had more time and light to soak it up. Like so many places I visit in Cornwall the first time, I added on to another one of my lists, the “must come back to” one.