Splendor and Rape

This tuesday afternoon there was a long lull in the rain, and, with Jose's northeast wind propelling me forwards, I went for a long luxurious walk along the newly (and briefly) pristine beach left behind by the earlier high tide. It was wonderful to walk on smooth clean sand - and beyond the wrecks the sea had scoured the beach almost up to the base of the bluff, so the horrible driving ruts were effaced. The large boulders were splendid, like vast tawny crouching lions (except for one that has been defaced by crude garish paint).

The rock where I collected shotgun cartridges was now deep in seawater:

At the far end of my walk I looked up at the remarkable walkway built across the eroding, bare, sandy bluff slope to connect 2 greens at the Friar's Head Golf Club.

Here's a google map view of this structure:

 what's remarkable is that they got a permit to build this on the completely bare, collapsing, bluff face. Well, it's also remarkable that they got a permit to bulldoze the dwarf maritime beech forest above the bluff - what was once the finest example anywhere in the world. Only in Riverhead.

On the way back, struggling against the wind, as I approached the wrecks, the first car to "rape" this virgin beach appeared. But I enjoyed walking the beach in its briefly pristine state - something that happens only once every few years.