EVERY NOW AND THEN....

Three times last week, we made the journey to Crow Point, where Braunton Burrows meet the sea at the Torridge estuary with the wonderful village of Appledore on the opposite shore.

Why three times? Well, apart from being one of our favourite places, it`s also very remote. You can only get to it via a toll road (cars £1.50) which is about two miles long and leads to a small car park. The toll road is maintained by the Braunton Marsh Inspectors, who do a good job of looking after a rich expanse of important natural heritage. But the other reason to go there is that you can walk along the beach right to where it turns a corner and starts to become Saunton sands.

There is seldom anyone else there, even in the holiday season, so it was just us, Barney, the sea, the sand, the wind and the endless sky. Almost a feeling of being at one with the forces of nature and a stark reminder of man`s insignificance in the great scheme of things. I don`t know about you, but now and again I get the urge to be at places like that, far away from the maddening crowd and to remind myself just what a wonderful and powerful world it is without the trappings of modern day life. Sometimes it`s good to get away from it all and there is so much these days to get away from. I just hope that places like Crow Point will be preserved as they are, so that every now and then hopeless romantics like me can escape from our version of reality to where the true reality can still be found.