Another world at Westcombe

Westcombe Beach is a short distance from Bigbury but could not be more different.  Instead of crowds, kids and ice creams, you find an altogether different place: a maze of muscular rock formations with unexpected pools, arches and caves.  There is an overwhelming impression of steel, slate and silver; the rocks feel alive and a little forbidding.  Great stripes of colour rise above you at stark angles, in contrast to many feminine shapes: smooth basins in the rocks like fonts full of holy water.  We wandered for ages, climbing through holes and caves, until eventually we came to a secret beach where the sun was beating down on the flat slate walls of the cliffs around us.  We stripped off and dipped in a nearby pool while the waves crashed nearby.  A perfect afternoon.