Just over ten years ago on June 21st 2009, and the longest day of the year - almost to the day - a visiting friend and myself had a drive along the coast; just for the fun of it, stopping at various places and enjoying a day out doing nothing in particular. We stopped on the quayside at Topsham briefly, and I wondered if it was possible to explore the other side of the River Exe, where derelict boats and a building left to decay could be seen. So, crossing the bridge further up the river, we turned to the left and what we believed to be the other side. As it happened, and not realising until later on, we were on a spit of land which juts out between the canal and the river and not on the other side at all. However, we did find this.
Now, I've got a 'thing' for water treatment plants...don't know why, but there's something about them and I find the tanks and treatment beds fascinating to explore. Although the above title was on the gate, I've recently discovered that it's known as Countess Wear / South West Water, but I retained the original title that I had on my website* article to avoid confusion.
*As it happens, my website is no more now, but I'll still leave the title as it is.
The gates were locked and there was no access, but some of the buildings and tanks could be seen from the path. Not only that, but it was such a lovely place to have a meander, and quite magical during the long, slow dusk of the evening of the Summer solstice.
Walking along the right side of the plant to take photos of the tanks, the idea was to walk to the end and come back along the other side if possible.
The first tank seen from the path and another building, below.
Two more tanks seen from the path.
There were quite a few people fishing on the opposite bank of the canal, taking advantage of the late summer light.
As it happened, the end was nowhere in sight, and because it was already 9 pm we decided to walk back the way we came. Which worked out well as we had time to end the day sitting in a pub garden with a couple of pints in Colyford on the way back home. Magic!
And on the walk back along the river we spotted this humungous fungus, below.
Called Dryad's Saddle, the Latin name is Polyporous Squamosus and is also known as Scaly Polypore.
And a belated happy Midsummer to you all. :)
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