Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB)

Started off the day talking to a local in Bath who told me that Nicolas Cage and Johnny Depp live in Bath. Thats pretty cool if its true, I'm sure she wasn't making it up.

When you look at UK maps, you see lots of "AONB" marked everywhere. I had been meaning to look it up and somehow I finally stumbled upon it, it stands for Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Most of the places I went today are established as AONB.

First, I started at a place called Black Sands. Its a beach and the windy roads to get there were quite unbelievable. I think my blood pressure shoots through the roof every time I have to drive for miles down a one lane road that is barely paved and completely lined by 6 foot bushes. There is something special though to doing a drive like that then falling into these areas of AONB. Blacksands has these stunning cliffs that fall right into the beach and maybe I was early, but I was the only person there for awhile.

Black Sands Beach

Then, on my way to Salcombe, I stopped at slapton sands beach. I'm so glad I did because I learned thats the beach that US Army and Navy forces practiced their d day invasion for Normandy. There's a memorial there dedicated by the US and its quite amazing to stand there and imagine those practice rounds. Apparently the practice was called Operation Tiger or Exercise Tiger.

Slapton Sands

I finished the drive over to a place called Salcombe. The plan was to walk from Salcombe to Bolt Head, which is about a 60 minute hike. I started the hike and asked a few people how to get there. After talking to some very helpful folks, I realized that every single person I've talked to so far has been not only friendly and smart, they're legitimately willing to stand and talk for as long as you'd like. So refreshing.

I reached bolt head exactly at the 60 minute walk and that was after taking many, many photos along the way. What a stunning walk, it's somewhat secluded but it overlooks the water and its actually pretty popular (several other folks for hiking it today as well).

I started to hike back and I happened to catch a ferry that was leaving. So I jumped on and it was amazing because I got a chance to take photos from the ferry, and meet the captain who told stories about each house and the area.

Since I grabbed a ferry, that gave me time to eat lunch before my parking meter ran out. I had the best fish and chips and mushy peas in Salcombe that I've had so far in the UK. I think I've either built up a tolerance to boiling hot food or I've gotten smarter about talking to people first, before taking your first bites.

The final stop of the day was Bantham beach. Again, an extremely windy, bush-lined road to get there. I made it safely and wow that beach is massive. I don't want to exaggerate but it has to be at least a quarter mile of sand before you even get to the water, amazing. There are cliffs surrounding the beach and there are big houses on top of the cliffs, but just a few houses, not too many. There are pretty large roads at the entrance to the beach too and I noticed lots of families lean up against the rocks. The water is full of surfers and the beach offers surfing lessons. There's a beautiful island out in the water, which makes it captivating to stand there watching surfers, looking at the island, then turning back to see houses on cliffs and the big rocks.

I think we're splitting hairs, Great Britain, I think just about all of the UK is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.