Tuesday, 10 September 2024

The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (107) The Doctor’s Day Out

 


July

Flaming June had given way to a humid and oppressive July and Stuart Cameron and Deborah Woodward finally had a weekend on which they could get out and walk together.

So on Saturday morning they were both up with the lark and set off to explore.

By making an early start they hoped to get some exploration in before the day became too oppressive, so they set off down an unfamiliar path and planned to explore anything that even vaguely resembled a trail.

 

Later that day, though not much later, Amelia Williamson met Victoria outside number 1 Stable Cottages and gave her the keys and after about ten minutes she left Victoria on her own enjoying her surroundings and then there was a knock on the door, and her bed had arrived.

Shortly after that Harold arrived with the van and they moved the rest of her furniture in, and when everything was in, he left her to settle in.  

And as she sat in her armchair drinking her coffee she felt at home, which made her smile because the cottage was the first place she really thought of as a home since she was a girl and living with her parents.

 

It wasn’t a long walk by their standards, and it wasn’t a particularly difficult one, but Deborah and Stuart were both sweating profusely by the time they reached Armada Head.

They’d chosen that particular walk as it was close enough to the cliffs to get whatever sea breeze might be on offer but there was also a lot of tree cover to offer them some shade.

They hadn’t been to that part of the island before and as they walked to the rocky outcrop and took in the vista it took away what little breath they had left.

She stopped on the crest to mop her brow and then she pinched the V-neck between her fingers and shook it violently causing the material to ripple and thus cause a draft up her shirt.

“Does that help?” he asked

“No not really” she replied, and they both laughed

Then they sat down on a slab of granite which bizarrely felt cool despite the heat of the sun and shared the bottle of water from Stuarts pack.

Stuart had taken to carrying a pair of binoculars on his solitary walks and they were still in his pack, so he took them out as well and they used them to look across the water to St Giles du Cabot.

When they had drunk their fill of the view they headed down towards the river where they found a shady spot to have their lunch.

They were both devotees of classical music and spent most of the time while they sat, talking about music, favourite composers, performers and individual pieces.

There was common ground on much but were diametrically opposed on others, for example he was a traditionalist whereas she was very definitely not and embraced the modern composers.

Their other favoured topics were literature as they were both veracious readers, contemporary and classics, or movies, and they both considered themselves to be classic film buffs.

 

When they had finished lunch and they emerged from the shade it had gotten unbearably hot, so they went into Spaniards Creek to Jardine’s General Store and restocked with bottled water for the walk home.

It was the first of several stops on the return walk, they took advantage to any and all shade as far as Norman Beach where they walked along the shore and cooled themselves before the most difficult part of the walk which covered a one mile stretch along the cliffs where there was no shade.

When they reached the next stand of trees, they instantly felt the coolness of the shade.

By the time they reached Manor Cliff Beach it was the hottest part of the day, so they removed their shoes and socks and paddled in the sea up to their knees and waded all the way until they climbed back up to Manor Cliff and the short walk home.


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