West Country Winds.

Todays post is about the Storm and high Winds that swept across South Devon last night and today. A few times every year the Rail line from London and the Midlands to Plymouth and Cornwall gets closed by these type of storms due to waves that reach 30 feet high and break up to 40 yards acrooss the lines and roads, also causing damage to them. The government have pumped millions in the last few years into trying to solve this problem with no real success.
This first picture is of The sea front here at Teignmouth, taken from our favourite sea front cafe.In this type of weather hundreds of people come to look at and run in and out of these waves. Here a wave has just broken over the sea wall on the left of the picture.
CLICK ON ANY PICTURE TO ENLARGE IT.
This picture below shows how close the rail line (with waves breaking across it) is to the sea, just a 7 feet wide walkway between the line and sea here.
The Rail line follows the coast for several miles here, from Starcross to Teignmouth about 6 miles. Its a fantastic coastal train journey. This piece of coast (pictured) is at Holcombe midway between Teignmouth and Dawlish, here it goes through a small tunnel, but note how close the line is to the sea, but today its sheltered from the storm here.
This picture is looking down on Dawlish, note the station in the middle, the line runs the whole length of the sea front, with waves breaking at either end.
The sea wall here at Dawlish (like Teignmouth) has no guard rail between it and the sea over most of its length. Look at the waves breaking over it all along.
Got a little higher here to show Dawlish town, with Starcross and across the Exe to Exmouth in the back ground.
I thought i would add this picture of the same Teignmouth sea front in nice, calm weather.
This picture was taken on Boxing day this year and is of the sea front Cafe where we took the first two pictures on this blog.


Joke of the Day.
(Sorry about the colour).

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN GUILTY OF LOOKING AT OTHERS YOUR OWN AGE AND THINKING, SURELY I CAN'T LOOK THAT OLD.WELL.. YOU'LL LOVE THIS ONE. MY NAME IS ALICE SMITH AND I WAS SITTING IN THE WAITING ROOM FOR MY FIRST APPOINTMENT WITH A NEW DENTIST I NOTICED HIS DDS DIPLOMA, WHICH BORE HIS FULL NAME. SUDDENLY, I REMEMBERED A TALL, HANDSOME, DARK-HAIRED BOY, WITH THE SAME NAME, HAD BEEN IN MY HIGH SCHOOL CLASS SOME 30-ODD YEARS AGO. COULD HE BE THE SAME GUY THAT I HAD A SECRET CRUSH ON, WAY BACK THEN? UPON SEEING HIM, HOWEVER, I QUICKLY DI SCARDED ANY SUCH THOUGHT. THIS BALDING, GRAY-HAIRED MAN WITH THE DEEPLY LINED FACE WAS WAY TOO OLD TO HAVE BEEN MY CLASSMATE. AFTER HE EXAMINED MY TEETH, I ASKED HIM IF HE HAD ATTENDED FAIRVIEW HIGH SCHOOL. 'YES. YES, I DID. I'M A BULLDOG,' HE GLEAMED WITH PRIDE. 'WHEN DID YOU GRADUATE?' I ASKED. HE ANSWERED , 'IN 1973 . WHY DO YOU ASK?' 'YOU WERE IN MY CLASS!', I EXCLAIMED. HE LOOKED AT ME CLOSELY. THEN, THAT UGLY, OLD, BALD, WRINKLED, FAT ASS, GRAY-HAIRED, DECREPIT SON-OF-A-BITCH ASKED, 'WHAT DID YOU TEACH ???