5 Feb 2010

Day 36:

It looks like today is again a 2-for-1 photo day. Still sick, I travelled up to London on Friday for the Aqaurian LoveFest II weekend to spend some time with good friends, celebrating the fact that we were all turning a year older in February. I wasn't really in the mood for travelling to London as I thought that the cough was going to kill me yet and the mucus machine hadn't quite stopped. However, when you see scenes like this from the train, it's hard not to appreciate what a special train journey this is between Newton Abbot and Exeter, no matter how crappy you feel. The top photo was taken as the train travelled along the River Teign and the bottom photo was along the South Devon coast between Teignmouth and Dawlish. This whole section of rail line was an engineering feat undertaken by Isambard Kingdom Brunel (the same one who built the rail bridge across the Tamar River -- see 24 Jan 2010 entry) in the mid-1800's. It is quite the experience to travel on this section of rail line at high tide during a storm. I've been on trains where the sea is crashing up against the sea wall and up and over the passing trains, which is just a little disconcerting. Fortunately, Friday was not one of those days despite the approaching storm from the Atlantic.


For more info about the rail line, check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Devon_Railway_sea_wall