My mind was undecided when I arrived as to what I would do today. So much depends on the weather, tides and also how I feel. I had had several ideas since the last time I had come down here and all seemed possible and potentially practical to do.
I decided to attempt to recreate a pattern of terraced pools down the face of a fairly flat rock. The side of the pools were to be made of clay. I would try to contain water in these pools and use the water as another material, trying to tie all the four fundamental elements of fire (the sun), water, air and earth together.
I started with the uppermost pool and created the walls as I had with the clay spirals the week before. The first pool seemed to go quite well. There was a fairly brisk wind from the west and the sun started to break through the cloud cover. This was exactly what I didn’t really want as these would be excellent drying conditions for the clay to crack and potentially break away from the rock. I decided to prevent the clay drying out too quickly to try and put some water in the pool. At first it appeared to be watertight, but after a while I noticed that the water level had started to go down. I found a small leak on the other side to where I was working and managed to seal this up.
I started to make the subsequent pools and found it quite hard to decide exactly where to put them. It was also quite hard to keep them level. I managed to get several pools done, but the leaking was getting worse the more I did. I found that the clay made a better bond with the rock if it was put on the dry rock rather than the wet rock where I had had a leak.
The top layers had started to crack in the wind and sun so I quickly decided to take some photos while I still had something to photograph. I filled all the pools with water and managed to get some photos. Just as I was putting the camera away I heard quite a loud splash and felt water hit my leg. I turned round and the lowest wall had fallen away.
Just a note for the day. While I was working today, two blokes with some very young children came and based themselves on the narrow beach under the cliffs of the Cap. I think there were three children and they were aged between about three and seven. Each one was given a geologists hammer and encouraged to indiscriminately hack at the cliff face. This seemed an extremely foolish thing to do and a good way to loose your children.
On the way back to Seatown, I noted other ‘chippers’ hacking great lumps from the cliffs. Why do these people have to add there own form of erosion to this place. Each one may only chip a comparatively small lump away, but in time this will have a great affect. Each one of these people is hunting their treasure in a selfish and foolish way. Why can they not show the patience to let nature take its course and present these gems in nature’s own time?