Tag 143 - plushy

20.09.19

- Jonna

Once again, the morning view of the sea is breathtaking. We enjoy the tranquility of the small town, have breakfast with a view of the sea, and even though it's quite cloudy, you can see small patches of blue sky on the horizon, promising sunshine. We head to the lighthouse, which we saw from a distance yesterday, and we are overwhelmed by the solitude of this area. To the left are the mountains, to the right is the rough sea, and in between is a moderately well-developed road, sheep, and lots of seals. Because what we saw in the last few days regarding "seals" was ridiculous compared to what is happening here. Right next to the road, completely unaffected by us, everything is full of these huge creatures. We continue driving slowly and amusedly watch the brown seals lying lazily on the roadside.

When we arrive at the lighthouse, we are quite perplexed when we see the stairs that need to be climbed to reach the lighthouse directly. Well, exercise in the morning and all that.

Highly motivated, we climb the 252 steps, and the view of the already unreal landscape is even more impressive.

A few pictures later, we go back down the stairs and turn left off the road again because two cars are parked in a small parking lot. In this area, seeing two cars is convincing enough to take a look at what there is to see. We already suspect it when we walk between two bushes and find ourselves in front of a seal mother with her baby. This is a whole new level when it comes to seals. Around the next corner, you have to be careful not to stumble over the pups lying in groups in the grass. They don't really fear us, but if you get too close, they panic and run away.

Although there is a sign saying to keep a distance of 20 meters, we cannot understand how that would be possible. The whole path is full of babies, so we decide to turn around to not cause unnecessary panic for ourselves and the animals. We walk around a rock, and a local waves us over to a rock. We climb up and look over the edge onto a bay where nearly 200 seals are lying, mostly mothers with their babies. The man explains to us that the little ones are practicing swimming here, and the bulls are lying on a rock, observing the scene from above. We can't get enough of watching them dive and sunbathe.

(Fun fact: in this picture (above) you can see about 150 seals!)

We make ourselves a coffee and then continue to the Pinnacles, which was the reason why we took the detour to the coast. This is where the Dead Marshes scenes were filmed, where Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas search for the ghosts.

We follow a more or less existing path in a riverbed, which eventually becomes quite steep.

You can already see the first signs of erosion in the rock walls on the left and right, and then the rocks start forming needle-like shapes protruding from the rock walls. Impressed by this unique sight, we go all the way to the end of the valley, where the filming location is supposed to be quite obvious (although we're not so sure about that), but it is impressive nonetheless, although sweaty. And once again, we try to imagine how Peter Jackson (the director of the movies) managed to get up here (he must have more endurance than you would expect). On the way back, we actually meet some hikers who are all about our age and greet us very friendly.

Back at the campervan, we treat ourselves to a small snack and continue to the next gas station. We do some shopping (there are discount coupons for refueling) and then head to a spot by a lake. It's not super great, but after the last few nights, we are incredibly spoiled. With a view of the lake and surrounded by ducks and geese, we have dinner and then go to sleep.

- Jonna