British summer time at it's best, Torrential rain, flooding, thunder, lightening and a day at the seaside!

Yesterday i spent the day up in North Devon and i thought being August what a lovely idea it would be to go to the beach. My beach of choice for the day was the famous Westward Ho! famous because it is the only place name to officially have an exclamation mark in it's name!

When i arrived it did actually feel positively warm, cloudy but warm, the sun was trying to break through the clouds and it felt like it was going to be a nice day. How wrong could i have got this. 

With the rain starting to fall i was not perturbed. I continued with my camera walking across the car park and started with some photographs of the shops selling there beach goods. In the rain with not many people about i couldn't imagine them selling that much. Then within 5 minutes the heavens opened and i've never experienced rain like it. Gaining shelter from a small ledge from the new by amusement park mysel and many other holiday makers huddled together to avoid the rain. The only dry person i could see was the ice cream man and i don't think he was too impressed either. 

Within minutes the seaside town had become flooded, the sandy beach was now and extension of the sea and people were running in every direction trying to find a dry place to shelter. The road soon turned into a river and people were now having to wade in ankle deep water on the main road.

After a while i had decided that the rain had eased enough to get onto the beach to take a few snaps, but how wrong could i be. After about 4 pictures the rain was harder than ever so i made the decision to get back to my car and watch the world go by from there. Within seconds of getting in my car the thunder cracked and the lighting shot down to the sea, now i was definitely quite glad to be in the car and not on the beach.

Once the rain had eased i tried again to get a few pictures but with the rain being persistent i decided to give up, and with the sky darker and darker i think this was a good idea. As i began to make my journey home i realized the extent of this rain, roads were now gushing with water, side streets were pouring gushing brown muddy water into the main roads carrying with it all sorts of debris. I made my way from the small country roads and onto the main A39 Atlantic Highway back to Cornwall. Now i can only assume that this road is called the Atlantic Highway because it resembled this yesteraday. There was so much water and flooding that parts were only just passable. The police were in attendance and i'm pretty sure after i drove through the massive long stretch of flood they were then closung the road. Previously i had stopped in a layby to photograph a bit of flooding in the road but this was nothing compared to what i experienced further on in my journey. However when i hit that Cornwall border the rain stopped and the sun came out!

All in all it was a lovely day at the seaside, but because of the extreme circumstances however i think I'd much prefer sunbathing than paddling!!!

Perhaps i should have checked the weather forecast first!!! www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/Rain-warning-issued-Devon-Cornwall-flooding/story-16648243-detail/story.html Today i'm off out with my camera but these time i have not one but two umbrellas packed. Just in case.