"It's only a brook we have to jump over"

Finally, one decent loaf of semi-brown bread. Gee, how I've missed it. Will you believe that on the way up from town I've nibbled myself halfway through the bread!It could also have something to do with the walk all the way to Exmouth a couple of very nice co-students and I just had made. I had been to Exmouth before, but never on foot.

I can't get enough of this land. Space everywhere. Even though it's a small island, here you have the feeling the world goes on and on without ever coming to an end. It's very hard for me to feel locked up here, like often happens in the Netherlands. This sounds like a contradiction: Dutch skies are the largest in the world; they have broad rivers (die traag door oneindig laagland gaan) and even hills. Still, walking along the Exe to the ocean feel quite different. But it is very possible that this feeling is caused not by any feauture intrinsic to the landscape, but by my own mind, that sees opportunities everywhere to push even further into the world, now that I've come so far (Okay, it's not as far as, let's say, Singapore, or Ghana, or even Croatia, but to me this already is a meaningful distance). Does this still make sense to you? I'm afraid I haven't described it very well. Anyway, I would like to show you this piece of modern art:

When you have a very close look (and high quality glasses), you might see a small party of brave youngsters from Sweden, Switzerland, England and some obscure country in Scandinavia where you buy your drugs, conquering the patchwork of sheep meadows, mud, brooks, deerforests, earl of Devon territory and rubbish tips. We had nice conversations (learned an awful lot about Swedish history), ate delicious cookies and sandwiches (thanks to Mark for his inspriation: from now on I take fried bacon-lettuce-mustard-cream cheese sandwiches on my walks) and took more brilliant pictures.

Now I am getting hungry again (and I desperately need a shower after all those brooks we had to jump over), so I'll leave you for a while.