Today was the Bideford Water Festival, which promised to be very inteesting. It starting with a blessing by a local Minister, and with everyone singing the hymn, Eternal Father, Strong to Save. Before that though, on the walk into town, we saw a quite amazing sight. A hawk had apparently stolen a baby seagull and had flown off with it in its talons. Several seagulls gave chase and they were wheeling around in the sky, dive-bombing the hawk and screeching - it was a sight to behold. Eventually, the hawk appeared to have dropped the baby bird but the seagulls still kept attacking it - we watched them for at least five minutes and it was really quite poignant.
We were then treated to a fly past by the local rescue helicopter and a display by the local Lifeboat. There was also a greasy pole competition, which was very funny to watch, and a tug of war from one side of the river (the Torridge) to the other. Throughout the day there was a sedan chair race through the town and there was also a Gig race (gigs being long rowing boats which, in the old days used to race out to the whaling boats, the first to arrive being allowed to pilot the boat into harbour).
