Uspon natrag

Na dnu ne preostaje ništa drugo nego okrenuti se i popeti natrag gore. Uspon je sporiji od silaska i uzima joj znatno više snage nego što je očekivala, pa dvaput zastane i oba se puta pravi da je zastala kako bi uživala u pogledu.

At the bottom there is nothing to do but turn around and climb back up. Going up is slower than coming down and takes rather more of her than she expected, and she stops twice, and pretends both times that she is stopping to look at the view.

Na jednoj od mokrih donjih stuba sjedi priljepak u plitkom udubljenju u kamenu. Udubljenje ima točno oblik njegove ljušture, jer se godinama vraća na isto mjesto i ondje si je izbrusio sjedalo. Noću izlazi jesti, u mraku odluta nekoliko stuba dalje i svako jutro pronađe put kući, u rupu koja pristaje njemu i ničemu drugome.

On one of the wet lower steps there is a limpet, sitting in a shallow dip in the stone. The dip is the exact shape of its shell, because it has been coming back to that same spot for years and grinding itself a seat there. It goes out at night to eat, wanders a few steps in the dark, and every morning finds its way home to a hole that fits it and nothing else.

Kad stigne na vrh, svjetlo se već dovoljno okrenulo da otkrije otoke u tjesnacu. Oni su posve drugi svijet. Dok je ova litica blijedi vapnenac pun rupa i špilja, ti su otoci od ružičastog granita, nagomilanog u goleme glatke gromade kao da ih je ondje ostavio neki div, a ondje živi toliko guštera da bi čovjek teško povjerovao.

From the top, the light has come round enough to show the islands out in the strait. They are a different world. Where this cliff is pale limestone full of holes and caves, those islands are pink granite, piled up in huge smooth boulders like something left behind by a giant, and lizards live out there in numbers you would not believe.

Polly sjedi na bedemu dok vjetar puše preko ruba i još jednom pogleda dolje u prorez u stijeni. Gotovo dvjesto stuba, ručno usječenih, koje se kroz liticu spuštaju do šalice hladne vode. Zatim krene na sjever uz obalu, sa suncem s lijeve strane.

Polly sits on the rampart with the wind coming up over the edge and looks down at the slot in the rock one more time. Nearly two hundred steps, hand cut, going down through a cliff to a cup of cold water. She sets off north along the coast with the sun on her left.