Wellfleet is a small town on the outer arm of Cape Cod, where the land narrows and the Atlantic is never far away. It has a snug harbour on the bay side, with oyster beds on the flats, and a long, wild coast on the other, where the dunes and beaches of the Cape Cod National Seashore face the open ocean. The oysters here have been famous since the seventeenth century, and the briny, plump Wellfleet oyster is served in restaurants across the country. A plate of them at a harbourside bar, with a cold beer, is the thing to do.
The outer Cape has an unexpected technological history. In 1903, on the cliffs in South Wellfleet, the Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi built a wireless station with four huge towers, and in January of that year it sent the first transatlantic wireless message from the United States to England, a greeting from President Theodore Roosevelt to King Edward VII. The cliffs have since eroded, and the site is now a small park with a model of the station and a trail to the cliff edge, from which you can see the waves breaking on the long beach far below.
The ocean beaches, with names like Cahoon Hollow and Newcomb Hollow, are wide and wild, backed by high sandy cliffs, with surf that attracts swimmers and surfers. The water is cold, and the undertow can be strong, so take care. The cliffs, made of glacial sand, retreat by a metre or more each year, and the history of shipwrecks along this coast, called the graveyard of the Atlantic, is long. On the bay side, Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary has trails through marsh and woods, and a drive-in cinema on the highway has been showing films under the stars since the 1950s.
Route 6 is the main road, busy in summer but a pleasant ride in the shoulder seasons, with pine woods, ponds and glimpses of the sea. Fuel and food are available in Wellfleet and in Eastham, a few kilometres to the south, and there are fried clam shacks, bakeries and seafood restaurants. Fog and wind can be sharp, and the temperature drops at night. September and early October are lovely, with warm water, clear light and few people. Give yourself time to wander on the beach.