2009
21
MAR
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St Margaret's Bay |
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Saturday, 21 March 2009 |
St Margaret's Bay | - Click on the image above to view gallery
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 Warning sign
I had checked the tide timetable before we set off just to be certain, and as it happened low tide was just about the time we set off for a walk along the beach (despite warning signs telling us advising us not to proceed). I wanted to see if we could walk far enough along the beach to see a section of newly fallen cliff. It actually was quite hard work on the ankles hopping over the chalk boulders and working our way through seaweed covered pools, but it was fascinating to be this close to the cliff face and seeing just how it was eroding. It has to be said that it was all too obvious how much the cliff was overhanging and we wondered how long it would be till the next section would fall away. A new cliff fall has occurred very recently at a place called Hope Point and we made our way along the beach to where we could get a good view of this, but we also knew the tide had turned and not being sure just how quickly it came in we decided we had seen enough for one day. We passed some planks of wood and thought they must have been from the Russian ship the Sinegorsk which ran aground in January losing 1,500 tons of wood. Vast quantities were washed up and then were either looted or recovered. I guess small quantities like we found here would never be picked up. Nigel also had the shock of his life when he discovered a dead badger amongst the rocks. We can only assume the poor thing had taken a tumble from the cliff edge a few hundred feet above us.  Seaweed covered chalk boulders  Cliff fall from clifftop path It didn’t take us long to walk back along the beach and back to the car park. We thought a drink and blueberry muffin would set us up nicely to take the steps up the cliff face and then enjoy a walk along the cliff top where we could get a view of the rock fall from above. It was a very enjoyable walk too and we found the viewpoint we were looking for and got an excellent view of where we had been earlier in the day. Now we’d been below though and knew just how much it was overhanging, I wasn’t too keen on getting quite as close to the edge as perhaps I would have been in the past.
We walked a circular path taking us back past Bockhill farm (owned by the National Trust) and we were soon back at St Margaret’s Bay after what had been a really interesting afternoon’s walk.
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It was lovely to see the bay again, some great photos as usual, your pictures are always so interesting. I loved your sunrise pictures, you did really well to get up so early LOL I did comment on them and also your last few albums, but the comment didn't seem to have reached you.
Take care Sherran