Beach walk

[puddleshark]

Not much beach on this morning's beach walk, but the waves were spectacular...



Grim weather all last week. My 6am walks around the forest were in darkness and pelting rain, with the paths shining. And even when it got light later, it was still dark. No light for photography. So I made the most of this morning's rather stormy-looking sunrise for a quick outing with the camera.





Impressive white horses today in the usually-sheltered bay, and a line of stormwrack at the foot of the dunes: tangles of seagrass, wooden planks. Flocks of gulls skimming the breaking waves - perhaps feeding on shellfish being churned up by the storm. Kicked myself for bringing my little wet weather camera rather than the Canon and the zoom lens.




The wind in the marram grass.

Rather than turn and head back into the teeth of a wind laden with sand, I crossed into the dunes, following the twisty paths through the heather - sometimes walking, often wading. I don't often walk here since I lost Max, and I have begun to forget where the paths lead, but eventually I found my way to the freshwater lagoon at Little Sea.







Not many birds on the lagoon today. A few gulls and cormorants. But it was very peaceful, no sound but the wind in the trees.



Since my last visit, the National Trust has put up notices asking people to keep their dogs on leads around the lagoon, as there is now a colony of beavers established on Little Sea, a recent reintroduction.

Cut back across the dunes for one last glimpse of the beach, in the hope that the big waves might have attracted the merfolk, and there was indeed one brave windsurfer flying back and forth across the bay:







Arrived back at my car to an unpleasant surprise:


Still Life with Parking Ticket.

No more parking on the verge for sunrise walks along Studland Beach. Today's very expensive lesson: yellow lines apply not just to the road, but to the roadside verge also.

Comments

[heleninwales]

Oh, no! I didn't know that about yellow lines. I'm sorry that an eager traffic warden spotted your car.

We decided it was too windy here to walk in the forest, so we just a quick out and back along the Mawddach Trail.

[puddleshark]

Yes, it was a bit of a rubbish end to a lovely walk. The National Trust car park at Studland is only open from 9am to 5pm, so historically people have always parked on the wide verges when visiting the beach out of hours. Dorset County Council have obviously found themselves a goldmine.

[heleninwales]

The National Trust car park at Studland is only open from 9am to 5pm

Well that's a bit of a bummer. They ought to have it open all the time and put pay and display machines there if they want an income from it.

[mallorys_camera]

Sorry about the ticket. 😢

I can practically see the wind in that marram grass photo.

[puddleshark]

Yeah, I was bit upset yesterday to come back to that, after such a fabulous walk. But, hey, at least it was a reasonably priced local council parking ticket, rather than one of the cowboy private firms who clock you hundreds of pounds for illegal parking.