A Very Busy Clifftop Picnic and a Secret Beach

18 comments

As we had a nice pocket of sunshine, we decided to take a picnic and go for a clifftop walk on the rugged Northern coast.

We reached our chosen area and found we had to drive the car across a single-track train line. Memories of a walk near a small train track in Essex came to mind when I merrily trilled “Oh, this will be OK. It hasn’t been used for years” as a small engineering train trundled past our noses!! This time we were OK – no trains, so we carried on down the rutted car track and found a nice flat grassy area in which to park.

We wandered along the track, then veeeeeery carefully walked out onto the grassy area making sure each footstep was secure as this was an area reknowned for ‘bufones’ – sudden jets of sea water where the sea and rocks have eroded the cliffs and the incoming surge of the waves sometimed erupts like a fountain straight out of sink-holes in the ground!

We reached a grassy area st the top of the cliff that had ‘picnic’ written all over it and settled down to crab salad rolls and milky coffee – but we appeared to be on a highly-used motorway for all sorts of things! We could hear a loud buzzing and wondered if it was farm machinery – until this flew over us:

Then two low-flying jet planes sped past out at sea – too fast for a photo! After which we were treated to a constant ‘seagull fly-past!’

Then, while gazing out to sea, hoping to spot a dolphin or two, our hopes were raised by the sight of sudden breaking waves, but it turned out to be a boat!

We had another visitor as we were packing up the remnants of the picnic :

We’d never had so many interruptions!

We carried on with our walk, taking a path that seemed to lead to the next cove and there was the most delightful secret hidden beach!

We followed the narrow track down to a grassy area – then onto small rocks and sand and saw a small turquoise-coloured pool complete with fish.

We investigated further and found that the sea was washing in from beneath the cliff through eroded areas and had made this secret cove.

I could have stayed there for ages just watching the sea creeping in, but it was time to head home so, by way of various lovely coastal flowers, we made our way back to the car and home.

That secret beach is certainly a place to re-visit! Thanks for your company. :o)

24 Mar, 2012
16 likes

Comments

Cinderella

How lovely was that ! Thanks for sharing it.

24 Mar, 2012

Sheilar

Excellent - thanks for sharing

24 Mar, 2012

Paulsgarden

awesome pics!!

24 Mar, 2012

Terratoonie

Fascinating photos... enjoyed seeing the secret beach :o)

24 Mar, 2012

Hywel

It's nice to go by the sea. There are so many interesting rock formations, and maritime plants. I hope you enjoyed the picnic ...

24 Mar, 2012

Pixi25

Wow how lovely...love the secret beach! Nicce flowers too..what a lovely place for a picnic

24 Mar, 2012

Stickitoffee

What lovely places you visit.

25 Mar, 2012

Nariz

I'm surrounded by 'lovely' Sticki - can't help it. ;o) Thanks for your comments guys.

26 Mar, 2012

Mark61

It looks stunning what a secret place you have found:))))

27 Mar, 2012

Balcony

That must have been a great place for your picnic, Nariz! :-)) Did you have a warm day? Not more than a week or so ago we heard from our family over there that there had been heavy snowfalls, even if they did only last one day!

The Sweet Pepper seeds you sent me are growing in the propagator in our living room. At least a few are! Most show no signs at all of germinating & they have been in the propagator for more than 2 weeks now! Since March 11th to be exact.

27 Mar, 2012

Nariz

Hi Balcony! Yes, we had a warm day, but weather here has been most peculiar this year! A few weeks ago we climbed a local mountain in T-shirts; a few days later we were shivering under a snowfall and lighting the fire again; now we're back to 20+ temperatures and seeds and weeds are springing up everywhere!

Sorry to hear the pepper seeds are not all behaving! I've had mine in my little plastic greenhouse and this heat is making them soar upwards! Maybe yours are just a little lazy? :o)

28 Mar, 2012

Balcony

Well they have been in the propagator for 2 weeks now & I still have only 3 seedlings germinated. I'll leave them a few more days but I have so many seeds to sow that I could do with the propagator.

The temps here have been in the low 20s as well most of the last week & it's bringing forward all the spring flowering plants no end!

My Darwin Tulips are supposed to flower in late April/May but they have started to flower this week! Now I shall have a balcony devoid of flowers from April till late June or July. An infestation of tiny aphids killed off all my Pansies & Violas that I was counting on to take the balcony through to the end of May. I have nothing ready to take their place at present & I can't afford to buy in more Pansies or Violas or Primroses/Polyanthus plants even though there are 1,000s on sell in town!

29 Mar, 2012