Introduction


When we started walking the coast of England we had no intention that this would become a major lifetime project. Having to make a last-minute arrangement for our summer holiday in 1987, we said "Let's go to the nearest piece of coast and see how far we can walk along it." It turned out well and we started adding further stretches of coast, initially once every two years, but soon annually, or even twice a year.

We had always enjoyed the coast - there is something refreshingly "edgy" about having the sea always at our side, and one of us was into marine molluscs. We also enjoyed long-distance walking and had long been involved in general natural history recording. This project enabled us to combine all three interests.

You soon discover when embarking on a project like this that you need a few rules, which evolve from the first experiences. Our main rule was that we should walk as close to the coast as possible, which meant beach-walking whenever we could (unlike the official coast paths that largely remain above shore, recognising that at high tides the beach may be inaccessible). The route should also be capable of being a continuous walk, so that when we came to an unfordable river we walked inland along its banks to the first place at which we could cross, whether a bridge or a ferry.

We only carried light packs, so that at the end of each day's walk we had the problem of getting back to our car where we started. Initially we walked back, but soon realised we would be walking the coast twice this way! We used public transport whenever this was available - buses or trains, sometimes adjusting our start and finish points to make this easier. Failing this - and it was often not possible - we would phone for a taxi (an increasingly costly option over the years). Having our car with us gave us more freedom as to where we could stay at night - and after a day walking and only light food we were usually ready for being spoiled by a good meal and a comfortable bed! Even so, we stayed on the coast itself whenever there was a decent option.

Each walk was made for enjoyment, it was not a route-march to see how quickly we could get it finished. We therefore took it gently at times when passing through pleasant scenery or where there were many plants or creatures to record.

In terms of biological recording, we systematically noted every bird, butterfly, creature or sea-shell that we came across, sometimes spending time searching for the shells. We could not record every plant in the same way - there are too many common ones - so we were more selective, noting all coastal plants and any others that were not run-of-the-mill.

In our daily posts, edited from our original diaries, we include a star-rating from no star to **** according to our subjective estimate as to how special that day was from the point of view of natural history. This score (and our daily records) will, however, have been affected by the weather - it is difficult to appreciate the environment fully, for instance, in torrential rain, and there are many more butterflies and other insects to be seen in warm sunshine!

A summary of all our natural history records on the walk can be found using this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1LLGD55lKRHYXd1SGU1QndrcUU/edit?usp=sharing





Friday, 31 January 2014

Lincolnshire: Cleethorpes to North Somercotes 24/6/2008

 
Female common blue
 
Pyramidal orchid
We parked in the boating-lake car park by the dunes in Cleethorpes and walked through the dunes once more, with common blues flying among thousands of northern marsh orchids. We walked on to the beach, but went too far along and got trapped on salt marsh tracks stuck behind sea inlets and had to backtrack to reach the embankment.  Among the saltmarsh pools were many little egrets.  We followed the embankment to Stone Bridge, crossed it and followed the footpath east, hoping to rejoin the embankment that now lay beyond some large fields, where a group of Polish workers were having lunch.   We later past them again, having found the footpath ended in the middle of nowhere with no access to the seafront.  We found some open farm tracks that took us to the road that ended in the North Coates Airfield, an RAF facility associated with military exercises over the salt flats in this region.  It was this airfield that blocked our way along the coast.  We could not however find a path to the next road east, only half a kilometre away, which we needed to get back to the coast, so we were forced into a long trek down the airfield road to North Coates to be able to make the same trek back up the next road to Horse Shoe Point.  While we were in North Coates we sat on a bench in the churchyard to eat our lunch, delayed by the problems of trying to find our way.  At Horse Shoe Point there was a footpath along the embankment going east for several miles, up to Somercote Haven, where it was blocked by an unkempt section with tall herbs and scrub, even though a signpost said it was a public footpath.  We had to descend to the field and take a private farm track around its edge, underneath the embankment, with pyramidal orchids lining the way.  The track emerged at the road up to the car park at another Stonebridge.  The path back along the embankment here was still marked by a footpath sign, itself virtually overtopped by the mass of thistles blocking the way.  The foreshore here and the dunes to the east obviously attracted many visitors, although we were limited to the top of the shore by a military exclusion zone and a helicopter roaring in a neighbouring field shattered the peace.  The dunes had many pyramidal orchids again and we followed them to the corner of the coast at Donna Nook and then returned to the road to follow it south to North Somercotes, as there was no further access along the coast itself.  At the main road we found ourselves at the Axe and Cleaver pub, where we could get drinks and sit at a bench outside waiting for the taxi from Cleethorpes.
Embankment and ditch through saltmarsh
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