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: New Holland to Immingham 22/6/2008

 
 
Salsify
 
7-spot ladybirds
We drove to Grimsby Town railway station to catch the 10.04 train to New Holland.  There we walked down to the embankment and continued along it, the grass generally cut comfortably short, the sky mostly blue, but almost a gale-force wind from the west.  A narrow border of saltmarsh lay below the Humber embankment, fields and pools inland.  The flora was generally unexceptional, apart from a clump of salsify, while the river-edge birds included mallard, shelduck, oystercatcher, pochard, a solitary curlew and a couple of herons.  When we turned the bend in the river, with Spurn peninsula opposite, the wind was to our side rather than behind and particularly troublesome.  Very few insects ventured to fly – we only glimpsed a solitary brave meadow brown, but on some sections lots of 7-spot ladybirds were being blown from the long grass and having to scuttle back to cover.  This region was quite remote with only the odd house, some derelict, and abandoned rotting boats, but good views of Hull across the brown water.  Eventually we reached concrete embankments that continued all the way past the oil refineries, presumably to protect them from land erosion.  Inland were endless car parks with imported vehicles, factories and more factories behind high steel fences. The embankment however had coloured patches of biting and white stonecrop in many places providing relief, and there were tall plants of great lettuce.  Where the new port was being constructed we had to leave the embankment path a little early to seek the inland roads.  The walk continued beside the A1173 – we were fortunate that it was Sunday and the traffic infrequent, but in any case there was mostly a wide verge.  We passed through the north edge of Immingham, with the large port and industrial estate between the sea and us, and turned once more towards the coast, where the road passes over a dockland railway to rejoin the embankment, but here we were foiled by a road closure to reconstruct the bridge and we could not cross.  We were therefore forced to call it a day and walk back along the road in the almost derelict outskirts of Immingham, eventually finding a Turkish takeaway where they were very helpful in supplying a taxi number and gave us Turkish tea while we waited.  The taxi drove us back to Grimsby station.  We went out to eat, as last night, at The Ship in Barnoldby, excellent line-caught sea bass from their own couple of fishing boats.
 
Hull across the muddy Humber
Rusting boat

 

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