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

Norfolk: Snettisham Beach to Titchwell 3/9/2008**

 
 
Autumn sea-holly with blackberries, Snettisham
 
 
Hunstanton cliffs
 
 
Chapel remains & lighthouse, Hunstanton
 
We started off by one RSPB reserve and ended at another today.  The first was at Snettisham Beach, where we parked and walked north at the head of the beach.  The strandline was marked by abundant saltwort, sea rocket and frosted orache.  The dunes had yellow horned-poppy and sea holly.  There were common saltmarsh plants, too, including rock sea-lavender, when we reached Heacham Harbour, a very long brackish pool landward of the dune ridge. The pool itself had huge amounts of horned pondweed and a patch of long-bracted sedge.  We reached a scout camp at the edge of Heacham, followed by some chalets along the sea-front and followed the beach to Hunstanton.  The striking cliffs here comprise a belt of bright white chalk on top of red sandstone (both rocks used in the houses with colourful mosaic effect).  Finally, the shore became narrow, rocky and slippery, so we ascended to the top and took a path along grass turf towards the old white lighthouse, in front of which were a few remains of an old C13th chapel built to commemorate the landing of King Edmund in AD855.   Here was also a useful café for a snack to help warm us up in a persistent bracing wind which threatened to bring storms our way.  The day stayed dry, however, and often sunny, as we descended at the end of the cliffs to the wide beach, close to low tide.   The sands were conspicuously littered with the likes of Mya truncata and the odd seaweed-covered small boulder riddled with piddocks and their bore-holes.  We splashed happily along these sand-flats rather than follow the official North Norfolk coast path (which starts in Hunstanton but passes inland of a golf-course for a good kilometre).  At the end we had to take the NNC path inland of the saltmarsh to prevent being trapped on long sand spits.  We reached Holme Dunes Nature Reserve and had good views of many birds – hundreds of black-headed gulls in winter plumage, herring and black-backed gulls, turnstones, sanderlings, oyster-catchers, ringed plovers and redshanks.  We passed through more dunes with blue fleabane, common centaury, bright waxcaps and golden-capped boletes.  We turned inland where large creeks prevented further progress, and glimpsed a marsh harrier flying over.  Embankments led to the minor road to the west end of Thornham, but we took a path between the village and the saltmarsh until we reach a track into the marsh.  We used this to explore the plants here, which included one-flowered glasswort and much sea aster, almost all of the rayless form discoidea which had dominated since Heacham Harbour, where they had the normal mauve rays.  We returned to Thornham and the main A419 to Titchwell.  At the bus stop opposite the entrance to the RSPB reserve just outside Titchwell we awaited the ‘Coasthopper’ bus back to Heacham.  It dropped us at the Norfolk Lavender Farm, where we phoned for a taxi to Snettisham beach.  We stayed at the Rose and Crown in Snettisham, which has good rooms and food.
 
 
 
 
Golden-capped boletes
 
 
 
One-flowered glassworrt

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