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





Tuesday, 28 January 2014

Northumberland: Warkworth to Cresswell 3/7/2006**

 
Warkworth Castl;e
 
Northern marsh orchids
We drove to where we will be staying in Warkworth, Warkworth House Hotel on the main road into the town.  We walked up the hill to the large Warkworth Castle, lording over everything around from its steep mound, and then followed the road east to where it ran along the south bank of the River Coquet.  It was a relief to leave the road when it turned to skirt the west side of Amble, and we took a footpath down by the river to the marina round which we had to walk into the modern central square with its giant sundial and information centre.  At the latter we watched CCTV pictures of the seabirds nesting on Coquet Island nature reserve.  We walked by the harbour and south into Amble Dunes local nature reserve where a few dampish slacks held northern marsh and common spotted orchids, although the flora was still generally impoverished, if better than several dunes yesterday.  We walked the beach a while but ascended again into Hauxley Nature Reserve, centred on a large artificial lake.  Even though there were hides we saw few birds – largely Brent and Canada geese.  We returned to the edge of the dunes overlooking the shore for our lunch.  We then trekked for miles along broad clean flat firm sand with fewer people today, it being Monday.  Shells were sparse and the main sights were occasional dead birds – common tern, puffins, gulls – and slippery pink sand-eels, the same as those we had seen hanging from the beaks of passing sandwich terns.  Approaching Cresswell we could see ahead the chimneys and pylons heralding industrial areas to come and the end of the wild empty coast of Northumberland we had so much enjoyed.  However, we were finally glad to reach the end of the beach at the Cresswell rock outcrop with Caucasian stonecrop and come up “onto land” in the village, where home-made ice-creams were on sale in the little shop.  These cooled us down after our long walk in the sun, but a NE wind started up and made us wish we could be warmer again!  We continued along the road south for a kilometre to the car park at Snab Point convenient for tomorrow’s starting point, and walked back along the beach, which was quite rocky, not only with the flat sandstones at beach level, but also frequently falling blocks from the fissile cliffs.  Some of the greyer rocks at ground level seemed to contain fossil worm-tubes.

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