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





Thursday, 23 January 2014

Sussex: West Itchenor to Bracklesham


 

Chichester Harbour
 
Lesser centaury
From West Itchenor car-park we threaded our way through a ship-repair yard to the shoreline footpath, following this west along the south side of the Chichester Channel.  At this corner it is known as Chaldock Marsh, but it is all part of the huge Chichester Harbour we had been rounding for days.  Turkey and evergreen oaks were among the trees planted along here, again sheltering some marsh mallow.  At the head of the saltmarsh was also sea milkwort and long-leaved scurvy-grass.  It was a cloudless hot day and Tony had forgotten his hat, but we chanced on an old yachting cap washed up on the shore, soiled but dry and still serviceable, at least for the day.  We were able to keep along the shore until a few houses at Rookwood forced us inland a hundred yards.  Later we passed seaward of West Wittering with only a few houses near the sea and boats in the harbour.  At the west end was a saltmarsh known as Snowhill where there was a signed crab-pool (although someone had erased the L from the notice) where children could fish for the crabs we could see in the murky water.  This is the place the Romans landed when they first came to Britain.  A long spit of dune-covered shingle curves back into Chichester Harbour.  We walked the eastern side of the saltmarsh until turning the head we at last witnessed the long sands at the real coast’s edge stretching all the way to Selsey.  Skylarks sang above the dunes, whose vegetation included sea holly.  On the seaward side there was a variety of shells, including small scallops, seaweeds, the latter tangled up with brown fleshy growths of the sponge dead man’s fingers, and a few plants of sea rocket.
      We had our lunch on the dunes and explored the dune-slacks that sparkled with the tiny pink stars of lesser centaury,  as well as a few common centaury.  Large groynes projected across the sands, forcing us inward briefly along a difficult shingle bank, but a receding tide eventually allowed us to bypass the groynes on the sands below them.  Shells were interspersed with similar fossil ones from the Bracklesham Beds, distinguishable by their heavier weight and uniform pale brown colour, but a mixture of clams and oysters showed that in Eocene times this stretch of beach was very similar to today.  The top of the beach was lined with chalets until the houses of East Wittering began, preventing any access between sand and land.  Finally a road descended to the shore and we scrambled up the shingle to get an ice-cream.  We walked along the paved top for a while, but this eventually became shingle again and we descended to the sands, kinder on the feet.  A recently-dead whelk was washed up.  After a kilometre we reached the main road at a car-park marking the beginning of Bracklesham, which merges into East Wittering.  Here we caught the bus back to Itchenor.
 
 
Free yachting cap
 
 
Common whelk at Wittering
 
 
Brackleshamn fossil oysters Ostrea plicata and clams Cardita planicosta
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