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

Yorkshire: Aldbrough to Withernsea 22/6/2007**


 

 
 
 
Borage
 
 
 
Tunstall beach, broken sea defences and boulders

We parked in the middle of Aldbrough and took the minor road east past some newer houses to Low Farm, which was close enough to the coast for us to be able to see whether there was any way down to the beach or a path along the cliff edge, but neither existed.  So we had to continue on the road through East Newton Farm and a footpath through crop fields on very sticky clay, through tall grass still wet from early morning storms.  Here we saw a roe deer, only visible when it bounded up above the level of the corn, and also a lot of borage, perhaps from a previous crop.  At the road we had to turn even further from the coast to gain the B1242, quite busy with fast traffic.  After a couple of kilometres we followed a quiet side road east to Hilston, with a view of the strange “Admiral Storr’s Tower” in the middle of a field on our left and a large church surrounded by only a few large houses.  One had remarkably modern statues outside of things like a policeman with a speed detector, or a policewoman with an Alsatian and a gorilla.  The road continued to the coast, but was closed at the end because it turned along the coast too close to the cliff edge.  The concrete bollards here served as adequate seats for us to have our lunch with a view of the sea, which was a rather muddy brown from all the sediment that has been washed down in the last few weeks’ storms.  The road south gradually diverged from the coast and was then open to traffic again, but an unkempt wet path led across a rough field to the cliff edge and to a path (at last) along the cliff top all the way to Tunstall, or at least that part of the village that was by the sea, which appeared now to lack the pub and public conveniences marked on the map, either washed away or destroyed, leaving only a decrepit boatyard.  The ramp down to the sea here, where there had been a break in the cliffs, was largely destroyed, but we were just able to climb down, through masses of debris, chunks of fallen cliff and concrete sea-defence blocks like dice thrown randomly over the foreshore.  Sticky flows of mud ran down over the sand, but we gradually left this desolation behind and had an easy walk along clean sand with angular pebbles.  The latter were washed from the cliffs, and there was absolutely no deposition by the sea here – no seashells, seaweed, or crabs.  The sea only took away and did not give.  There were not even any seabirds here and the only heron we saw was flying away.  There followed an easy walk all the way to the tiny resort of Withernsea, with a white lighthouse tower so far inland it could hardly be glimpsed from the coast!  Here on a side road from the front we found a good comforting café (AJ’s) providing home-made ice-cream, cakes and coffee. The facilities in Withernsea were kept away from the front promenade, giving it a clean look.
 
 
Tunstall's eroding cliffs
 
 
Withernsea lighthouse
 
 
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