The thing I really did miss when in lockdown was the sea. I live about a 40 minute drive from the sea, but when you can’t just nip there, it becomes a problem. 

I’ve always been lucky enough to go to the seaside regularly, my parents always took us on holiday to the seaside. I’ve some really fond memories of those times by the sea. Fish and chips, the sand, and my sister taunting me with crabs freshly caught from the boating pool at Scarborough.

For some strange reason the lure of the sea got the better of me this weekend and I did drive out to the sea. I tried to think of places to go that I’d not been before and the results of the trips are in this blog.

Arnside

Why did I pick Arnside? Until Friday I’d never really heard of it, but I’m glad I have now, it’s a cracking place. I was originally looking for a Lighthouse, but I’ve been to Plover Scar before and decided I wanted a seascape. So rather than resort to Youtube, I fired up Apple maps and asked it for a lighthouse. The results are as I expected but what I saw pricked my imagination, Arnside. It wasn’t quite The Lake District, but it was the next best thing. It was decided.

The backpack was loaded into the car and a few butties for sustenance and off I went. The weather was truly awful, I drove up the M61 through a torrential downpour but I could see lighter skies in the distance. 

As I drove into the town (I think it’s a town) I was delighted to see a promenade, of sorts, and parking bays. I pulled up in a spot right by the water, this was exactly what I was after. One thing that takes your eye straight away is the viaduct across the estuary, a few clicks on my phone told me it was a railway viaduct, but it looked the part. The first image is principally about the viaduct, but because of the view, has turned into a grand vista of a shot. 

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Clearly the tide was out as I could see the sandbanks off out into the estuary, but the water of the River Kent was flowing inwards towards the viaduct so I needed to get on with it. The great thing about low tide is the differing things you find each time you walk. There are narrow little pools that create lovely small channels carrying the water from the hills surrounding the town out into the estuary. 

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Taking in the surroundings and you clearly get a sense that you are not far away from the fells of The Lake District. In fact, the other side of the estuary stands Grange Over Sands, which in my book is The Lake District. In the far distance you can clearly see some of the southern fells (my geography) and I decided that I would be visiting The Lake District sooner rather than later.

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For regular readers and watchers of my site you will know that I can’t resist a good stone wall, dry stone or otherwise. I decided to explore the other side of Arnside as the rain started to come down quite heavily at this point. As I drove along the narrow coastroad I came across a lovely pub, and a nice big car park with no cars in it. I pulled over and decided to eat lunch. As I waited and ate the rain stopped, so I took the opportunity to take a few images handheld rather than on the tripod. The good thing about this is being able to get into places to take images you wouldn’t be able to with a tripod, and you guessed it………. stone walls!

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From the vantage point in the car park I could see across to the fells in the distance and managed to grab a few images of the fells with some of the lovely grasses that grow alongside the river. This is a lovely spot and one that I will definitely be coming back to. The rain forced me back into the car.

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Thurstaston Beach

Sometimes talking to people can be a great source of the good places to visit, and a shout out must go here to my work colleague Bill. On one of our work calls we spoke of the weekends activities and Bill mentioned he and his family had been to Thurstaston beach, he even had a photograph to show me. I few clicks and Apple maps told me this was on the Wirral and only a 40 minute drive. Another plan was hatched.

I’ve spent a good deal of time in Wales throughout my life (mainly North Wales) and it’s about time that I visit again. However, we must respect the Welsh governments approach to lockdown and I will only visit when they say it’s safe to do so. I suspect that the hoards will flock there as soon as they say its open, but I will bide my time. 

I guess you could say that this beach was a little fix for my Welsh itch, as you can see Wales across the estuary, the time is approaching. The walk from the car park was slightly more adventurous than I’d anticipated, as it’s a narrow path and steps through a small wooded area, but most people respect social distancing and we worked out the handshaking of getting people up and down off the beach.

There is lots to see along this lovely stretch of beach and a recurring theme is emerging of places I need to visit again and explore. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted an abandoned small boat, so I headed off in that direction. As you’d expect of such a thing it’s taken a bit of a battering from both the elements and some of the locals, but it makes a good subject for a wider shot of the bay.

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One thing that struck me about this beach is the abundance of small rocks and boulders that litter the beach, and these make for cracking foreground interest for a number of images. The two here are looking out towards the Welsh coastline taking advantage of the rocks in the foreground. I’ve recently been researching how best to use a polariser when taking images of water and it certainly helps reduce the glare that you can get off the water, and make the colours stand out more. 

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I looked around and noticed that there were a number of small boats that are moored out in the estuary, but as the tide was out they had come to rest on the sand. There were quite a lot of these but it’s not a good idea to walk out to far onto wet sand, so the images here are from a short distance off the shoreline but the squelching underfoot told me I’d gone as far as I dare.

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I’m sure dotted around coastlines all over the country are small pieces of debris that have fallen off ships, or maybe are bits of the boats themselves. This particular piece was resting in a small pool of water, and it looked a good candidate for the use of a ND filter, to slow the shutter speed and try to smooth out the moving water. It was incredibly windy at this point but I’m rather pleased with the result.

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Dotted all the way along this beach are areas of grass, not quite dunes but not quite a bowling green either!! The rain had finally arrived, so I beat a hasty retreat back to the car park.     

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