Apparently it is always cooler by the sea where the breeze is cooled by the water. With this in mind I set off to explore a new location on the North Lincolnshire coast. The advantage of this was that my car has effective air conditioning so I would stay cool for most of the day as I navigated my way from deepest Yorkshire.
My location of choice was a place called Horse Shoe Point an Site of Special Scientific Interest between Cleethorpes and Donna Nook. The idea was to park up and pop down to the beach for high tide but as usual with a new location things didn’t go to plan. I set off in a south easterly direction across the grass and across a couple of small dykes as I wanted to get to an area that had a lot of small tributaries and outlets to the sea. However, the dykes got bigger and wider so that eventually I was unable to cross over any of them. I had to turn back to the car park.
I then set off in a north easterly direction following a well defined track but I soon discovered that this was following the dunes and wasn’t going to lead to the sea. Heading due east towards the tankers moored offshore I crossed a very well established salt pan with little patches of vegetation and indentations where the spring tides and wind had left their mark.
After half an hour of solid walking (hot day) I realised that I still wasn’t getting close to the shoreline. I checked my location on Googly maps and realised that I had hardly made any progress across the sand at all and the tide was now going out. The tankers were as far away in the distance as when I had set off and I hadn’t even seen the sea! I decided to stop as I worked out that if I carried on I was going to need more water than I had with me. It was baking hot and there was absolutely no shade anywhere. The decision was a no brainer.
I took a few photos to show the barren landscape before turning round and returning to the car. It certainly is a compelling place but on a really hot day it is too easy to overheat and get into trouble. I won’t be adding Horse Shoe Point to my list of coastal locations when I want to photograph waves or the shoreline but it is ideal for peace and bird life.
PS. I would be grateful to anyone that can tell me what made the little footprints in the final photo.
