Bank Holiday Weekend, and all my friends are busy. I spend the Saturday pondering what to do with the next couple of days, and since I’ve not been to the coast since last year, I decided that I’d take a leaf out of fellow blogger Steve’s book and get up early and go to the beach. However, I live in Northamptonshire, which if you’re any good at geography you’ll know is nowhere near the coast. My aim was to sit on the beach and watch the sun rise. I love doing that, nothing is more therapeutic in my opinion. To do this meant getting up at the time on a Sunday morning when I’m normally going to bed! I left the house at three, and was on the beach at Brancaster in Norfolk by half past five. It was magical. A freshness in the air you don’t normally associate with August and complete isolation.
I’d taken my camera with me with the aim of taking a photo of the groynes there with the sun rising behind them, but they face the wrong way and the tide was out anyway. I did take a photo of them and played with it in photoshop but it’s not the photo I wanted. (makes mental note to remember which way the sun rises next time…!) I then turned my attention to the dunes and the tufty grass growing there, which I have to say didnt look that exciting while I was sat there, but when I got home and opened the files it proved to have been a good idea. I love the way the only set of tracks in this photo are mine where I’ve walked over from the groynes. This beach is packed normally, so to be the only one there is special.
After I’d left the beach I had decided to go along the coast road a bit to find some fishing boats. I never made it! I drove past this windmill, and happened to catch in my rear view mirror how the sun was making the top of the windmill glow, and against the still dark clouds it looked amazing. I had to stop. I turned round when I could and went back, but the only place I could park was tucked in behind another car, in a cramped gateway. I assumed the owner of the other car was out walking his dog… it wasn’t until I got into the field that I realised I was wrong, he was also in the field, with all his camera gear, having driven past and done a double take just like I had!
