Coasting

A gentle stroll along the beach towards Hunstanton cliffs:

The tide along this stretch of coast goes out a long way - it certainly seemed so to my four-year-old legs when I wanted to go for a paddle all those years ago!

There's always plenty of things to look for on the endless sands, even if it's only a strangely patterned rock lying on the ripples left by the departing tide.

Besides the gulls there were a few other seabirds around - Oystercatchers, Curlews, Redshanks, Bar-Tailed Godwits, Ringed Plovers and even an inquisitive Little Egret. But all of them too far away for photographs and some may even have been nesting, high up on the shingle, in a fenced-off area. Terns flew noisily overhead. 

I never tire of seeking out the strange patterns left by the tide.

There was plenty of standing water to splash through as we neared Hunstanton with its lighthouse standing proud on the chalk cliffs. We had thought of going further, but the beach was getting more and more populated. How about an ice-cream?

Luckily there's a place at the edge of Old Hunstanton, down among the beach huts and appropriately named "Old Town Beach Café". A school party was being shown around the lifeboat station.....

So we fled to walk between the beach huts. These little wooden shacks are used by families to store their beach equipment - deckchairs, windbreaks, buckets and spades. They don't look as though they've been used much over the last year and a few were being repainted and repaired. I can spend a long time photographing these colourful little buildings, but not today!

At this time of year there are wild flowers to be enjoyed among the dunes and we can follow the dune-slacks all the way back. One of the beauties of the North Norfolk coastline is that you can often follow either the beach or an alternative route slightly inland.

The little blue flowers are Harebells and that's one of the Hawkweeds shining amongst them like a yellow sun in summer skies. 

This dandy is the caterpillar of the red and black Cinnabar Moth. The caterpillar dines voraciously on Ragwort, a poisonous plant to many creatures. The poison doesn't kill the caterpillar though, but builds up in its tiny body and makes it taste disgusting to any bird that is foolish enough not to be put off by its bright colours. Not only that but the poison remains when the caterpillar turns into the moth, which is likewise protected from predators. The only problem in the Cinnabar Moth's world is that there's a campaign to eradicate Ragwort which happens to also be poisonous to horses.

I somehow neglected to photograph the Pyramidal Orchids but did find this beauty: Marsh Helleborine. It is actually an orchid too and a rather pretty one to my eye.

The path led on through the dunes. Although you only see the occasional insect, if you stop for a moment you realise that there's a constant drone from the little pollinators going about their business.

More Harebells, glowing as they are backlit by the noonday sun.

Orange Hawkbit (or Tawny Hawkweed or Fox-And-Cubs or Flora's Paintbrush or Devil's Paintbrush or Golden Mouse-Ear or Missionary Weed or Red Daisy or Grim-The-Collier) is unmistakeable as it's the only bright orange flower that grows wild in the UK. It's not really native to these shores but has been here for many years.

And this is called Sea Holly, for reasons which should be obvious. I rather like Sea Holly. And now we're nearly back to where we started.

Of course, if you prefer walking on grass to wandering through drifts of wildflowers, you could move a little further inland, pay your subscription and walk here. It's the local golf course. Each to his own.

Take care.