Frozen Beaches...

Saturday and our coastline was frozen solid!, as well as everywhere else gripped by a bitter cold caused by a Northerly wind. last week daytime temperatures were up to 3C but if felt colder than the -6C of the previous week with it being damp.
by Thursday everything froze which was good as it has dried the ground out.
The snow forecasted was moved forward each day but this morning (Sunday) we have a fresh coating of a few inches...
Yesterday i rode along the coast at Longniddry bents.Down through the woods the ground was solid and frozen leaves and frozen snow out of the sunlight crunched under the tyres...

I bet these fellows are warm in there thick coats!

Onto the coast at Gosford bay and lumps of ice line the tide line,its freshwater from the numerous burns that exit into the sea...



Riding around to Ferny Ness point and the well preserved WW2 coastal defence anti-tank blocks...you can follow them all the way east and west along the coast here though many are nearly buried in sand.


Onto the sand and it was frozen solid!, this dog was enjoying it and there was little if any footprints left from these horses...


Onto the John Muir Way which runs above the coast and this is a lovely mile or so of sandy singletrack trail.

Frozen solid and about a foot wide it was rolling fast here and i filmed this bit on my return.Further on is a section of trail which once was a path along tops of sand dunes and has been covered by Sea Buck thorn, a thorn covered invasive plant with its bright orange berries which gives it its nickname by children of `the baked bean tree` i did a bit film riding along here using the helmet camera as it was rolling fast being frozen although ice in places the Pugsley just ate it up...
Music is by Zero 7, a band i recently came across via friend Mike...



Onto the rock solid sand of Seaton Sands-below the famous holiday camps and i found this on the tideline,must have been a duck race in the summer-maybe on the River Esk which Estuary is a few miles west along the coast on the County boundry,
No 921 i have your Duck!

At a small burn are lots of shells,dont know why they are all in one place here,maybe the currents,

And there was alot of ice from the burn, looks amazing!

Returning i rode the full lenght of beach at the tide line and below the Golf Course and coast road at this point once was a diving pier,Victorians encouraged Sea Bathing
as believed to improve health-oh they did this naked in Winter!, jeez imagine that today at -3Celsius!


It was cold enough today just cycling and i had the full kit on minus paclites and thicker gloves...

There is always alot of wildlife along the coast here,today on the shoreline was Oyster Catchers,Mallerd,Wigon,Curlew,a Cormorant,and alot of smaller waders...


Getting near Hightide...

Although not that high tide levels this now as usually its up to the tank blocks i looked for a way through the Sea Buckthorn at the East end of Ferny Ness as an alternative to the JMW trail and raking about i found this!,never knew it was here...

Its a WW2 Spigot Mortar which was part of the Coastal Defences of WW2,
a solid steel tube about 7 inches tall with a thick steel base set into a big lump of concrete, the Mortar would slot onto it and then be set up to hit the main Road, about 75 Yards away from here.
In the event of an Invasion enemy troops moving inland along Roads would have been shelled with these at strategic road points like on Hills-as here on the Coast Road and narrow bottle necks where Vehicles would have been slowed down, No one i have sent this too knew there was one here,there are a couple more on the old A1 near East Linton and on Pencraig Hill, Great finding stuff like this!...
time to head to see the folks via the woods again...a great couple of hours spent on the coast...

And this morning we have a winter wonderland again,

Here we go again! a White Christmas?