Monday, August 11, 2003
Seaside trip number two then...Brigitte, myself, Alicia, Les, Emma, Nickie and Richard... that's two carloads of (allegedly) adult kids piled into two cars and headed off to Hunstanton, Norfolk, on the English east coast.
After the mostly shingle beaches of Devon, Hunstanton beach was a revelation... miles of sand... perfect :-)
After lazing in the sun on what was the hottest day ever recorded in Britain (100 degrees f) we swam (or paddled in my case) in what turned out to be a very warm sea, and then set to making a rather impressive sand castle.
Now, while we were doing this, something very strange happened.
There'd been a nice gentle sea breeze from the moment we got there, just perfect as it stopped us from completely frying under the blazing sun... however, a sudden almost gale force wind blew up out of no-where. I don't mean a sudden brief gust... I mean a continuous very powerful blast of cold air that lasted for maybe a couple of minutes.
Lots of people including myself were quite startled, never having experienced such a thing, and in all seriousness, I looked out to sea half expecting to see an incoming tsunami or tidal wave. Umrellas, wind-breaks, hats, beach towels and anything else not tied down were sent flying and I was hit full on by a very large umbrella.
Needless to say, there was no tsunami, no comet striking the sea, no nuclear strike or any other scary event. All I can conclude is that as the tide turned and started coming back in, it must have pushed a front of cold air back inland which was amplified by the very large cove that forms The Wash... the bay we were in.
The wierdness didn't end there though. The colder water coming in with the tide joining the very warm water, coupled with the now stronger sea breeze combined to form a very thick mist or even fog, transforming the scene from this scene of sun drenched beach to this scene of foggy confusion.
The fog kept coming in waves of cold air and wind for a couple of hours, almost untill the tide was at it's highest, and then things settled back to a more normal sun drenched afternoon/evening.
Weirdness aside, we all had a great and chilled out day, one we'll hopefully repeat on a fairly regular basis. The place is probably the closest piece of coastline to us and well worth the two hour drive.
Steve 5:43 PM [+]
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