Wanna come on a walk with me and Astrid around the southern tip of Walney Island?

This is what our parking spot looked like when we arrived (we did park on this side of the gate, obviously).

I find the salt marshes so impressive — all that grass that gets flooded every 12 hours! At low tide I keep taking pictures of crabs and little sea critters that got stranded in grass.

But very nicely visible how important the grass is for coastal protection: Waves get dampened out pretty quickly if they are running through grass!

But let’s start walking. See the high tide lines on the beach? Great markers of some of the last high waters. This kind of stuff — parallel lines in the sand, mirroring the water line — looks very calming to me!

In the South Walney Nature Reserve, there are several hides where you can sit and bird (or seal) watch, or enjoy the shade or shelter. They are so lovingly done, and all include information about the wildlife to be observed. One even has an exhibition of the different sands found in different locations around the island!

…and about other stuff found on the beach: beach shingle, rabbit poo and cow dung! I love this!

Moving on, we got closer to the lighthouse, which, unfortunately, isn’t open to the public any more. Just imagine the kinds of views you would get from up there!

And then, as we were approaching another hide (the red cabin in the picture below), I spotted something else that held me captivated for the better part of an hour. And I don’t mean the seals frolicking in the sea! Can you spot it?

Here is a closer look. Do you see what is going on there?

I’ll publish a blogpost with the explanation later today (it just got too much to put into one post), so stay tuned if you want to look more closely at the water with me!

Walking back, here is a view of an old castle ruin across the bay. See the now exposed salt marshes and gullies?

And here we are, back where we started. Go back to the picture up top of this same gate — isn’t it amazing that all this grassland was flooded only a couple of hours earlier, and will be flooded again in just a couple of hours? I am so used to seeing the german Wadden Sea coast where low tide exposes nothing more but mud…