Finding lots of different things to do on the beach in cooler weather. We play with driftwood; make dams across little streams; draw in the sand; stamp on lugworm coils; follow tracks and finally, make sandcastles.
Friday 28 February. Sunny. 10°C
It’s a beautiful day and we’re going to the beach. It’s officially only about 10°C but if feels warmer. We’re not taking much with us, I decide against digging into the summer beach bag. I reckon we’ll see what we find and take it from there. We wear wellies and go ready to paddle but the tide is out. The tidal range where we live is big and the sea is a distant thing at the end of lots of muddy quicksand so we look for other things to do.
Driftwood
The beach is covered in driftwood ranging in size from small bits to massive tree skeletons. Someone amazing has created a brilliant, massive driftwood structure (it feels too fancy to call it a ‘den’) in the middle of the beach. Possibly aware we can’t live up to the standard this sets we look for other things to do with it. We head to the big tree skeletons and climb and walk along them. B gets fascinated with how the logs interact with the sand and tries digging them in to get them more secure and less wobbly. Then she tries interconnecting several to see what happens.
Streams and dams
Halfway down the beach there’s a stream being formed from water flowing under a rock. It’s made a metre wide and twenty centimetre or so deep channel and is flowing briskly out, across the muddy sand, towards the sea. With our wellies on there’s lots of possibilities. I like walking down it and watching the way the water ripples. B has a more practical approach.
“Let’s make a dam”. She’s thinking of the Bluey episode where it rains. She tries holding the water back with her feet but it’s too wide so we go in search of the right size driftwood. We find a few good pieces and come back to see what happens when we block the flow. B works hard trying to stop the water getting round the wood. It still does of course. It’s more than a match for her and her restrictions make lovely new patterns to the flow. Eventually she does a good enough job that the edges of the little river start to be pushed back. At one point a little crab gets washed past us and we chase it but it buries itself back in the sand.
Using a stick to draw pictures in the sand and make little streams.
As well as the big bits of wood we find some shorter sticks perfect for making sand pictures. B writes her name first of course. This feels traditional. She does some really big B’s and L’s for the blog but they’re a bit too big to photograph. I do a bee and a butterfly. B then realises that she can make little rivers in the sand by using the stick to make a deep line in the direction of the sea. There’s lots of water everywhere and it immediately uses the channel to run faster.
Looking for animal and bird tracks
We finally find ourselves, after the less than total success of challenge 321 (looking for animal and bird tracks in the mud) in a position to spot tracks in the sand. We start with our footmarks, then we spot the feet of a much younger child, the pattern dancing away, and lots of dogs and try following them. Finally, I challenge B to find bird tracks. This is much harder. The little birds are maybe too light to leave any. She finally succeeds by the simple method of spotting a seagull walking up and down and stalking it.
Stamping on lugworm coils and playing with sink sand
The sand itself gives us lots of opportunities too. There are lugworms around and the distinctive little coils of sand they leave behind are all over the beach. B stamps them down and tries a new kind of ‘the floor is lava’ leaping from one to the other. We also find sinking sand and B has fun testing it, wiggling her feet further in and seeing if she can get herself properly stuck. I’m keeping her away from the properly sinky mud we’ve been warned about further out towards the sea.
Building sand castles
Finally we end up obtaining a small bucket and spade that came free with our chip lunch and spend the last half hour or so making a sand castle. B has big ideas but we are limited by time and equipment. We resolve to do a proper big sandcastle challenge soon.
It’s a lovely day. The weather helps a huge amount. It’s the first time doing the challenge where we’ve literally stayed out all day, far longer than we meant too. We get back late and knackered having had lots of fresh air and sun. I’m not sure I’d fully realised how much there is to do on beaches when it’s colder. It might well be the most fun we’ve ever had on a beach. There was a freedom about not worrying about sunburn and changing in and out of swimming clothes and we were able to do far more than we normally would. We will definitely return for sandcastles soon.
305 – Back to the beach for sandcastles…
Sunday 2 March. Sunny. 11°C
We return even sooner than I expected. B had a really good time on the beach and feels there is unfinished sandcastle business so two days later we find ourselves back in the same place at Barry Island. It’s low tide again but B doesn’t care. We’ve raided the garage this time and are equipped with two spades, a bucket, a fancy castle building bucket which includes a rampart and two flower pots.
A helpful dog has dug up a huge amount of sand by where we settle and it’s really helpful. We worked out on Friday that the sand is best for building nearest the sea wall (it was a bit too wet further down) so we find a spot right by the wall and B gets started making ramparts and using the plant pots to do a big middle section. We use our hands to make a big 305 in front. Then we finally make the long trek out to the sea, finding ravens and practicing our wave jumping skills.
It’s been a bit of revelation to me our two beach days. We both really enjoyed mucking about and appreciated that it was cooler and no risk of sunburn or heatstroke. I suspect we’ll be back for more beach challenges quite soon.
