The joys of rockpools, tides, shells and wildlife on beaches that are not sandy ones. On a visit to Sully Island we play with the tide (safely) and find a crab in a rockpool.
243 – Waiting for the tide to go out
Saturday 3 May. Sunny & cloudy. 18°C
We’re out for an adventure today. We’re going to cross to Sully Island. I’m very aware of the dangers of this one. It’s an island completely cut off at high tide and, with the second highest tides in the world, it can be a scary place. So we check the tides first and get there about three hours after high tide. You still can’t cross but you almost can and this works rather well.
B hares off across the rocks to where the crossing will be and the fact it’s inaccessible makes her want to cross more than anything else. While we wait, there are rockpools and barnacle encrusted stones to discover. There are lots and lots of winkles everywhere. I remember being made to eat them as a child, digging them out of their shells with a pin – B is definitely NOT going to do this. A fisherman tries to cross in long waders and clearly finds it hard going. The water is up to his thighs and is moving fast. I suggest we head back to the beach for a bit to wait.
As we head back another group of fisherman pass us going the other way and B suddenly screams “you can cross, you can cross!”. She’s right. In about ten minutes it’s gone from thigh high scariness to a path with no water on. B’s determined to beat the fisherman to the other side. She can’t be first (the foolhardy first crosser has disappeared around the cliff) but she WILL. BE. SECOND! They’ve got about twenty metres ahead now but she dashes round to the side, finding a wetter, longer route but speeding to get there first.
Once there, we cross the rocky beach to see if we can get up to the grassy headland but it’s too overgrown and there are nettles everywhere. Our bare legs feel vulnerable and after a bit of exploring we give up and play on the stones instead. B is making ‘makka pakka’ towers again. She averages around 14 stones per tower and leaves them scattered around the beach. Then she starts finding shells.
There are lots of winkle shells, some with a mother of pearl type coating, and she learns how to check if they’re inhabited or not (look, see if it was stuck to a rock, hope for the best). She also finds lots of limpit shells and a few whelk shells. We didn’t know what either of those were but found a handy countryfile website when we get home. She also finds a detached crab leg which is her pride and joy.
We head back over the rockpools and she’s looking in all of them now to see what she can find. Something scuttles under a rock and she calls for me to move it (she could but she’s scared). We lift it up and a little crab dashes for the safety of some seaweed. We head back to the beach totally victorious.
It’s a really successful afternoon and I’m slightly amazed. We tried crossing with B a few years ago and it was fun but a lot slower and felt like a very big day. The speed with which she mastered the slippy rocks and the evident enjoyment battling the tides makes me determined to find more challenging adventures to try.
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