On to the Sea
The path, now lined with pink campions and cow parsley opened up onto grassy dunes and we found ourselves walking on sand. The tall feathery reed heads on our right glowed in the late afternoon sun and a lone purple columbine grew amongst the sparsely spaced bracken. Today the sea was a rich blue and we could soon see Church Rock and it's amazing steeple. There were few people on the beach and we only stayed long enough to photograph the picture postcard view and some viper's bugloss Mark had found growing out of the warm rocks. Heading back the way we had come we now noticed some very low growing rose burnet and spotted a few marsh orchids, once again we were escorted by a damsel fly, this time a lovely turquoise colour. As we left the dunes and dense reed beds a cormorant alighted leaving perfect halos of silver shimmering in the water.
We strolled back lazily, stopping and starting with all the wonderful sights along the way to take photographs. As we arrived back at Western Arm bridge we had one last surprise; a moorhen was tentatively walking on top of the broad lily leaves pecking at plants and insects with it's red, yellow tipped bill within feet of us. It had been a great afternoon and it was late. The short two mile walk had taken us almost four hours and the tea rooms were closed, pity but we were more than content.
