In a change to the original task scheduled we instead went to the seaside
for the day!
The third weekend of September has become a traditional time to go to the
coast and do a bit of tidying up. The Marine Conservation Society has been
organising it's Beachwatch event for some 18 years now and we've been
joining in for quite a few years now. The official public event organised by
Natural England was at 2:00pm but wanting to use our visit to maximum
benefit we also arranged to do a litter pick all of our own in the morning
from Mablethorpe North End up the beach and sand dunes to the southern
boundary of the Saltfleetby-Theddlethorpe National Nature Reserve.
Meeting time was 10:00am in the North End car park and we started well by
having tea and coffee before commencing work just to set us up for the task
in hand. Natural England supplied all the bin bags and litter pickers for us
to use. It was a bit grey and overcast when we began but the clouds soon
blew away and it changed into a glorious sunny day on the coast. This
resulted in some in promptu bathing by Laura and Jonathan who just couldn't
resist such an opportunity and the next thing we knew they were in the sea!
We carried on litter picking up the beach and soon filled approximately 20
bags with assorted cans, bottles and all the usual detritus found at tourist
hot spots. The worst area, no surprises, was near the beach cafe.
We then broke off for a relaxed picnic style lunch following which some of
us paid a quick visit to the adjoining Mablethorpe Seal Sanctuary. You can
see some of the residents splashing about in their pools without actually
paying to go in so that was an added bonus.
We then headed north up the coast to join in with the Official Beachwatch
event organised by Natural England at the Crook Bank entrance to the site.
The weather remained glorious and the sea air invigorating and a fairly
leisurely couple of hours of more litter picking ensued. Noticeably not as
much litter as when we 'picked' this same stretch two years ago. And hardly
any larger objects - fish boxes, fishing nets fridge doors and the like.
Which was strangely disappointing in a way but perhaps it might be a sign
that the message about not dropping marine litter is getting through to the
people who matter. That's the ones who drop it! We worked down the beach to
a post at the southern edge of the reserve that we had we worked up to in
the morning, so we knew that we'd cleared that whole stretch of coast from
Crook Bank down to Mablethorpe North End and turned it into a litter free
zone. Which was nice.
We
then enjoyed some good hospitality at the home of some local people, Sarah
and Nick, who had also been involved with the litter pick and enjoyed
delicious home made soup, bread, puddings and herbal tea and lots of talk of
permaculture, conservation and wildlife. And undercover as the rain began to
fall. Very civilised and a nice finale to a perfect day.
Richard