Some of the time the girls listened and asked questions and at other times, I was prompted to ask them questions, but for most of the time they played quietly amongst themselves, but this did not avoid the perennial question: “Are we nearly there yet?” But it arrived very late in the journey.
It took a bit of finding, but we were soon parked up and gathered everything (almost including the kitchen sink!) and set off for the 400yd walk through the sandy-floored forest path before descending steps to the vast open, gently sloping sandy beach. The gusty wind blew scudding clouds across the open sky. The girls had thought it a good idea to place all their belongings into one long bag, but it soon became obvious this was not such a brilliant idea, so it was split once again and instead of being half-dragged across the sand each had a small rucksack and a bag each, and the going became smoother.
We walked across the vast flat sand keeping mainly to paths that criss-crossed this are towards the far dunes and scrubby tussocks of hardy grass. Even after this trudge the sea was still distant on the horizon – a mass of white horses from the wind. We chose a spot in a small dell, but the wind blew sand across regardless. The girls took no time pulling everything out of their bags and rucksacks, and because wind was not in short supply out came two kites.
The first was a two-stringed one that supposedly meant it was more controllable, my take as an observer was it simply added to the complexity when trying to prevent it nosediving! After a while out came the smaller, less impressive single-string model, at first it seemed equally prone to nosediving, but it did handle slightly better. I noted that it consistently turned towards the green side, so I took it from the girls and since they had brought Sellotape with them I found a small flat stone and took a stab at where to stick it on the yellow panel, and handed it back – this time it soared aloft without any hesitation!
The pilots still managed to crash it in the gusty wind, and this meant I became a rigger; Kite Maintenance Engineer. I forgot to mention that earlier this kite was also missing a cross spar, so I suggested we find a small twig or somesuch that we might press into service, and soon a perfectly bowed dried piece of wood exactly the right size was found - perfect.
Both girls also went down to a strip of water just short of the sea that had a few starfish that had become beached on the dry sand, so several of these were rescued and taken to the water. I noticed how as the wind got up it was lifting the dry sand and it was forming wisps a few inches above the surface, this sand could cover footprints and trainers in short order. So much so that Catherine checked and found buried socks the girls had taken off earlier.
I tried capturing shots of the black-headed gulls and oystercatchers that were there, but only had success with the gulls.
It was a fabulous day that we had, but it could have been better had the cold wind been a little less gusty and strong. The barbecue we had planned took place back at home!
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