Early start but not as early as sunrise, but earlier than most people. First stop Fraisthorpe to find that mist and high tide was covering much of what we came to see.
The sea and the sky looked pretty much the same...
High tide had left very little beach. The high tide line was full of stuff that shouldn't be there. Some stuff had washed up...
And some has washed down...
This is one of the fasted eroding coastlines in the country. The first picture is of pillboxes that were built on the top of the cliffs.
Onward to Barmston, and a glimpse of sun...
The cliff tops (they are quite small cliffs by Flamborough standards, but they are cliffs and you wouldn't want to fall down them or to have them fall on you) were full of wild flowers and were sopping wet with the dew from the mist.
Knowing the state of the cliffs the left hand track has to be accompanied with "Do you feel lucky?" The sea reaches up to the bottom of the cliffs even on a calm day. The tide was receding slightly by now and ringed plover and knot made use of the land available...
Terns were still fishing out to sea, but mostly out of range of the lens.
In the distance a caravan site can be seen clinging to the cliff top...
Inland, Barmston Main Drain made a lush and peaceful contrast...
The coast here has has been re-inforced with large boulders stacked against the cliff to protect, presumably, the sea end of the drain where the control sluices are. As ever with sea defences in this area the cliffs to the south dip in sharply.
There were some strange pink flowers, about 3ft tall looking a bit like comfrey and a bit like foxgloves. Any ideas..
One of the inland pill boxes now sports a punk hairdo...
As the tide went down we could move along the beach but you could see cracks in the cliff...
Sometimes strange soft caves form in the cliffs...
To the north, Bridlington was still in a haze...
Tank traps and pill boxes started to emerge from the (very little) waves...
Maybe I'll collect a few pebbles for the pond, only what will fit in my pockets..
From the cliff top the view to the south west is dominated by the wind farm at Lisset...
A dog walker in conversation with Mrs D remarked that it was possible to walk around the pylons. So it was off to Lisset we went. On the Gransmoor Road there is a memorial to the crews (flight and ground) that lost their lives in the war and an explanation of the names of the turbines.
Driving through the optimistically named Industrial Estate the road led to a farm and then out on to the airfield. From childhood right up to the 70s there were old airfields where you could let children drive the car, where novice drivers learnt their first maneouvers and where you could build up speed on the runways pretending to be planes. I thought they had all gone. I was also expecting that these turbines would be be behind barbed wire, but no the airfield, all 2 sq km of it was there to explore, and we were the only people in it..
I had wondered about the complaints made about the noise made by these turbines, but I could confirm that they were absolutely silent. Mind, they were not moving and every so often a breath of wind would be met with a strangely old fashioned creak like a sailing ship or a proper old windmill..
Photographing such monsters from close up felt like quite a challenge...
That's me trying to get an angle.
Having walked around these machines for a bit, peacefull, at rest, I warmed to them a bit. Somehow it seems right for them to be on this airfield, propellors still turning (sometimes), as a tribute to the crews that were here before.
Mind you I can still see them from the top of Londesborough Hill, 19 miles away, and these things are sprouting up all over the place.
The old guard house for the airfield is still standing (just) and served for some time as a village hall...
Finally there was going to be a brief sound of the sea, but I couldn't get it to load. Maybe another time.
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