Exploration day 2; Isle of Sheppey coast line - a stretch of natural erosion

 

We followed a path and it stopped; the rest was some feet beneath, still visible, grass still growing and the trees still attempting a stunted continuation.

But I get ahead of myself. We aimed to travel round the coastline, preferably not leaving any areas out, but that proved to be a little more difficult than we imagined.

Quite a few roads have now vanished into the sea and those which were still functional were un-metalled roads which were privately owned so we couldn't get down them, so it became a process of elimination more than a continuation.

Our first stop was something which had intrigued the pair of us for some time on a map we had; a radar station which was from the last war. A picture of it taken not that long ago, revealed it as still standing albeit rather derelict and we wanted to get there ourselves to have a general nose [as you do].

Mm, easier said than done and our mission became thwarted by the roads and a map which for some reason didn't show what we needed [obviously not that ordinance survey map then].

section from our OS map of the area we were using
 

We found one mast, rather modern and bristling with cellphone masts. Just behind it is the modern radar station for the coastline; something of great importance I would imagine with all the shipping and the shifting sands round this area. 

 not quite what we were looking for but it was a start.

Whilst hunting for a road a spotted a large and very imposing manor house of some kind. It was close to where we were but I knew we wouldn't be exploring today. It looked very old from the size and shape of the chimneys  and it took us a while to work out it was probably Shurland Hall, an important building which is part of the Tudor Trail.

[https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1015681]

The above link will take you to all the history of the place if you are interested in it to any great depth. It also shows an excerpt from a map which also shows where we were hunting, Eastchurch, Sheppey.

Giving up the radar hunt we came to the decision we would go into Warden and park up on the extreme edge of the town at the Cliff Drive car park [which is free] and see just how far back towards Minster we could walk without it being cut off by the caravan holiday parks which populate this area.

As we climbed up Cliff Drive, next to the cliffs, we noted several houses being built within a gnats of the erosion and wondered who in their right minds would buy homes here [?] and there were a lot of them. Most I would park there would be a camper with a well maintained engine, tyres and suspension, plus a Jerry can of fuel ready for when the went alarm to go off!

climbing to the top Cliff  Drive, we could see right out and it revealed just how exposed this part of the island is. The winds whipped across and were pushing the sea into the cliffs below. Even on a calm day the undercutting would be relentless.

 

taking a diversion off Cliff Road we took a scenic route through the woods next to the cliffs. The wood itself is made up of  swathes of cow parsley underpinning hawthorn bushes which have matured to their full size and resemble small trees. The sea sounds very close and as we walked along we could feel the angle of the ground as it began to sink sideways and become victim to the next storm.

sometimes my brain just says, "NO" and this was one of them. As we followed the well trodden path we came to a small dip in the ground and then a magnificent sea view. I stood stock still, this was as far as I was prepared to go and I knew instinctively this was the next area to slip gently down the slope into the jaws of the sea beneath. I would suggest if you follow our tracks look out for these shallow dips in the ground, they invariably indicate the next weak point in the ground, the point at which land slip will occur, and probably quite soon. I suspect if we went back along this path in a month or two this view would be gone.

The wooded area began to snake around the back of Warden Springs Caravan park and the evidence of human habitation became all too evident with fly tipping from the park itself [old sofa, television etc] and then back onto Thorn Hill road where there was more... a van or light truck had obviously used it as a dumping ground for something he'd cleared from somewhere.

the council maybe watching but will they get caught? The blatancy of the dump is incredible and makes me sad and mad that Mankind can be so thoughtless and polluting without a backward glance. It's the increasing frequency of these sighting which make me fed up with society. Its sick and needs to be forced to face up to the reality, we have only one world and this is it. If we shit all over our backyard we end up living in a sewer.

Upset by what we saw we went back down Cliff Drive and to the car [wish it was a small camper with its own stove et al] for a well earned fueling; salads already prepared and coffee in the flask, we settled down to eat and drink as the ships continued their movement into the estuary and waiting for the pilot ship to escort them up the narrow path into Tilbury or Sheerness.

 having refueled and rested we wandered down toward Warden beach. As we reached the sea wall I spotted number 14 out of the erosion warning signs [we'd seen numbers 11 through 13 as we had walked along the cliff top].

The beach looked interesting to me; different from Minster with what appeared to be a high concentration of shells, I wanted to take a look.

the beach itself is as natural as it comes with little evidence of human detritus but quite a bit of plant debris from the erosion which is occurring all around. There is evidence of plants colonising the shoreline which also indicates little disruption from people. This is probably not a popular beach with families as it is very pebbly and not what they would want for their children [my type of beach, few families would stop here for the day]

 

as suspected the beach is littered with shells and I was pleasantly surprised to not dog whelk shells washing up here. These were not evident in Minster. As before there are a great number of slipper limpet shells with some razor shells and as I said, dog whelks. There has been a great deal of evidence from egg casings that they are about but I had not really seen many on Minster beach.

 

this picture shows how the tide appears to be pushing slightly sideways as it comes in and with each sweep it is probably carrying more of its silty load around the headland to Minster.

We were both getting that tired feeling and showing signs of our age....bits were hurting and I was just dog tired, still worn out from the physical exertions of Pilates, previous days of walking and of course,the hours of  gardening. We headed back to the car and finished off coffee, then headed back to Minster.

Yes, we hadn't made it all the way back to the houses at Eastchurch but we had at least walked the next stretch of shoreline and were ready to take on the next section which takes us towards Leysdown and the infamous Shellness [preferably not the copulation on the beach area I think].