Not Just a Granny

LOL I couldn’t resist the title. Inspired by my walk the night before, last night (Monday) I decided to make the most of the glorious summer evening weather we’re having at the moment and walk to Dumpton Gap and back.

The harbour looked absolutely stunning, the water like a mill pond with the boats reflected in the still water.

There were few people on the beach which was surprising considering the weather, but hey…I’m not complaining. I love it when the sea is so still. When it’s like this I’m almost tempted to go out swimming…but looks are deceiving.

We are located on what is known as the Isle of Thanet. Harking back to a time approximately 500 years ago when we were in fact still an island, separated from the mainland by the River Wantsum.

The Isle is formed almost wholly of chalk, a soft pure white limestone of Cretaceous age, specifically the Margate Chalk Member (Santonian to Campanian) traditionally referred to simply as the ‘Margate Chalk’, and sometimes as the ‘Margate Member’.  The Isle of Thanet first came into being when sea levels rose after the last glacial period, around 5000 BC. The North Sea encroached on the land which is now the estuary of the River Thames, and southwards to reach the higher land of the North Downs, leaving behind an island composed of chalk in its wake. Eventually the sea broke through river valleys in the North Downs to the south (Middle Chalk) and finally today’s English Channel was opened up. Archaeological evidence shows that the area now known as the Isle of Thanet was one of the major areas of Stone Age settlement. A large hoard of Bronze Age implements has been found at Minster-in-Thanet; and several Iron Age settlements have also come to light.

Right along our coastline, whole swathes of the island face the North Sea, and like Dover we have our own white cliffs. Every time I walk past these cliffs between here and Margate, I marvel at how they were made…..millions and millions of marine life over aeons of time have built up into what we can see today. Most of the fossil debris in chalk consists of the microscopic plates, which are called coccoliths, of microscopic green algae known as coccolithophores. In addition to the coccoliths, the fossil debris includes a variable, but minor, percentage of the fragments of foraminifera, ostracods and mollusks. The coccolithophores lived in the upper part of the water column. When they died, the microscopic calcium carbonate plates, which formed their shells settled downward through the ocean water and accumulated on the ocean bottom to form a thick layer of calcareous ooze, which eventually became the Chalk Group. I mean seriously…isn’t that just awesome!!! For more about this marvellous stuff we call chalk…. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalk_Group

The tide was on the way in as I left, but still a fair way out. It wasn’t on the way back LOL I was trying to walk as far along the beach as possible before the waves came right up the beach, but the tide caught me out. I thought I would be clever (?) and walk along the edge of the promenade…not bright, it was a slippery as all hell, and when I got to the end, it was the end…and besides that the water was already well in, the ‘path’ didn’t continue, ssssssso I had to turn around and navigate my way back across the slippery seaweed. I eventually made it back onto the beach.

By the time I got back at 9pm the sun had set and the sky was ablaze.

Sadly I often see these lovely fish along the shore when I’m walking. It saddens me to think about how they met their fate and wonder if they’re not discarded by the many fishermen we see along these shores…

I managed a good 7.4 kms and thoroughly enjoyed being out walking again. I may just have found the ‘m’ in my mojo 😉 On the back of this I have decided to get my feet facing in the right direction and take up on the Saxon Shore Way where I left off in May. If I continue to dither and dilly dally, I will never get it finished and I still have a long way to go.

I’m also toying with the idea of picking up another 2 stages along the Thames Path this weekend.