I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.
“I must go down to the seas again” – John Masefield
The British weather is so unpredictable. Who would have thought that today was going to be so beautiful. The Weather Channel said that the high today was 50° F, (10°C), although it certainly felt much warmer than that. I live within 10 minutes walk of the beach and sometimes weeks go by without me going down there, so in the words of John Masefield this morning I thought “I must go down to the seas again”.
Just the morning for a walk along the sea edge, with my camera. Come and join me, the sun was warm, there was no breeze. it was so still, the sky was a magnificent blue, and the sea was calm with the sun shimmering, almost blindingly, on it.
Everyone had the same idea this morning. The World and his wife were out with their dogs, on their bikes or just walking, like me, along the coastal path. There are two ways to walk along Worthing seafront, right to left along the promenade towards the pier and the town or left to right which is a rough path and you can walk miles this way along the headland. This is the way we are going.
The path has its good share of strategically placed benches, so if you want to you can take a seat and contemplate life.
It probably will not have gone unnoticed that Worthing beach is shingle. I saw an old photo of Worthing in Victorian times and the beach was sand then. Over the years, with sea protection in mind, shingle has been continually added and now creates a very steep drop down to the sea edge. The tide goes out a very long way, and if you are lucky you can still find small patches of sand.
The other thing that doesn’t go unnoticed when you are walking along the coastline is that we suffer from an abundance of seaweed. There are times when the smell is overwhelming. Apart from its smell, I like seaweed, it is so varied in shape and colour.
If you don’t mind making your way over the seaweed, which is sometimes inches deep, we can go down to the water’s edge. As I said earlier the sea was quite calm today, rolling in gently and soapy, it was as though someone had filled it with washing up liquid.
A little further along the path, beyond the houses, as you look out to your right, you can see the Downs. I love this part of the walk, the view is great on both sides.
At this point, I turned around and made my way back. We could go on further along the headland but I will leave that for another day. A walk such as this on a warm November day makes me remember how very lucky I am to live by the sea. Below are a few more of the sea photos I took this morning. They speak louder than words.
I hope you enjoyed that walk with me. The weather stayed good all day, which meant I was able to take my Mum out this afternoon. As she is in a wheelchair we went the other way along the flat promenade towards the town, where we found an ice cream van. We had a lovely mother and daughter afternoon to be treasured.
All in all, today was a wonderful day!