Today I went out on my own, to a place I went to when I was a child but not since. I suddenly remembered it, and googled
'beach with sharks teeth kent'which took me here. Here is Herne Bay in Kent, specifically Beltinge and Reculver. It was cool when I set off in the morning, and as I imagined walking around on mud I wore my boots, jeans and a shirt. By the time I was walking along the beach it was boiling and I wished I had brought my swimming costume! I had to walk a long way to find a loo, then back again to where I thought I would find fossils. I sat on the beach for a while to cool off and it was so peaceful. It is a lovely beach with cliffs, rock pools and good views. I wandered around looking unsuccessfully for fossilised sharks teeth. I was asked by a lady there with her family if I was fossil hunting as she thought I might be some kind of expert-must have been the boots! I had to disappoint her, but her son didn't care, he just rushed up and proudly showed me his bucket of crabs!
As I was walking back, having given up on finding anything, I found the thing at the bottom-looks like a tooth which is what caught my eye, but is in fact a claw of a crab-I think. But, it was right next to the thing above which is a tooth-I think! It is certainly a fossil! I was so excited to have found something! Then I went on to find lots of fossilised bivalve shells and some fossilised wood-pictures tomorrow of those. The website above has good pictures of the kinds of things you can find. I have just looked at the website again and discovered that my fossil is about 56 million years old. I find that hard to comprehend! Now it is continuing to age on my kitchen table.
This is Reculver. The building is a twelfth century church-or at least its remains. I drove up here when I had finally climbed back up the 75 steps from the beach at Beltinge. I was happy to find a cafe, toilets and a pub-for future outings! I will have a proper look at the ruins next time.
Sinister looking funnels above a building on the sea front.
I think they are extractor fans of some sort.
I liked this beach umbrella.
Weathered wooden post.
We walked along a totally deserted beach. Not too much beachcombing today, though a few flints with interesting shapes, a seaglass marble, and a mermaid's purse, all came home with me.
This moss is just so green! As it is growing on a rock that spends half its time under the sea, is it sea moss?
The cliffs are very soft mud and are eroding fast. There are shells in there, and some kind of birds use them to nest-lots of little square holes.
We had delicious fish and chips in Herne Bay and then a two hour nap when we got home-totally worn out!
