Ahhhhhhhhhh, early morning down on the south coast!   It is a most beautiful time of the day.  The sun woke itself and started warming the landscape; the breeze stirred and promised some respite of the heat yet to come.  The first thing we saw on today’s walk was of two horses wandering peacefully along the shore line as the waters lapped gently at their hooves.  Silence reigned.

The spell of calm beauty was shattered by my wife, who wondered out loud what happened when beach-walking horses needed to poo, and whether the riders would clean it up after them.  In an attempt to dismiss this thought and return to silent contemplation, I speculated that this was the job of the woman walking behind them.  Soon, however, the horses turned back but the woman kept walking; she was not part of the entourage.  The mystery of the horse poo was never solved.  I think it still troubles my wife, but I try not to touch on the subject too often.

We were not the only ones enjoying the calm of the early morning.  Paddle-boarders were out, enjoying the flat sea.  The horses stopped and their riders watched for a while.  The horses dipped their heads.  Were they really drinking sea water?  Surely not!

Enjoying himself most of all on this particular morning was a dog.

I say that this dog was enjoying himself most of all and that may be true.  Clearly, however, if the rest of the day was like this then we were going to enjoy ourselves too.

Points on this part of the walk (copy and paste the co-ordinates into Google Earth):

• The Beach at Goring-By-Sea: N 50° 48.250 W 000° 25.555

Walk #55 Statistics (of which this post forms the first part):

• Date of Walk: 1 June 2013
• Walk #55 total distance covered: 8.58 miles
• Coast of Britain Walk Total Distance Covered: 454.22 miles
• CLICK HERE FOR LINK TO INTERACTIVE MAP!!!