In the Christmas of 2013 and the first quarter of 2014 flooding and coastal erosion was very much in the news.  Pictures of half submerged cars and flooded kitchens dominated the headlines, as did dramatic footage of waves, higher than buildings, smashing against the south coast’s shoreline.  By the time we arrived in Lepe in April things had died down a bit, but our coastal walks were now going to show us the aftereffects of the pounding.  No, we didn’t see houses leaning at angles or yachts sticking out of roofs.  We did, however, see a constant stream of reminders about how the weather continuously shapes our coastline.

Fences hanging in mid-air were a particularly common sight.

I wonder how long it will take these trees…

…to start looking a bit more like these trees…

…before finally looking a bit more like these trees?

Still, all this erosion made for some comfortable rest stops.

We took one last look at the saltings, now at peace after their pounding, and then left the beach.  We joined Inchmery Lane, took a deep breath, and got ready for our next enormous road walk.

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

• Joining Inchmery Lane:  N 50° 47.163 W 001° 23.295
  

Walk #69 Statistics (of which this post forms the second part):

• Date of Walk: 14 April 2014
• Walk #69 total distance covered: 16.91 miles
• Coast of Britain Walk Total Distance Covered: 593.35 miles
• CLICK HERE FOR LINK TO INTERACTIVE MAP!!!