Last time I used my Hasselblad was on the beach at Bournemouth, this time I was on Chesil beach, a very different type of beach! Bournemouth is the typical seaside town with ice cream, chalets, and amusements. Chesil is wild. The beach is about 18 miles long and is a “Shingle Barrier Beach” which means for most of it’s length it’s separated from the mainland by a stretch of inland water called the fleet. An easy visit is only made at either end therefore, at Portland or Abbotsbury. Above in the distance is Portland, highest point on the left as you look at the photo, sloping down to the tip with the lighthouse on it, photographed from the Abbotsbury end.

The “shingle” at the Portland end is actually large pebbles. By the time one reaches Abbotsbury it’s pea sized. Further down the coast, the beach continues but I wouldn’t call it part of Chesil Beach – by the time a traveller got to West Bay it’s grit, and another couple of miles further it’s sand. All sorted by mother nature! Old tales record that local fishermen could tell when they came ashore in a fog, where they were by the size of the shingle, and I bet that’s true. Even I as a local, non fisherman, could make a pretty good guess. I spent 44 years living close enough that at night, with my bedroom window open, on a rough night I could hear waves breaking on Chesil, and on foggy quiet nights, could hear the Portland Lighthouse fog horn. Good memories!

S.H.O.U.T.

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