Steart Marshes - Tides & Mud Flats

At Steart Marshes, we spend the late afternoon walking to the coast. Hundreds of black and red blackberries glisten in the sunshine after a small shower of rain has passed. Behind us, are the Quantock Hills, large, dark brooding shapes that look like resting creatures on the horizon. In front of us, the spring tide has taken the sea so far out that Steep Holm looks large and strangely stranded, surrounded by a vast expanse of exposed mud flats.

We stay and watch the changing landscape. We notice, that the sea has stopped it's frantic ebb and is now slowly, inexorably, making it's way back. The momentum increases, so that before long, it is rapidly and joyously covering the bare mudflats, filling the creeks and rines and inching it's way to the marshes.

The light is failing and the air has a chill. The observation tower is currently closed, being deemed 'structurally unsafe', so we decide to head home and make a plan to return in the morning to witness The Breach!

published by Julie