Good day on the beach in spite of the tides

It was time for our annual day on the beach with the freshers! And it would be back to normal. The previous year I had lead the trip for reasons of covid, and I had had Guy as my wingman. But this year, Lynda was back in charge. And we would do the usual thing; I would go to the beach early to demarcate nine sediment sections the students would have to log, and Lynda would follow with the students. We would have two groups; the students go to both Gallows point and to our beach, and the swap-over is around lunchtime.

The day before the trip, the Gallows point team pointed out that tides would be getting in our way. That worried me a bit; I had been on the beach when it was practically not there at all due to high tide, for my interview with S4C. But can you do if you can't access the beach? Lynda was leading this; she would have to come up with something. But I made sure I was on the beach on time. I didn't linger, and I did manage to put all nine sections up without the cut off by the tide. And I put more sections close to the exit of the beach.

The beach when I was setting out the sections

Only about a metre of beach left at one of the bottlenecks when I was done!

Beach selfie

When I was done the school photographer appeared. I did have trouble to see the point of him; I know Lynda had wanted him to take drone footage, but you can't do that when you can't access the beach. And it was a very windy day. And he also has his normal camera, but what would he photograph if we couldn't get onto the beach? And if he can't make himself useful he shouldn't be there. He decided he was going to go to Gallows point to see if he could be of use there. He might be back in the afternoon when there would be opportunities for photography here. 

Then Lynda appeared with the students. We gave them the materials and took them to the beach. We could still access the first section, where she always does a bit of a spiel in which she explains how you log a sediment section. And that is what she did, while I was keeping an eye on the incoming tide. And it was clear that by the time she was done, we couldn't access the sections anymore. So now what?

Lynda had a plan. We would just go to the nearby village and have a coffee. And if we would be back in an hour's time, the tide would have receded again and we would have access to the beach. And so we did! We found a café that had plenty of space, and was quite happy to serve us hot chocolate and cake and whatnot.

To my relief, when we came back we could indeed get onto all of the beach. So we got working! And the weather was nice as well. Lynda then had to negotiate a bit with the Gallows point team regarding how long we could keep this group of students with us. But we came to an agreement. And the new students just came out of the bus when our students came off the beach. A smooth transition! It also meant we did have no lunch break, but we managed. Lynda had said we would have lunch in the village, but I hadn't quite trusted that statement, so I did have sandwiches with me. I was glad I did! And I could eat one of them while she was doing her a spiel for the second cohort. She had to do it after that.

In the afternoon, Lynda also played a bit with the 360° camera she had access to. I look forward to seeing the results! And the photographer didn't come back, so I took some pictures of the goings-on for social media.

Students by a section with detrital Carboniferous coal in it

Some ladies enjoying the sedimentology

The beach got very wide towards the end of the afternoon

When the students were more or less ready we called it a day. I wrestled the section numbers out of the cliff face again. The rain will soon wash off the chalk with which I indicated the sections! To our disappointment, the coach was not there when we came off the beach; the driver had sneaked off to do a school run, but after only a few minutes he reappeared. 

The students will now have logged an impressive set of sediments associated with the last deglaciation! The week after they will compile the data together. And I had been a bit nervous about this day in the field, because of the tide issue, but I think it went well!