Looking out over Minehead bay
A new Pair of Wellies -
Wellies are the ubiquitous all purpose footwear beloved by everyone from dog walkers to fishermen and everyone in between. They enable us to walk anywhere especially on uninviting terrain ie muddy tracks, boggy fields, wet sandy beaches, rocky shorelines and boat decks.
I’m unsure when these utilitarian boots came about or who first coined word ‘Wellies’, but all kudos to them as they are most useful.
As a child then a younger man I always possessed a pair of wellies or their longer cousin waders as much time was spent on and in the harbour, fishing from the beach and in boats of various descriptions.
I’ve not owned any for around a decade now and having borrowed a pair to wear whilst on a recent trip on an old Lifeboat (read here) - I thought it time to purchase some to enable me once again to revisit some places and activities from my younger years.
During a recent Spring low water armed with my new all terrain boots I set out through the harbour and out in to Minehead Bay accompanied by my Grandson Dennis, who at 3 years old seems to possess a ‘Forest Gump’ like tolerance for long walks - although I fear that at some point his gaze will turn to the screens and gadgets that his peers spend so much time staring at.
The first part of our walk saw us picking our way along the edge of the wall that borders on to Quay Street avoiding the deep mud patches and in turn getting stuck. Our direction then took us out toward the ancient fish weirs walking over a mixture of sand and rocks, Dennis was unsure of his footing on the rocks but soon got used to the uneven terrain and we marched on to the Low water mark. We arrived at the waters edge which fell at the mouth of one of the aforementioned weirs, Dennis enquired what the upright metal posts were at the mouth of the weir so I informed him a net was hung from them to catch fish and prawns as the water ran out of the opening.
Unable to walk any further we turned toward the outer wall of the harbour and along the way we spotted a cormorant flying low along the waters edge looking for a feed, a curlew picking between the barnacle covered rocks and a black headed gull scratching for worms on the sand. We also saw Dog whelks, winkles, limpets, anemones and a small sand goby which darted for cover as soon as our boots took the first step in to its rock pool. With the tide now on the turn and not much else to see we walked back to the Harbour slipway stamping off the mud from our boots on our way up and wandered over to the tap by the Harbour Masters office to wash them as clean as we could before making our way back to the car. Young Dennis seemed suitably impressed with his little adventure on the beach and had collected 2 whelk shells and a limpet shell as keepsakes and who knows maybe he’ll look at them in years to come and remember his walks with his decrepit old grandfather with some fondness. I think the point I’m trying to make by writing this is that the simple pleasure of taking a walk on a beach can bring a joy that is somewhat more real than you’d get from a gaming console or screen of any kind, after all which is the greater memory your last game of space invaders, or what ever it is that they play now, or spending quality time with family. And all it cost was the price of a pair of wellies!! (which will power many walks for years to come).
NB. regrettably I neglected to take my phone or camera with me so couldn't take any photographs of our adventure ~ DOH!
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