We were up early on Wednesday to have a look at Bosham in daylight, and walk around the tiny village.
When we arrived the tide was going out, leaving a little blue boat high and dry. I remember seeing this boat the last time I was here and think it must now be a landmark. Someone had got up early, as soon as the tide went out, and was making repairs on a wall, although I'm not sure that cement would be dry before the tide came back in again. Hopefully, he was covering it with sheet plastic. And the little step overs in the gateways that are part of many of the homes near the water, to protect the homes at high tide.
We left Bosham and decided to investigate the Roman Palace at nearby Fishbourne. This was discovered in 1960 when a workman, laying a new water pipe, unearthed some pottery, and reported his find. The British Museum was contacted, and from there, the ruins were uncovered, and a museum built. It's the biggest single Roman building unearthed, and about the floor size of Buckingham Palace, so obviously once belonged to a person of importance.
These coins thrilled me, having seen piles of very old coins on the news and social media, that had been unearthed by lucky finders, They always looked interesting, but seeing an actual pile in real life and close up, really impressed me; I felt their age and value. I think the soft light making them glow also helped...I would've loved to hold them in my hand.
Likely built in 75AD, the palace was later renovated, and new floors of mosaic tiles were found on top of old ones. A curator suggested that as the years went by, more and bright colors became available, so some floors were redone, and this is also shown in some repairs, where the pattern remained the same, but the replacement tiles stood out. She also noted that many of the tiles had faded over the hundreds of years. Incredible how these floors have lasted all this time. I was glad we'd made the visit, and then we continued on our journey on towards Dorset, where we dragged our cases for the last time into a holiday caravan, where we'd stay until we left to go back to the U.S.
Our holiday home, and the rather odd speed limit, the same as the Harry Potter train platform, and we never found out if it was serious or a joke, but it was impossible to go much faster than that with the numerous speed bumps throughout the park. We met with Mum and Greg later, and then spent a lazy Thursday with them.
On Friday we were up at the crack of dawn to go and see my favorite beach, Kimmeridge Bay. I had come here 4 years ago, but had Mum with me, who stayed up in the car because it was so cold and windy, so I didn't spend long on the beach. Today, it was cold and windy again, but this time I had Elliott with me, and there was no way he wanted to stay in the car. We had timed it perfectly again, with the tide receding, but it was still blustery enough to throw up some small waves and spray.
This ledge of dolostone rock reaches far out into the sea when the tide has fully gone out. Named the Washing Ledge, it was presumed to be once used by the women, who lived in the nearby coastguard cottages, for washing clothes.
On my last visit, I hadn't been aware that we could collect fossils to take home, so today, I was hunting for small rocks that had the spiral ammonite fossils. There were some beautiful large rocks with gorgeous examples, but it took a while before I started finding my own much smaller samples. As long as hammers or other tools aren't used to chip away at the cliff faces, fossil hunting is allowed.
The slate-like bed rock, which is actually black mudstone, was becoming more exposed as the tide drew back, the wet surface quite slippery in places. This rock is highly organic, over 150 million years old, and acts as a source rock for much of the UK's oil reserves under the North Sea.You can actually smell the oil content on the freshly exposed surfaces.
The seaweed and kelp here is incredible, so many kinds, and walking across some of the beds was like walking on cushions, with my feet sinking a good 12 inches or more in places. As it began to dry, clouds of seaweed flies settled and hovered above it, but none bit me. Apparently, they love the seaweed as it begins to rot, and their worm-like larvae help in the decomposition. Some of the weeds I was able to identify later, Sea Belt kelp which reminded me of a belt of bullets. There was also Oarweed and Sugar Kelp that I managed to recognize, It took me ages to find out what the suckered balloon shaped ones were and I finally found a page on the Furbelows seaweed, with the round shape is known as the Sea Hedgehog.
The Ministry of Defence uses part of the beach as military firing ranges so warning signs have to be heeded. We saw some short-board surfers walking towards us, who told us they have to be out of the water by 9:30am or The MOD kick them out from a boat patrol. We were beyond this sign, engrossed in exploring the beach and taking photos when an extremely loud voice over a tannoy make me jump, requesting very politely that we return back to beach area before the sign, and finished with a thank you. We moved immediately.
Elliott found a few fossils to take back to the US, which he is evidently very pleased with.
These jagged rocks on the cliffs are bituminous shales, (brown and hard), which jut out from the softer grey mudstone, forming a very interesting cliff face.
The Clavell Tower, which has been renovated and is now a holiday destination.It looks lovely inside, look here. One day...
We left the beach after a couple of hours, with fossils in our pockets and plenty of photos. We stopped at the Clavell's restaurant for brunch, where I had the most amazing omelette with toast and marmalade, with of course, a pot of tea, and then we took one more photo from the top of the hills of the sea before heading on to the next part of our day.
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