Beach day

On Saturday we spent the day at the beach. Despite living really close to the beach we don’t take advantage of it nearly as much as we should.

We cycled out to Spanish Banks, it’s the last in a long line of beaches that run the length of the southern shore of English Bay. It is therefore the furthest from downtown and consequently the quietest, which is probably why I like it so much.

As luck would have it, Saturday was also the lowest tide of the year (this is as yet unproven, but from what I saw I am inclined to believe it to be true). It was amazing, the pale sand stretched out towards the horizon and it almost felt like you could walk to the snow capped mountains on the north shore. It also made the beach so much bigger as people were completely taking advantage of all of the extra space on offer, including a family cycling where normally they would have been completely submerged.

It was interesting to walk out across the different types of sand towards the water. The sand at the top of the beach was pale golden colour, then you had to endure a brief hop step across some rocks, next came some algae which was bright green and very slippery, although much kinder underfoot than the rocks. After the algae I stepped into what felt like mud, it was definitely sand because of its slightly rougher texture but it squelched up through your toes in the same way as mud does. After this the sand became much harder and packed down, it was still wet, but really hard – and apparently possibly to cycle on (see pictures below). Gradually the hard packed sand developed ridges which were uncomfortable to walk on, it was amazing to be able to see so clearly how the water has shaped the land, this being the area that is only very rarely exposed.

Now that summer has finally arrived I am definitely hoping to spend more time at the beach, if only I can find a sunscreen that I won’t burn through.