It’s been a while. In the three months since I last took my camera for a walk on Spittal beach, the wind, waves and weather have been at work. At the south end of the beach the bands of variegated sandstone, uncovered by winter storms, have disappeared under the sand again.

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Lower down the beach, sand and gravel have dammed channels between seaweed covered rocks, creating new rock pools. These pools may be ephemeral but at least one has already been colonised by sea anemones.

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At the north end of the beach, low tide reveals a new gravel spit curving out towards the lighthouse pier.

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On Spittal Point the sand dunes have been growing. Wild weather early in the year threw a up a deep bank of kelp which gradually trapped sand above the high tide line. In a few short months marram grass and other plants have crept out from the land, their roots stablilising the new ground they colonise.

The beach is always changing and reforming, sometimes with dramatic speed, more often with near-invisible slowness. It takes a lot of grains of sand to make a dune.

(Click on any image for a closer view)