Burnham to Weston - Mar 2025
| Walking from Burnham to Weston | |
| We had done this walk before and enjoyed it so much we wanted another go at it: Walking from Burnham to Weston - in large part along the beach. | |
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It is a long walk. Last time we took the train home. This time we were meeting at Martin's and
catching a ride home with Liz.
Part 1: Burnham to the Great Bird Screen of Brean where we stopped for Eleven's break = 10.62 km in 2 hours and 15 minutes. Part 2: The Great Bird Screen of Brean to Weston Super Mare = 10 km in 1 hour and 55 minutes. Total walk: 20.62 km walked in 4 hours and 10 minutes. We climbed 330 metres. It took us a total of 6 hours and 34 minutes because of breaks. |
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| It is necessary to walk these beaches during low tide. Today there was a really low tide. | |
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| When we started, it was chilly enough to have woolly hats and jumpers on. However, spring was in the air and we saw lots of flowers along the trail. | |
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| The mid-point of our journey, after 10 km, was the Great Bird Screen of Brean. We like the design of this wooden fence/wall where one can sneak a peak at the birds nesting, dining, and playing in the marshes below. | |
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| We did not see that many birds, but there was many crows and one egret. | |
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| Most of all we wanted to rest for a while in their bird hide while making tea. The wind was a bit cold and strong for sitting down, so our ground sheet combined with picnic blanket is now also a wind break. | |
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| As we got closer to Weston, we climbed up on a hill in Walborough Nature Reserve. We were treated to a beautiful view of Uphill marina, the old Church of Saint Nicholas and the Uphill Beacon. | |
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| We had hoped that we could climb up into the Uphill Beacon, but alas it was locked. | |
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| We had to find a way across the wall around the old church. Some steps and a set of stairs had been in existence before, but with a missing step it was not advisable to use. Rob found a kissing gate that would normally be used to keep livestock out. However, this gate was broken so any sheep worth her salt would walk straight through! | |
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| The old Saint Nicholas Church was closed although it was set to open from Whit Sunday. The graveyard around the church is still in use although a bit in need of maintenance. | |
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Once we slid down the steep Uphill Hill, we found our way down onto the beach car park.
We are not sure we could park our car here at low tide without worrying about
getting back in time before the car is lost to the sea.
Before Eleven's at Brean we had counted 86 dogs. Then we started counting from one again. When we got to the start of Weston Beach we had counted 100 dogs more. Still, we had two kilometres to go! So, we snatched a photo of dog number 186 and gave up. |
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| On Weston Beach we found this pool of water, and first we thought it was for paddling and swimming at low tide. We were wrong. The pond is for boating - the miniature boat kind of boating. | |
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On the way north we snapped this photo of Brean Down seen from "our" side.
Now when we were in Weston, we got to see Brean Down from "the other" side.
We have hiked there a few of times before, and it made us want to return soon.
We made a note to do that hike after 16th of May when they open one area up for hiking when the nesting season is over. |
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| It was time to sit down for another rest. We had walked another 8 km and felt we deserved a rest. With a cold wind still blowing, we looked around for a sheltered spot where we could lean on something. Rob spotted the south-facing wall of the Tropicana event centre. It was perfect and we stayed for two cups of tea! | |
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A cup of tea pairs well with Norwegian Kvikk Lunsj (like a Kit Kat).
Each wrapper has the Norwegian mountain safety rules written down ("Fjellvettreglene" in Norwegian).
They are:
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| The ground sheet came in handy because the sand was a bit damp. Time to kick off the boots and change to shorts. Eventually we had to get going and we had to re-boot Rob! | |
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Postscript: A good day for hiking boots. |
March 2025