Even still there's a world of difference between those beaches and the ones I'm use to.
About 10 degrees and a huge ball of fire in the sky? 😉
Dodged the Bournemouth bullet yesterday - there are some nice beaches nearby which are nowhere near as busy. I was still proposing a detour to the New Forest as an alternative but my Wife wouldn't have it. I'm with Bill Hicks - the beach is where dirt meets water.
Berrow and Brean beach is good for flying big kites: Soft landings. I like road cycling through the empty green hedged singletrack roads of Somerset. To the flaky cafe at Brean for toasties. I like the fort on Brean Down; Martyn Ashton should shoot a bike trials video there.
But mostly when the weather is this fine, I head to the hills.
About 10 degrees and a huge ball of fire in the sky?
Yup we have that too.
That's a few mile up the coast.
Damned nice coast it is too, apart from Seahouses. Which is an armpit of a place. 😉
Yup mini Blackpool is a horrible blot it's only the few hundred yards in the town centre. A real shame but it brings money to the area so shouldn't complain.
Flip flops, check
Buck fast, check
Sun cream, nae chance
Pocket knife, checkOr you could do as our locals do:
http://www.westfm.co.uk/news/local/police-reassure-people-after-ayr-beach-riot/
POSTED 3 HOURS AGO #
Cheesy, where are you then? I'm in prestwick, couldn't imagine a worse place to been a hot day than Ayr beach! Weegie grand central.
Pictonroad - if that's Wells beach, that's where I spent my childhood too. If it was hot and busy the vast majority of folk would plonk themselves down in front of the steps over from the car park. There are five miles of beach running west from there. We used to go in a boat over to the East Hills or to 'the boiler' up the creek. On a day like today the shallow water up there would be pleasantly tepid (although tepid doesn't actually sound pleasant).
Walked around loch morlich this morning then sat and had a brew on the beach. Was brilliant. No crowds, idiots or traffic jams.
Now in hamble looking across southampton water at an oil refinery. Boooooo.
I'm a local to West Wittering.
We cycle to some local spots that are empty in comparison to that beach.
Love it when the angry folk leave us alone after their day trip to the coast... Then get back in their cars with their city attitudes.
Machir Bay, Islay, last Sunday...
[url= http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3775/9243496550_7ed95b5545_z.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimmygrainger/9243496550/ ]Islay 2013 010[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/jimmygrainger/ ]jimmyg352[/url], on Flickr
Loch Gruinart, Islay, last Monday...
[url= http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2882/9240731375_be080f6cf2_z.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimmygrainger/9240731375/ ]Islay 2013 027[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/jimmygrainger/ ]jimmyg352[/url], on Flickr
Claggan Bay, Islay, last wednesday...
[url= http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3755/9243537558_a455b8f0ab_z.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimmygrainger/9243537558/ ]Islay 2013 061[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/jimmygrainger/ ]jimmyg352[/url], on Flickr
You really need to pick your beaches! & You can bloody keep Cornwall, rammed with sodding families & kids. Nasty.
There's a wonderful beach, just south of Bridgend, that's about a 20min walk from the closest car park, with a camp site and fantastic pub close(ish) by to said car park. Oh and then there's a 15 minute walk across the stones to get to the sand.
We went down Friday to Sunday and while it wan't totally deserted, I think everybody had about 3 acres to themselves. Weather perfect, just an interesting bit of surf, absolute bloody paradise.
We lit a fire and cooked some sausages too.
I live between 2 or more beaches on the wirral peninsular so surrounded by sand, and as soon as the warm weather comes, loads of people turn up and just sit in their cars with the window open, radios on and read the papers or just ignore the other pasenger.
Strange.
Sadly tonight riding along the prom, loads of police there has been a murder, and a few miles along the same route, somebody has been found stabbed.
I'm just back from paddle boarding at my local beach and its still full from last Saturday 😆
I live 5 min's from a beach. To be frank, on sunny days hundreds of people from outside our little town, come, use the beach, drink, act pretty badly, making it unsuitable for me to take my son, leave massive amounts of litter, then go home.
It's all a matter of perspective surely..
I also live 5 minutes from the beach.. quite often on sunny days it's thousands that descend on us, boosting the local economy, creating a vibrant atmosphere, helping the town to water down it's angry insular inbred population (jus' sayin' don't take it personally 😉 ) they have fun, enjoy the pubs.. me and my kids will go to a quieter spot if it's heaving, cos we're locals innums, and know where to head when it's busy.. 8)
I genuinely like a beach........ on a cold sunny winters day.
I genuinely like a beach........ on a cold sunny winters day
Full of dogs?!
We spent a new year at West Wittering. You couldn't move without someone watching you. Every bit of grass verge was owned by this set of nimbys or some other competing bunch of express readers.
Horrible ,horrible place.
Ps shit beach as well.
Esselgruntfuttock, your Scottish island beaches look lovely, but they are missing 3 ingredients crucial for the perfect beach photo:
1) An azure blue sea, topped with rolling white surf.
2) A wide expanse of golden sand.
3) Admiral Ackbar, buried up to his neck.
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Burnham beach today:
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The crowds of sun-worshipers:
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The crowded end at Brean, my car's eleven along from the near end, next to the silver MPV: 😉
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Where the **** are your Star Wars characters though? No way are you passing that red and white thing off as an AT-AT, either 🙄
It's a Victorian AT-AT...
Everybody else is waiting for the kids school break, except Akbar, his are taking a year to go travelling... 😉
God there's some grumpy people about. The complainers remind me of the type of people who move to the countryside then complain about being woken at 5am by the cockerel crowing.
It's the beach. People like beaches and will visit them when the weather is good. We're British. Is what we do.
Get over it! 🙂
I'm with PP. My parents live in France and when they had their house built, they intentionally picked somewhere that wasn't close to the beach to avoid the insane busy-ness in summer and the total death of the places in winter.
Got to say one thing about SatNav; it's removed the ability for the average person to use a map. This means usually that although the obvious/shortest route is usually rammed, often the back roads are quite clear.
Always go at dawn or in evening as loads quieter in the water for surfing (so I don't get in anyones way)
Also being a bit gingerish middle of the day is a bit of a no no if I don't want to loose all my skin. 😉
[url= http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3735/9227844136_88e06dfccf_z.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/
mikewsmith/9227844136/]2013-07-03 17.04.44-1[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/mikewsmith/ ]Mike Smith 79[/url], on Flickr
Sunset over a very crowded beach last Wednesday - we were about the only people on it.
God there's some grumpy people about. The complainers remind me of the type of people who move to the countryside then complain about being woken at 5am by the cockerel crowing.
It's the beach. People like beaches and will visit them when the weather is good. We're British. Is what we do.
Get over it!
Complaining about the complainers, I see what you did there 😀
...how can this be enjoyable!
You mean posting on STW just to moan about other people having fun? Yeah, I've no idea how that can be fun either.
You really need to pick your beaches!
Ok so I'll just drive 10 hours up to Scotland for a quick day out 🙄
So, anyone got any suggestions for the quietest nice beach within striking distance of Cardiff? I've lived here for ages but I've never before felt the need to head for a beach in a rare spell of hot weather with millions of others. The Gower is likely to be rammed.. Maybe Pendine as mentioned above?
Those lovely expanses of deserted sand are all well and good, but after you've let your dog curl one off on the sand, where do you go for a WKD Blue? Eh?
On Sunday I rode 10 miles on my cross bike to the beach, swam in the sea, chilled on the pebbles looked at the bikinis. Rode back home.
Was lovely. Not crowded at all.
[i]convert - Member
I was doing a swimming event at Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour yesterday[/i]
Bloke I work with did that event too 🙂
striking distance of Cardiff?
Last time I went to Pembrey Sands near Burry Port was during good summer weather and was reasonably quiet.
WFH again so I'm off to the beach..
Ta ta.
😆
Heading to the Purbecks for a ride tonight.
Depressed at the prospect of the traffic 🙁
I live on the South Coast and I hate the beach in the UK.
Abroad, **** yeah.
In the UK I can't stand the sea of tribal tattoos and tales of last nights shag, the stench of suncream on middle aged women juggling the coolbox and nappies, and the inevitable "older couple" who are both showing off far more than i'm sure is legal.
You'll find me in the forest.
In the UK I can't stand
Not all beaches are like that though. As shown above, there are tons that are empty.
We should start pumping more raw sewerage into the sea. That'd soon stop people flocking to the beach. The bastards!
Gosh, would you look at all the tattooed chavs on this beach!
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(note: this was in april 😉 )
Not all beaches are like that though. As shown above, there are tons that are empty.
yeah you're right i'm more than generalizing, there's actually some fantastic beaches near me that remain quiet during these nice months.
it's more to do with my over active brain and finding sitting down doing nothing in the sun a waste of time.
now, throw a bike into the mix....
Since when do you have to do nothing on the beach?!
There's engineering work to be done, and a whole underewater world to explore, for starters 🙂
So, anyone got any suggestions for the quietest nice beach within striking distance of Cardiff?
[url= http://streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=291090&y=169222&z=120&sv=291090,169222&st=4&ar=y&mapp=map.srf&searchp=ids.srf&dn=688&ax=291090&ay=169222&lm=0 ]This place is nice[/url]
Park at the church just SW of Marcross, walk the rest of the way.
The pub on the crossroads at Marcross is great, nice beer garden, good food. Was absolutely deserted last time we was there - gorgeous weather, nice and warm, not a soul. 🙂
I'm back, bit windy today and yet the beach is still full.
There seem to be a rather large number of 16-19 yr olds,,suppose just out of A-Level studies, hanging around with their shorts gravitating towards their skinny ankles... And you should see the Lads!!!
We have a bit of cloud too, which is a shame 😆
Even when it's 40c our beaches aren't packed. I think someone told me there's 10km of beach for every person in Australia.
There's 23 million people in Australia is there not?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_length_of_coastline
crazy-legs, that looks good, but all that coast is gone at high tide isn't it? Haven't checked the tides for this weekend mind.
God there's some grumpy people about. The complainers remind me of the type of people who move to the countryside then complain about being woken at 5am by the cockerel crowing.
It's the beach. People like beaches and will visit them when the weather is good. We're British. Is what we do.
Get over it!
I'm not complaining, I love going to the sea-side, I just don't go where I know it's going to be packed. Easy-peasy.
And Mol, from Cardiff, you can see Burnham/Brean beach, so it's not difficult to get to, or else go to Pendine; the first half-mile or so at the entrance is always busy, but then you've got around six miles to beach to drive along to find a quiet spot.
Here's Cardiff, seen from Brean Down, unfortunately hidden behind a car-carrier... 😉
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