Where did all the sand go?
Went out for my usual Saturday morning stroll to the beach with the dog this morning to be met by a fairly amazing sight. About 4 to 5 ft of sand has disappeared from the beach following a few days of being battered by strong winds from the east.
Here you can see the ledge caused by the sand being washed away.
The groynes you can see are usually submerged and only visible at the waters edge.
Here’s the same beach but slightly further down (a few hundres yards). You can see how flat it was previously and how far the wind has pushed the tide in.
That's a huge amount of sand lifted. Is this the Norfolk coast? I remember seeing a programme showing the coastal and sea currents and sand was continually being washed away from East Anglia and flowing down and being deposited on the coast of West Africa, Sierra Leone specifically, as far as I can remember.
It is, this is North Beach at Caister-on-Sea, just north of Great Yarmouth. That's some journey for the sand to take! Although I've only lived in the area 9 months I've been coming here for 30 years and the coast has changed dramatically.