The hundred year winter

It’s been a funny old winter to say the least. Not cold (yet) but still one of weather extremes. The repeated storms that have battered the country have been disastrous for many and I really do feel for everyone affected. Yet in the midst of howling winds, huge swells and spring tides there’s something so raw and untamed I can’t help but get a little bit excited, just to see how savage it really can get. 

I’m not alone. 

I can see by the throngs of cars pouring into coastal villages during these lashings, the rows of people lined up along the sea fronts and the one or two inevitable nutty wave dodgers, that it captivates all sorts of people.

I’ve seen waves breaking where I never thought possible, peeling right the way across the bay off Gul Rock, breaking not just on the stones by the lighthouse but even further out on some previously unknown reef.

The coast has changed, some say the beaches will never be quite the same again. Once sandy beaches have turned into pebble beaches, sea walls and harbours have not just been damaged but obliterated, cliffs stand where once there were sand dunes, petrified forests covered for the last 5000 years have been exposed and so it goes on. 

When the sun is shining and the sea is calm, it's hard to imagine the sea generating the power to move hefty blocks of granite, but the damage is very much in evidence.

It really has been an exciting, wet, windy, unforgettable winter but hopefully one not to be repeated any time soon.