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Disillusioned Med Girl, Meet Sand

Yesterday I decided that as it was sunny, we should head to the seaside. Emily has never been to the seaside - even in Malta, we've kept to pools so far. And as I don't want her only experience of sea to be in Malta (although it is by far the ideal sea experience, more on this later), I wanted to take her to the seaside here too, and in the process introduce her to sand.

Why exactly I wanted to do this when I hate sand so passionately
(even Maltese sand, that doesn't fly all over the place), I will never fully comprehend.

So we got our things together and headed out. We decided to go to Camber Sands as Nataliya had recently mentioned it as being very beautiful. The drive there itself was beautiful, Emily slept part of the way and David and I could have a relaxed chat while enjoying the scenery.

Twenty minutes away, it started raining. I remained optimistic. Here in England, you could technically drive through four different seasons in twenty minutes (ok, I exaggerate, but you get the idea), and the rain had in fact stopped when we got to Camber Sands but the wind... oh, the wind. Now I know that it is probably rare for it not to be windy in Camber, or in fact on British beaches in general. But there wasn't much that could have prepared me for that amount of wind.

Upon reaching the beach, we decided within seconds to rent a wind breaker. We settled down, comfortably protected from the wind and watched Emily walk around in fascination. She hated the feel of the sand (not only me then) but was happy simply walking around on it.





Camber Sands truly is beautiful. Vast lengths of beach, as far as the eye can see.


No more than fifteen minutes later, the wind got even worse and within seconds, it was in Emily's sandwich, her drink, our bags, my belly button, slapping us across the face. Still, we stood brave.

...Until David and I looked at each other and somewhere in that look we realised we were both thinking the same thing: "I hate this."

We packed up and left.


Those of you who know me well will know there are many things that annoy me about Malta, but in this case, I can't think of anything better than a hot, rocky, Maltese beach. The Mediterranean in me doesn't comprehend going to the beach to cower behind a wind breaker. Or needing to cover a baby up lest she get stung by vicious, flying sand. The Mediterranean in me certainly doesn't understand sea not being crystal clear, or needing to rinse the mud splatter off my legs after wading through shallow water.

I guess we'll be saving visits to the seaside for Malta from now on. But boy did I get teased by David for being the one to insist on going to the seaside yesterday! ;)

6 comments:

  1. You've made me laugh with this post this morning! I too hate sand and visited Camber many times as a child eating sand sandwiches and dodging sand being blown in my face (the nearby town of Rye is gorgeous though if you fancy a wander through cobbled streets, a walk up to the castle at the top of the hill and there used to be a lovely park there than Emily would probably enjoy too ;-) )but when I lived in Malta I was fascinated with all these people laying on rocks by the sea. It looked so uncomfortable and I never once braved it - neither did I brave the crystal clear sea for fear of getting attacked by jellyfish (thanks to the posters on lamp posts everywhere asking you to contact the University if you saw any so they could identify them). I've never seen sea so clear as in Malta though, it was simply beautiful like you'd expect to see in the Caribbean and my daughter and partner spent hours in it swimming and splashing around. I remember finding the only bit of sand in St Julian's (near the cat park funnily enough!) and watching as every last inch of it was taken by lobster red tourists, who like me didn't quite get the rock thing either.

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    1. We mentioned going back to the area, so I will definitely keep Rye in mind to visit, thank you!

      You're not the first person who's mentioned the uncomfortable rock beaches... I don't know, maybe it's a knack that us "locals" develop but we always seemed to find lovely smooth bits of rock to lie on, and a soft bag or a folded towel always makes a comfy little pillow lol.

      The jellyfish... yes. They are the reason we've limited ourselves to pools in recent years. Until we left in 2006 though they were barely an issue - there may have been one swimming around here or there, but never whole clusters of them. It truly frightens me, especially seeing some of the stings and scarring they leave (not to mention the danger if they strike too close to the heart).

      If you're ever in Malta again, the best sandy beaches are in the North, namely Ghadira and Ghajn Tuffieha. The latter is my absolute favourite - I'll even put up with the sand for it!

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  2. Camber Sands seems to be liked by many. As a mountin girl its too plain for me..I like to see some landscape in the area and for that reason alone and the fact that I walked ages to get to the facilities....never will return to Camber Sands. I hope one day to see clear water again where you can see pebles etc. I also feel the same about English seas, I love the idea but the practicality of actually enjoying it its difficult to comprehende...:))) So, I nowadays prefer to go abroad and inclosed swimming pools....or chill at home. Lucky here in Romania we have our own swimming pool (only inflatable for kids (but we get in there too)) and that + the massive garden and separate apartment for us at mums its more than we can want. Anyway, English beaches are good for like walks and just whern its not too hot....take a jacket as always seems too windy and cold.

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  3. Just reading the comments on here, the rocky beaches in the UK are completely different to the rocky beaches in Malta, you won't find smooth bits of rock because they're completely (COMPLETELY) covered in pebbles! Walking to the sea on the beach from your chosen spot is quite comical. Before the summer's over we should go to one so you'll see what I mean ;) Having said that, I love them!

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  4. how do you manage to get emily to wear a hat and ever more how do you amange to get her to wear sunglasses???

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    1. This is a superb question! The answer is simple: I don't. This particular hat has a tie under her chin so that helped, but in complete honesty I think the wind was so bad that day that even she knew she needed to keep both the hat and sunglasses on. Her sunglasses usually spend more time in her hands than on her face too, so these pictures really don't represent an average day!

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