A week ago I went on one of my favorite walks across the sands of the river Dee estuary at low tide to the wild salt kissed trails of Hilbre island.
This local nature reserve offers the weary wanderer, panoramic views across the river, bird watching at an internationally important site for waders, an old lifeboat station/slipway to explore and the chance to spot grey seals in the waters around the island.
But beyond all that, this hike to Hibre is the closets place to me where you can completely escape the trappings of the city and civilization for a few hours.
Setting off from West Kirby, the walk takes you across a flat desert of wet sand mottled with wave marks left by the retreating tide and swirls of sand spaghetti from sand worms sheltering beneath the estuary.
Soon the bustle of the beach fades in a sigh of summer breeze. At the half way point of the three mile walk is a small islet that remains above the tideline at high tide called Little eye. The temperature was around 35 degrees Celsius that day, so I stopped to to rest, drink some water and take a few pictures of the local flora.
I love the peace of this place - patches of Daisies dance in summer zephyrs, their yellow and white eyes contrasting with the deep emerald seaweed.
After leaving Little Eye, my meandering traversed shale platforms of rock, across crab and muscle specked rock pools until I reached the shores of the second islet, Little Hilbre. Instead of walking over the top of this small island, I decided to walk around the small cliffs to see what I could find.
In a shady spot on the north side of Little Hilbre I stopped for another swig of water, admiring this random bit of art. An eye stared off back toward the shore of west kirby; toward the promise of ice cream and the fish and chips shop.
I carried on to Hilbre traversing river rocks slick with slime.
I finally reached Hilbre island at around 2pm as the sun rode high in the sky. There were only about 5 other people on the island as I'd set off in the early stages of low tide.
I walked first to the end of the island where the slipway juts out into the Irish sea to catch the breeze and listen for the bark of seals.
Unfortunately, there were no seals in the water that day. Their song couldn't be heard from the distant sand bar between Hilbre and the north wales coast indicating that they were out to sea on a fishing expidition.
I clambered the rocks for a while finding a nice shaded spot looking out to sea to meditate. Gulls wheeled crying a mournful caw to the summer's sun while seaweed popped and sizzled in the afternoon heat haze. The breeze whispered as guillemots dived into calmed waters, scooping up sprats to feast on the rocks.
I sat for a long time in the quiet of nature - meditating, still... in sacred symphony.
A poem I wrote on a previous trip to Hilbre Island.I spent most of the rest of the time on the island sunbathing as families arrived and the background sounds of excited children swimming in the rock pools around the island merged with the warble of wading birds.
Finally, about 4 hours before high tide I got up and left the tranquil haven of Hilbre for the long walk back to shore before the tide came in.
Before jumping on the train back to Liverpool 😎
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Thank you qurator and ackhoo for the curation 😀
Much appreciated.
You're very welcome! :) Love the sight of those daisies by the beach - not something you'll see here.
Yeah, they're nice growing right out on the island in middle of the bay 🙂
I think someone must have grown them there once, and now grow wild... (I think odd things...lol)
I just read that no one lives in those houses there - I didn't know!
Yeah, nobody lives out there on Hilbre island anymore. But those Daisies I photographed are growing on the first islet 'Little Eye' of the trail of three small islands leading to the main Hilbre island.
You have to follow a certain path to avoid any chance of quicksand in a straight line across the bay from West kirby to Little Eye, then a straight line from Little Eye to little Hilbre and then on to Hilbre main island.
I suspect someone dumped some seeds out there at 'Little Eye' many decades ago and they grew well due to the nutrient rich sand and silt deposited from the estuaries flow at high tide.
I've been doing this walk occasionally for over 25 years and always remember seeing those Daisies and noticing them as seeming to be out of place because when it is high tide it seems like they would be underwater when you look from West Kirby shoreline. I guess that they're just above the water line though and you can't see Little Eye because it is only about 4 meters above sea level and it is a good 1.5 miles out from shore.
Idk if you knew about it, but this woulda been a great post to cross-post and tag the travelblog.io frontend
Beautiful pictures!!
Hi unorgmilitia, thank you and for the advice. I haven't posted photography/travel related content for so long I didn't know which was the relevant community.
Can I put that tag in now @unorgmilitia?
Haha I'm new to hive since February, and I've asked myself that question before too haha!
I'm not sure if you and implement new tags onto already posted content, and have the take the desired effect.
I tried and you can't post to communities using their tags after you've published... oh well... back to the drawing board 😂
Haha yupp we'll git er next time!!
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bonito paseo, están hermosas todas las fotografías
Gracias. Sí, fue un paseo de verano muy agradable 🙂
Que bueno que puedas conocer diferentes lugares hermosos. Hay que disfrutar de lo bello de la naturaleza. Saludos amigo espero estés muy bien de salud
Hola karlin
Todavía no gozo de buena salud, pero salgo a la naturaleza siempre que me siento capaz.
No hay nada mejor que alejarse del ruido del tráfico hacia la paz de la naturaleza :)
Espero que estés bien.
Mi esposo te manda saludos, pronto retomará sus publicaciones ha tenido años difíciles pero confiando en Dios todo es pasajero. Un fuerte abrazo
Hola karlin
Todavía no gozo de buena salud, pero salgo a la naturaleza siempre que me siento capaz.
No hay nada mejor que alejarse del ruido del tráfico hacia la paz de la naturaleza :)
Espero que estés bien.
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Thanks ecency, I appreciate the curation :)
Nowadays we have similar temperatures in Hungary. At least in the daylight. We are currently in the morning, and the current temperature is 23 ˚C, and it still feels hot for some reason.
Yeah, the world is warming there is no doubt in my mind. Up in the north of england we used to have occasional summer heat in mid 30 degree temps, but it was like once every 5 years. Now, it is happening every year for at least 2 weeks.
The heat wave has faded now in the UK and we are back to more normal levels of UK summer 😂 rainy and overclouded with 20 degree c max 🤣
Wow is that a jelly fish you found?
Hi ultravioletmag
Yes, it is a jellyfish that was left stranded when the tide goes out revealing the river bed that I walked across to get to Hilbre island 🙂
I thought it was a particularly interesting photo because of the little crab walking across the surface of the jellyfish.
Wow is that a jelly fish you found?
Hi ultravioletmag
Yes, it is a jellyfish that was left stranded when the tide goes out revealing the river bed that I walked across to get to Hilbre island 🙂
I thought it was a particularly interesting photo because of the little crab walking across the surface of the jellyfish.
Wow that looks like a great place to hike and chill out! (specially the icecream at the end...😄...)
Have you even been lucky enough to spot any ancient paleo bones or imprints or anything???
I have a friend in Scotland who roams the coast lines around the UK to search for such treasures...
😂 yes, the ice cream at the end was the best, and a deserved reward after the hike in the baking heat.
It is funny you should mention that as my friend Danny who lived near to west kirby growing up said there is an ancient dinosaurs footprint on Little eye, the first small islet on the way to Hilbre. I searched around for it and couldn't find it to photograph. This fossil footprint is definitely true as it is documented in this thesis from a student at Bristol University -
Thanks for reading @chocolatescorpi 🙂
It really is a lovely walk that I have done many times. Check out that link and let your friend know in Scotland that there is an interesting site if they're ever in the Merseyside area of the UK 👍
this must be your great journey hehe
Ha ha, yes it was a bit of an epic hike in the end because of the heat.
I do this walk at least once every few years. It is really peaceful out there on the island.
Thanks for reading and checking out the photos @trannguyen 🙂
God, what a calm, solitary and healthy place, where it seems that just breathing is enough nourishment.
You can feel the calm on the screen in front of me.
Thank you for sharing.
Yeah, it is a really chilled out walk 🌿
I do this walk at least once every few years. It is really peaceful out there on the island.
Thanks for reading and checking out the photos trinabril 🙂
beautiful photos fantastic place, you are blessed that you can and you go, your soul calms down, I do the same my friend in Konitsa, in the place where I was born, everywhere I send you green and crystal clear waters and two photos !!
Hi aimilios
Yeah, it is a really peaceful walk 🌿
I do this walk at least once every few years.
Thanks for reading and for sharing the photos of the natural beauty in Konitsa🙂