Up and Down Brean Down

One of the places, we went to during my week holiday in early July was Brean in Somerset, England.  

We had decided to go to The Nation Trust Brean Down.

and Brean Sands Beach.  If you click on this image right at the back on the beach you will see two people...more about them if you read on.

We noted a young man going over markings on the sand with a large rake.  It was upon approaching the older man, that we realised it was a local Sand Artist who was using a compass to create detailed geometrical designs.  I did ask him what he was making, but his voice was a bit faint, that i thought he said a snowflake, but I could not be sure and felt rude to ask him to repeat. I pondered on the idea of snowflake and wondered if he was making going to make a political statement. I was lookign forward to seeing completed design, to which he advised would be ready at around 4pm.  I looked at my watch, we had only got there and it was about 9.30am.  He said the best view would be from the top (see above image).  

So after walking the beach with the puppy, here he is on a seaweed rock, looking a handsome but grumpy. 

We braced ourselves for the long walk up, this is the starting point of Brean Down 

Upwards towards the sky to get a 360o view.

Because we were so early, I could take my time walking up and taking stops for a breather as well as admire the view 

When we got to the top - breathless, this was one of the views that met us.  You could see how much the sand art had progressed

Me and the pup walking on ahead

Further progress of the sand art design from the top of Brean Down.

Although the Brean Down Fort was not our destination, it was in sight

Finally, we got there and had a sit down and bite to eat. 

It was about 2pm when we called it a day and decided to walk back down the steep and head back home.  This was the last view we saw of the sand art.  We never worked out what it was.  On leaving, i thought it looked more like a tortoise, rather than a snowflake.  

A few days after, i decided to google what this was; and the Internet showed that the completed sand art was actually a huge honeycomb shaped design.  Read more here.  It comprised of 37 hexagons joined together across 190 metres of the Brean Beach. 

So what did we eat, as well as having a vegan Curried Vegetable Pasty from the cafe, we also had home-made Salsa Verde Pasta with homegrown courgettes.  It was not overly exciting, but it's made hit the spot when your hungry and wish you had packed more to eat for a long journey, knowing that you won't have energy to cook when you got back home. It's been a while, but I am sharing this yellow and green pasta lunch with  with Soup, Salad and Sammies hosted by Kahakai Kitchen.