Recently I wrote a post that was our own version of the National Trust's list of Fifty Things To Do Before You're 11¾, adapting it, as The Boy's birthday was imminent, to Five Things To Do Before You're Three!

About a month ago, we decided it was a glorious day and the tide was out (the Bristol Channel has the second highest tidal range in the world after Nova Scotia) so it would be an ideal time to attempt a walk over to a nearby 'island'. I use the inverted commas around it because at low tide it is connected to the mainland by a causeway covered in rockpools, at high tide it's an island. There's nothing on this island apart from a wrecked boat, a swamp and some rather spectacular views of the Bristol Channel and England, it's also only about two hundred yards wide and four hundred yards long, if that. However, an island it is and it was on our list.

The tide was very low when we set off under the midday sun (and wind), giving us at least three hours before it started turning back in again. Plenty of time for us to have our picnic lunch on the beach, explore the rockpools and get to the island and back again. I wasn't convinced The Boy would manage it in all honesty, but it's amazing how little ones can just keep on going if you take it at their pace.

It was an eye-opener for not only The Boy; all the aspects of living on the coast that I assumed everyone knew about, always amaze my husband as he grew up in the heart of England. We discovered mermaid's purses, the difference between wet and dry seaweed, barnacles (Like Captain Barnacle Mummy!), there was a small crab in one rockpool, and salt crystals in a dried-up pool.

And when we got to the island, I realised that I've lived here all my life and never been all the way there before! And the view is spectacular.

[slickr-flickr tag='GoingToTheIsland']

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