Treading the boards once more at Cley NWT

On 5th December a huge tidal storm surge hit the east coast of England and Scotland and left huge destruction and devastation in its wake.  The North Norfolk coast was hit particularly badly and just over three months on the clean-up operation is continuing.  There are still large breaches in many of the sea walls all along the coast and the future is still uncertain for places such as Blakeney Freshmarsh.

The famous nature reserve of Cley Marshes, owned and managed by the Norfolk Wildlife Trust, was totally inundated during the surge.  The morning after the surge I saw for myself North Sea covering the coast road, rats running for higher ground and where once there were cyclists on the A149 there were swans swimming! It was an altogether surreal experience.  This week the central hides and boardwalk officially re-opened so I went on a brief visit to see how the reserve was looking.

Here is the view on Dec 6th 2013 from along Old Woman's Lane looking over marshes, you can see the central hides in the middle of the shot.

And here is the same view today!

The paths and boardwalks are now in great shape and if nobody told you about the storm surge it would be difficult to tell anything had happened.

The future is definitely uncertain for North Norfolk's grazing marshes and it is true that the coastline will never remain the same forever.  But for now at least they seem to be have begun their recovery.

These are the central hides which have now reopened.  Although looking a little bare and exposed, the whole area is in great shape, no doubt down to the hard work of the staff and volunteers at Cley NWT.

And this is view from inside one of the reopened hides.

Looking west towards Blakeney, that's Blakeney Church you can see on the horizon. 

Looking east along a ditch at Cley NWT

So despite the North Sea's best efforts Cley NWT is beginning to look like its old self again.  No doubt the ecological impacts will take longer to heal than some of the cosmetic parts such as hides and boardwalks. But it is obviously in safe hands and on a day like today it reminds you why it is such a special place.

Spring is in the air so get out there and tread the boards once more...

Amazing Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) over Cley next the Sea, Norfolk, Feb 2014

Wow it has been a mad few days following the amazing display of the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights as they are more commonly know, across the UK including Norfolk.

As you can see here and here I have photographed the aurora in Norfolk on a couple of occasions in the last two or three years.  As I rushed out of the house on Thursday evening I thought it was going to be another case of getting some half decent images but not really seeing much with the naked eye.  As we now know things turned out very different.

From my previous attempts I knew that I needed some foreground interest in the photos but I also wanted to give them a real sense of place.  So I headed to the one of the most iconic landmarks on the Norfolk coast, Cley Mill.

When I got there I could see a bright glow over the North Sea and having looked at this view on so many starry nights and seen the dark horizon I knew it was the aurora.  I fired off a quick test shot and although it showed a bit of green on the horizon it was nothing I hadn't captured before.  Within five minutes however the green glow intensified and a warm red colour started to appear above the green.  Another couple of shots on 60 sec exposure and I could see the wall of pinky red blush on the back of the camera and knew this was something special.

I ran inside to Cley Mill to alert the guests what was unfolding outside, however as it is having its sails replaced there were no paying guests inside, only the owner Julian.  Together over the next hour or so we looked out over the marshes and the North Sea with Cley Mill illuminated in the foreground and the aurora preforming its magic above us.

It was a truly unforgettable and magical experience.

Below are a few photos from the evening.

You can purchase prints of the photos from my PhotoShelter site