18 September, 2009

Chichester Marina

Wednesday, on a whim, we decided to pop in and visit Chichester Marina (just spotted the sign as we were out for a drive looking for somewhere for lunch) -
Chichester Marina
- and it was actually quite a good find, apart from the incredible sight of so many horrendously expensive yachts -
Chichester Marina
- the first thing you notice (as I assembled the Bugaboo from the back of the car and Flyingpops got Thomas out of his Maxi-cosi) is this strange noise generated by all the ropes and cables resonating in the wind, it's really quite a spooky sound, like an army of metallic warriors setting up a baleful moan...all the boats complaining that it's windy and here they are all roped up...Anyway, we walked around the edge, being overtaken by lots of cyclists (making me suspect it's part of the Salterns way cycle route)...

After a while, I spotted a hide off to one side of the path -
Chichester Marina
- so we popped in to see what we could see -
Chichester Marina
Chichester Marina
- found a position away from too many cobwebs (obviously fairly rarely patronised then) and were lucky enough to spot a Little Egret (or possibly a Heron) almost straight away (you'll have to click the picture if you want a good view, that was the absolute limit of the zoom on my camera)!
Chichester Marina
Which was a bit of luck, as when it sloped off we didn't see a single other sign of life for about ten minutes...We concluded our walk when we stumbled into an industrial area, designed to lift boats out of the water to facilitate repair, and reversed course (empty tummies driving us toward food rather than boats), stopping to take a picture of this amusingly name launch on our way...
Chichester Marina
Perhaps we'll return another day when we attempt the Salterns way as a relaxing walk (or gentle cycle)...

No comments: