HIGH TIDE AT BLAKENEY POINT, NORFOLK, 29TH SEPTEMBER 2023...

 High Tide At Blakeney Point…

The green marshland was sliced by ruts, deep creeks 

And mud banked channels which were busily waded

In by curlews, redshanks and the whiteness of egrets,

 Until a high tide obliterated the marshland at week’s

End, when the sea rushed in and harshly invaded  

Blakeney and flooded its quiet and placid quayside secrets… 

The window view had been a dry haven with boards advertising

Sea trips to watch seals alongside benches, whilst next to a causeway

A wide parking lot had been fringed by moored vessels curiously angled.

Small boats and craft had been tethered along the wall of the quay

Where crabbers with nets and lines, their pails dropping into and rising

From the murky waters below, had waited for crustaceans to scuttle astray

And become entwined, ensnared and hopelessly tangled,

Before being plopped into colourful buckets for all the family to see.

A wrecked wooden vessel, languishing in the mire, ribs bared and rotting

Like those of a whale’s beached skeleton, parched and awry,

Had lain in the marshland, its usage gone, its pride mangled,

Never again to work the tidal channels and reach the open sea…

But the hurrying waters had hidden the ruts, deep creeks

And mud lined channels, now no longer waded

In by curlews, redshanks and the whiteness of egrets.

But the high tide lingered over the marshland at week’s

End for merely an hour then rapidly, quietly and clinically receded,

As if a plug had been pulled to reveal again Blakeney’s unique secrets…

Pete Ray

6th October 2023…

Pulling up a blind in the apartment on 29th September at 6.45am was a shock, for the high tide in Blakeney had covered the road, just a few metres from where my car was parked.

There wasn’t a car-park any longer, nor anywhere to walk, bar upon the sea-defence/causeway and almost all of the marshland was covered over. Moored boats were no longer below the level of the quay wall, but floated above it, which was rather odd to watch.

It was all rather astonishing for someone who hadn’t seen this phenomenon before but just as remarkable was the speed at which the tide receded, as I walked along the causeway…