AS THE SKY BLED from rose to an inky violet and the sounds of waterbirds began to wane as they settled for the night, I breathed in lungfuls of fresh air laced with brine. These are the sensations of freedom that any coastal walker will know well: the sounds, sights and smells that accompany an evening along almost any stretch of British coastline. But this wasn’t a rugged spot along the Cornish Sea, nor a pitch along Pembrokeshire’s cliffs. It was Essex.
PLOVER ROVER
It was the beginning of my 24-day stomp along East Anglia’s coastline, part of a project with the charity Plover Rovers. Their mission is simple – to bridge the gap between the marine science community and the communities who live along our coastline, to improve ocean conservation and education. As a native Cambridgeshire lass, I steered the East Anglian phase of the project and as part of that work, walked over 300 miles along the Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk coastlines. I stopped off at primary schools and scout groups en route to give talks about our coasts, hoping to inspire the kids to take an interest in ecology and, most importantly, to