There's a storm front coming (mood indigo), White water running and the pressure is low..... Billy Joel

It was a cruel irony that whilst a couple in Hemsby, Norfolk were attending a fund raising event last Thursday 5th December to fund stronger sea defenses for their houses just a few yards away their own house was beginning to slip into the sea itself. The couple rushed to the house and with the help from all of their neighbours they managed to salvage some of their belongings eventually giving up and abandoning the house when they saw that the kitchen floor was cracking. Then, once out side all they could do was watch their home slide down the eroded coast and crash into the sea leaving them on the patio with the few items salvaged and a thin facade of brick which was once their back wall.

The storm itself was not ferocious but the seas destructive force was generated by a combination of a 'spring tide' whilst 80 mile an hour winds blew inland whipping the waves up at the same time as the air pressure was unusually low.

The High tide that ensued was as high as one that occurred in 1953 but then the damage caused was devastating with the sea reaching some two miles inland. Over 24,000 homes were damaged and more than 300 people died. The disaster initiated a whole host of sea defenses to be built  and here in North Norfolk for the most part they prevented damage of such a scale this time around.

There is an old sea wall around the village of Cley which on it's own would not have held the sea back but a newer sea wall a little further out did protect the village from flooding.

Here Alison is standing on top of the newest sea wall and you can see just how close the sea came to pouring over the top of it. For starters you need to understand that the water to the left is not the sea but water left after the sea had already breached the sea wall that is visible in the far horizon of the picture.

So having broken through there and flooding all the salt marshes between it then rose up against this sea wall. All that brown debris, dead reeds etc is the flotsam left behind as the tidal waters rescinded and represent the high tide mark. In the bottom right hand of the photo you can see that the water came to within inches of flowing over the sea wall.

This detritus was dumped the length of the high tide mark around the coast and there was a lot of odds and ends stranded amongst it. We came across boats, pontoons, a dead Mallard was laying right next to a drowned hare and this large egg lay in amongst it, amazingly unscathed.

We surmised that it was a Swans egg that failed to hatch and was washed up when the old swans nest was lifted by the flooding waters. Obviously my Zoom lens was just placed next to it so I could demonstrate just how large the egg was.

A little further out there was a secondary sea wall which unfortunately had several breaches along it's length. Our path being cut by holes as wide as 10~15ft in the defenses.

To proceed we had to climb down the sea wall and navigate a path at it's base before climbing back up to continue on our way. We had done this several times and on the last breach right at the base  and just as I was about to pass some reeds I was suddenly startled by this beastie looking up at me. I hadn't noticed but I had inadvertently put myself within two feet of a young Seal. It was the movement of it's head that made me jump and realising what it was and not wanting to be bitten I shinned back up from whence I had come toot suite.

It appeared that the sea wall was breached and thousands of gallons of water had passed through it sucking this poor seal with it. Now remembering that the water to the left of the photo is not the sea but simply sea water trapped in the marshes and that the sea is at least a half a mile away now then you can understand that this poor creature would be severely disorientated.

He looked in good health but wary and so Alison and I headed back to report him to the local wildlife Trust so they could notify the correct people.

They reckon that the flooding washed away over 400 seal cubs from their colonies around the Norfolk coast.
This being really dangerous for the young cubs that had not been fully weened yet.


We drove along a 'closed' road beyond Cley to get to the wildfowl center so we could report the seal and whilst some of the road had been cleared of the tidal debris there was still a patch very much as it was left by the sea.

Just to remind you that this is the main coastal 'A' road, the A149 now reduced to a simple mud track. No buses were running along it today!

This mess was the same in many other places below are two views of Blakeney's quay side road and in the second one you can see how well they have managed to clear the highway.

 

Blakeney's sea wall was punctured in many places too and literally miles and miles of grazing land was flooded.

 The gap above bled into the fields below and as far as you can see to the horizon should all be fields or reed  beds. This water has no where to go and could be sitting here for a long time. The reeds are used for thatching and I wonder if it shall effect the price of thatch.

 Boats were left high and dry on top of the sea wall. Everything being topsy turvey as also in the photo below the sea should be on the left of the wall and the fields on the right.

A helpful sign designed to warn motorists who park on the quay side also serves another dose of irony for the stranded yacht on top of the sea wall.

A few days later came the excellent news that most of the seal cubs seemed to be back in the colonies as parents were being reunited with their offspring. The pup below would definitely have died if he had not found his mum.

There were some deaths of course and the gulls are quick to make capital out of them using their sharp bills to attack the carcass of a cub whilst other seals choose to ignore them......

These two seals appear to be very happy, seemingly with big grins on their faces, glad to be back with the colony again at Blakeney point. We took a trip out to see these guys on Friday and whilst there were several hundred on the beach there are an estimated 1,200 in the dunes above which is really something to smile about after the devastation.

This little fluff ball was enjoying basking in the warm 10 degrees C, whilst there was a cutting wind for us humans confirming to me that I had less blubber than I thought!


So that was our take on the aftermath of the highest tides for 60 years, many villages flooded and businesses there too. They all have their work cut out for them but most suggest that they will be up and running again soon. We wish them all the best and hope that the insurance companies have some compassion.... Ha, ha, listen to me.. how naive!

The trapped sea waters may take a little longer to clear the fields and reed beds but for now these new lakes are pulling in more bird life and giving new perspectives to the views across the marshes.

These flooded fields were in some cases the bigger long term plan anyway as the conservators had made a decision to let the outer sea wall naturally erode and allow nature to develop on it's own. The wildlife would change but it would still be protected and the view probably would end up like this one has already.



 
For my part I am exploring new views to photograph. Like the one below where the sunset is now reflected by water where there was once fields.

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