Brrrrr, it's so cold!

Went for a drive to the nearby coast to have a look about. First stop was Dymchurch. We got out of the car and ruggd up. I commentet to Carole that this was probably the coldest I had felt the entire trip. Colder than Lapland even (obviously not in terms of the actual temp but how cold it felt). When I took my gloves off to take photos my fingers were freezing, bitterly cold and I don't get bothered by cold. Ever. The bizarre part was that it was a beautiful day with blue skies and we were walking along and on the beach!

Quick pint of Courage Best Bitter in a pub called the Ocean to warm up in front of the fire and tick my O pub for this trip. Hopped back in the car and headed further south along the coast to the remote Dungeness. It's a headland that is formed out of a vast expanse of shingle. There is a conservation area and the bird society have a large reserve and observatory. It's hard to explain but when you drive in it feels bleak and as I described it to Carole, like you are driving into the setting of American Werewolf in London. A few people live there but we saw no signs of life. The RSPB put up daily bird sightings on their website.

Actually I might just let wikipedia describe it for me :-

Dungeness is one of the largest expanses of shingle in the world. It is of international conservation importance for its geomorphology, plant and invertebrate communities and birdlife. This is recognised and protected mostly through its conservation designations as a National Nature Reserve (NNR), a Special Protection Area (SPA), a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and part of the Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) known as Dungeness, Romney Marsh and Rye Bay.
There is a remarkable and unique variety of wildlife living at Dungeness, with over 600 different types of plant (a third of all those found in Britain). It is one of the best places in Britain to find insects such as moths, bees and beetles, and spiders; many of these are very rare, some found nowhere else in Britain.
The short-haired bumblebee, Bombus subterraneus, declared extinct in the UK nearly a decade ago, but which has survived in New Zealand after being shipped there more than 100 years ago, is to be reintroduced at Dungeness. It is planned that the first bees will be introduced in the spring of 2010.
The flooded gravel pits, both brackish and fresh water, provide an important refuge for many migratory and coastal bird species. The RSPB has a bird sanctuary there and every year thousands of bird watchers descend on the peninsula to catch a glimpse of a rare bird from the bird observatory.
One of the most remarkable features of the site is an area known as 'the patch' or, by anglers, as 'the boil'. The waste hot water and sewage from the Dungeness nuclear power stations are pumped into the sea through two outfall pipes, enriching the biological productivity of the sea bed and attracting seabirds from miles around.

Well that's different, a positive spin on a nuclear power plant!

I don't actually have any photos of Dungeness worth posting. The two below are from Dymchurch.