This time, I took David with me – I have been having quite a
stressful, anxiety-ridden, crappy brain time lately, and I really needed to be
at the seaside. I just wanted crashing waves, harsh fresh air, and a chance to
not be surrounded by urban sprawl. I also had some stuff to take down to Devon
for my sister, so we combined it into a weekend getaway.
I took Mini Mary Anning, how could I not, and we also took a
riddle and my geological hammer, for some proper fossil hunting. It is
important to not go near the cliffs here, or to hammer them. Charmouth is a
protected site and it is against the fossil collecting code. It is also stupid.
These cliffs are always moving, shifting, changing - and falling.
This weekend we discovered that actually, the best fossils are closer to the water, but often just slightly buried. Moving the beach aside with your foot, hand, or hammer often yields bits of fossils. We found loads of bits of belemnite guard, quite a few pieces of broken ammonite, a couple of pieces of crinoid, and some whole pyritised ammonites! David found the first one and I am still mad, but then I found an absolute cracker on the second day so I still win. 10 geology points to me!
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| Davids first fossil find, maybe EVER. |
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| Mine. |
On the way to Devon we stopped off in Lyme Regis for lunch,
and also happened to fall into a brewery for a couple of bottles. There is so
much history in this area, and Mary Anning is a personal hero of mine, so
walking in her footsteps and imagining what it was like in the 1700s is so cool
to me. She walked these streets! She stepped on this beach! She may have liked
local beer!
I had a great little much needed weekend away, now I have to
sort and clean loads of fossils…………
