It was very windy last weekend and the sea was rough with plenty of white horses. On the sandy beach granite rocks are strategically strewn across the shoreline in attempt to reduce erosion, but what’s that? – a rock just moved.
Walking down towards the sea we find members of the Horsey Gap grey seal colony flopped out and sunning themselves. Or, playing rough and tumble in the surf.
Or, simply having a little nap.
The seal colony at Horsey Gap on Norfolk’s east coast is popular with visitors in late winter when all the pups have just been born. We were surprised to find so many seals on the beach in August. Of course, there are always one or two of them watching the watchers. . . .
. . . especially when some of those watchers come a little too close and then the whole colony clumsily, but speedily move a couple of metres towards the water and away from the nosey humans.
You can’t see in these photos just how windy it was, but every now and then a gust whipped up the sand stinging any exposed skin. It reminded my father of the Shamal that blows down from Iraq and across Kuwait almost continuously during June and July each year.
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Oh, just brilliant. Thank you.
Thank you – it was such an unexpected treat to find so many there at this time of year!
Maybe the seals were getting away from the rough seas for a bit? What a crowd though!
Yes, my father thought that. Actually he was there in February and says there were so many pups he almost tripped over one on the footpath.
Oh bingo! We wrote about seals on the same day. Your photos are brilliant. I love the way you have captured them looking into the lens, and playing by the surf. And I’d forgotten the term “white horses”. I must store that in my memory bank for future use.
How funny – what a coincidence 😄 Naturally, a bland Norfolk beach is no competition for the coastline of Kangaroo Island.
Nay, nay. Each has its own beauty.
I’m not a fan of sand as my sister pointedly reminded when I was moaning about it getting everywhere in the wind.
I sure don’t like it whipping around in the wind either. And after I have stretched out on sand I can’t walk properly for a while after because of lack of lower back support. That one was never a problem when I was twenty 😀
Even though I tan easily, I’ve never been a fan of sandy, beach times – always prefer to be swimming in the sea. Yes, and second guessing you, I have been swimming in the North Sea in those seal photos just up the coast at Waxham, but only on a hot day!
A great story and images. Over here the seals colonise well away from people, we rarely see one like this.
I think the seals here would prefer that humans kept their distance. This spot is properly cordoned off during the winter months to protect the young pups.
Beautiful photography, and what a pleasure to be able to visit these beautiful animals. And those wide beaches and dunes – your coast looks wonderful.
It is a ‘gentle’ coast, should really be large marsh and wetland areas rather than dry land behind a sea wall. As you probably know this area is undergoing considerable erosion. At nearby Hembsy, in 2013, a bungalow fell into the sea after a storm.