As the sun was going down this evening, the air temperature was still lovely and warm and the beach was still packed. In the middle of this 5 photo stitched panorama, a stage was being erected for a ‘beach event’ this evening – all very pleasant.
We’ve been lucky enough as a family to travel to some great locations on vacation in the past. Possibly the best day spent together was this one on Tuaran Beach in Sabah, on the Malaysian part of the Island of Borneo. We had this huge beach and the adjacent forest all to ourselves and a horse each that didn’t know the meaning of the word ‘slow’. Health and Safety – there was none; Aches and Bruise there were aplenty!
Today, on the way back to Hong Kong from Surabaya in Indonesia, I got this great view of the same beach (running the entire length of the right hand side of the photo, up to the river estuary) but from a slightly different perspective. Ah, memories!
From where I was taking photos yesterday there is an unbroken 8 mile stretch of sandy beach along Christchurch Bay, past Bournemouth, to Sandbanks and the entrance to Poole harbour. Sandbanks is home to some of the most expensive and magnificent properties in the UK and obviously some very rich people. One of those who live here is Harry Redknapp; many people’s favourite to be the next England football manager. At present, Harry is the manager of the club team that I have supported since childhood – Tottenham Hotspur. The irony is that, since the resignation of the previous England manager Fabio Capello and Harry becoming the favourite for the job, his club team have gone on an awful run of results. So, today’s photo is taken from the beach at Sandbanks and represents the fact that Harry and my team need some immediate rescuing!
This is one of our favourite places – the area of Mudeford sand spit and Hengistbury Head on the southern shore of Christchurch harbour. We just took a walk along here today for a bit of fresh air. There were very few people out and about and so there was a very quiet and gentle feel about the place. The 350 beach huts here come with permission for domestic residence and it is possible to live or holiday in them between the beginning of March and November; it would be a very peaceful existence at this time of year, but rather different at the height of the school holidays. The price of this type of idyll does not come cheap, I’ve seen asking prices of 145000 pounds to buy, or 900 pounds a week to rent. Dream on!