Hello and welcome back to my blog 😊.

Today myself and Angela enjoyed a 13.5-mile walk from Chapel St Leonards to Sandilands and back. It is a fabulous walk which we have enjoyed previously. Angela wanted to do it particularly to see the progress made by the National Trust in creating wetlands at Sandilands.

It was a beautiful sunny blue-sky morning as we set off quite early from the long stay car-park in Chapel St Leonards. Because it is early March there were very few tourists around. Walking along the promenade we passed the pretty beach huts on the way to the North Sea Observatory.

We would be following the England Coastal Path most of the time.

We reached the architecturally impressive North Sea Observatory at Chapel Point. Opened in 2018 it is marine observatory but mainly a very popular café.

As we walked along the deserted beach I looked behind and saw my footprints – I couldn’t resist taking a photo.

Having walked the beach for a while we headed up to the coastal path through the sand dunes.

We reached Anderby Creek which is a favourite spot of ours to visit – especially the lovely cafe there. We stopped for a coffee. Well, it would be rude no to 😊.

We also took a look at the Cloud Bar- opened in 2009 it allows visitors to take a moment and appreciate the overlooked beauty of the sky above us. I have always appreciated the variety of clouds in nature. On the roof there are concrete cloud gazing chairs and tilted mirrors that facilitate looking at the sky.

However, without a cloud in sight we could not check out the facility on this occasion. We continued onwards along a deserted beach.

How truly wonderful it is to enjoy the beach and watch the waves rolling in and not be disturbed. There was definitely heat in the sun as well and it was a reminder that spring had arrived after a miserable winter.

Before long we reached Sandilands.

A wetlands is being created with a footpath running through and sometimes, even across the water ponds. There are plenty of benches along the way where you can sit and watch the birds.

We passed the visitors centre/cafe – this is still under construction and hopefully will be open for summer. It will be interesting to see how the site matures in years to come.

Having left Sandilands we joined the coastal path and headed back to Chapel St Leonards.

As we passed by the beach huts we noticed several were being cleaned out and painted ready for the summer season. In the town itself most of the shops were still closed.

It had been a lovely walk and we set off home a tad tired, but happy.

Happy Walking! 😊🚶