But my little family unit headed east, to Kent, in search of sharks teeth!
We had the most wonderful holiday away this year. We stayed at a caravan park on the Isle of Sheppey so we were close to Warden Point (a good hunting ground for fossils).
The tides were in our favour and low tide was either first thing in the morning or late afternoon which gave us the time in between to visit local attractions.
Warden Point
We visited this beach a couple of times during our week's stay. Unfortunately, the finds were minimal. Fossil hunting, and in particular sharks teeth, can be very hit and miss, one day you may find 6/7 teeth and the next none.
Herne Bay
Another beach that is famous for being a hot spot for locating shark teeth and this is where we visited after spending the day at the wonderful Howlett's Wildlife Park.
We didn't actually go to Herne Bay but headed east to Beltinge and that evening we found a dozen teeth in the shingle.
With the light against us, we were very keen to come back the next day. Only the tide out the next day was 10am which meant to get some good hunting in we would need to be at the beach for 8am and our caravan park was a 45-minute drive away.
That trip very nearly didn't happen! We (by we, I mean me and my son) moaned at 6.30am when hubby bounced around the caravan excited for a morning of hunting.
We continued to moan at 8am when we arrived at the beach and were putting coats on. Not only was it a bit chilly it was also windy (reminded me of Bracklesham, that place is always windy!).
Oh, my days I am so glad he ignored our moaning and dragged us out anyway! We had the most amazing fruitful four hours on Beltinge.
Unlike my home town, the beach had hardly any visitors as the sun broke through the clouds, but those who we did meet were just as surprised as us regarding our spoils.
According to research and locals, there are three good spots for finding teeth.
* One is to look along the shore as the tide is going out, as you walk along the water's edge you may see a tooth floating by.
* The most popular and possibly the best for undamaged teeth is the"black rock" section, which is out towards the towers from the promenade steps. Here teeth get washed up and caught in the small rock pools.
* Thirdly, in the shingle on the beach and this is my favourite method.
I like to sit myself down and gently take the top layer of the shingle away to see what treasures lie beneath. On this particular day, we didn't even need to do that, as we picked a spot and sat down we found a tooth, just by using our eyes, we did then move the shingle and 8 out of 10 times we found another tooth.
I loved it so much at Beltinge and can't wait to go back in spring which is meant to be the best season for finding sharks teeth.
On that Thursday before we came home we found 67 teeth, making over 100 teeth found in total on our holiday.
Really was a fruitful, wonderful week in Kent.
What magnificent finds! Looks like you had good weather as well. I love a good day at the beach.
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