North Sea Observatory and beach huts, Chapel Point*
Artwork and amusements, beaches, birds and a bomber, through to a pier, plaques, a poet and poignant letters: this is a dog-friendly week in Lincolnshire based one mile inland from the coast at Sutton on Sea.
From the Humber estuary in the north to the Wash south of Skegness, the coast is generally a broad beach.
Near towns – Mablethorpe, Sutton on Sea, Chapel St Leonards and Skegness – dog walking is restricted, but on our campsite there seemed to be even more dogs than normal because owners know how many wonderful miles of sand are available for dogs to run free.
Breeding seals at Donna Nook, north of Saltfleet and at Gibraltar Point at the southern end, where there are also groundnesting birds, create other restrictions, but they barely impinge on canine exercise.
Gibraltar Point is a National Nature Reserve. It consists of more than 1,000 acres of sandy and muddy shores, sand dunes, salt marshes, grassland and lagoons. As the tide drained from the Wash, water also ran out of Wainfleet Creek, leaving boats high and dry on mud.
From a viewpoint we could see Norfolk 14 miles away, the view across the Wash broken by sandbanks exposed by theto bask in the sunshine. In a hide by a shallow pond, we watched a black-headed gull bringing fresh nest material to its mate clearly already sitting on eggs.
