Walking along the coast from my home in Cardiff, we followed the cliff line walking beneath them, and reading their stories left behind in the rocks. We found layers of red sandstone from the Late Triassic, when my home was vast and mountainous desert over 200 million years ago. Above were layers of light grey sediments; mudstones and limey silts from Jurassic seas, which covered most of Europe as the dinosaurs ruled the land.
A closer look and a sharper eye can find you intermit details of these ancient worlds. We stumbled across fossil beds of Ammonites and Bivalves revealed by the low tides. As well as great slabs of rock, showing the fossilised ripples marks of an ancient beach.
Returning home we followed a path which hugged the cliff tops. To my surprise, we found the signs of nation and a world at war. Finding concrete artillery placements guarding the estuary, as well as bunkers, and store houses. This made the threat of invasion during the second world war very real to me. Most of the concrete buildings and tunnels had been reclaimed by nature, as well as being spray painted by the generations of which they were built to protect.
The coast is an amazing place full of adventures, stories, and wonder. With a little detective work and a good pair of boots, you can discover it all for yourself.
