I used to live just up the road from Watergate Bay and the beach was just a 5 minute walk down the hill, for several years this was my patch, my beach, my memories. Seeing the beach today my eyes welled up, the once golden sands of Watergate Bay were now hidden under a layer of stones and rocks and not to mention rubbish.
As I took a walk across both ends of the beach I was seeing more and more rubbish and destruction. Although Watergate Bay had not seen anywhere near as much damage as other coastal locations this is a beach that means so much to me and seeing it in such a state was heartbreaking.
The boys from the Beach Hut and the Hotel were out in force already this morning as soon as the tide started to drop to start clearing up the beach and worked hard to remove a lot of wooden decking that was strewn across the beach.
The high tide line this morning revealed an awful lot. Big bits of rubbish are easier to handle, easier to spot and easier to pick up but it's the thin layer of tiny bits of broken plastic floating in the rock pools layered over the sand that looks awful but is a nightmare to clear up. Having already taken part in a beach clean a few weeks ago after the first storm it was heartbreaking seeing so much small litter back on another beach, but it's so impossible to remove these little bits of litter without taking clumps of sand with it. It's just a shame there's so much of it!
This lifeguards shed perched above the sea defence has also seen damage, with the window smashed in and the door missing. Clearly the ocean likes surfing as it left the surfing posters on the wall but ripped out the door and window! Hearing the wind whistling through the shed the clanging of the twisted and mangled blind against the window full of broken glass left eerie sounds drifting across the beach with the sun shining and the sky blue and beautiful it was hard to think that just a few hours earlier all this carnage was created.
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