Adam Curtis recalls a summer evening of snorkelling perfection off the notoriously unpredictable Norfolk coast
Norwich
Snorkel planner
UKDIVING
Catching the drift
Underwater photography by Rob Spray
Adam Curtis recalls a summer evening of snorkelling perfection off the notoriously unpredictable Norfolk coast
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Sheringham snorkel trail
●
Holt Mundesley
Hemsby
● Great Yarmouth
Norwich
Lowestoft
The author and his son
After a long summer of waiting, conditions looked good for the Sheringham Snorkel Trail. The Norfolk Coast isn’ t known for crystal seas but when visibility picks up, the world’ s largest chalk reef is waiting to be explored. The‘ viz’ chatter on social media looked positive and my family consulted the tide table on our wall over dinner.
Overlooking the familiar beach, we kit up and walk past the crab-boat tractors as they continue their rusting vigil among the eclectic mix of fish boxes, deposited on the tide. Local teenagers finish their
Snorkel planner
LOW TIDE: 20.08hrs
HEIGHT ABOVE MEAN LOW WATER( MLW):- 0.1m
SUNSET: VISIBILITY: SEA TEMPERATURE: WIND: WEATHER: JOURNEY TIME TO THE SEA:
20.49hrs 6 metres
16 degrees Calm Sunny 24 mins
OPPORTUNITY: Catch it now or regret it forever exhausting café shifts to ally with the bait digger and claim back the beach from the holidaymakers. A doggy rides figurehead on his paddle board as sandwich terns patrol the surf, calling‘ kerrick’ for a sand eel supper.
The collapsed Victorian sewer pipe starts its submerged route, extending 100m into the sea, sitting 2-4m below. It leads to the reef of chalk beds and flint hagstones, all providing anchorage for more life than the foreshore of sand and rounded pebble. It’ s perfect to snorkel-dive along one side, mooch around the chalk reef and return along the other side. My teenage son and dive buddy surface dives through scattered shoals of small pouting, peering in every crab-filled nook, nudging a camouflaged flat fish from a sandy drift.
The sunrays beam deep into the water, casting mermaid’ s shadows that dance among the columns of light. We float between the sky and the sea, suspended between the two worlds, sharing this space with the mystic of the horizon and magic of the rainbow’ s end. A tilt of the head and our vision and hearing would shift between worlds, but we remain head down, fascinated. Gentle waves rock a lullaby as the curtains of red feathered and forked seaweeds unveil secrets with every ebb and flow.