From the sea and leading inland up to Horsey Corner, there are a number of unique habitats including the warren (an area so called because rabbits were once bred commercially on it), dune slacks, the dunes themselves and, of course, the beach area. Each of them is home to a wide collection of plants, mammals, insects, birds and butterflies. Forming part of the Winterton Dunes National Nature Reserve, the general environment is unique in Great Britain in that it has many of the characteristics of dune systems in the Baltics, including the acidic nature of the soil, resulting in a range of acid-loving plants. Other dune systems in Norfolk generally consist of sand with a higher lime content. As one moves from the beach through the various habitats, the environment richens from the wild and open expanses of the beach front, through the grassed dunes to the rich areas of scrubland, open heath and arable land beyond.
Dune systems can be subject to constant change, as the wind adds and removes sand over time. With a massive sea defence (sea wall) that runs from just Cart Gap (just below Happisburgh) now fronting the dune, with a further addition of massive granite rocks in front of that again, the dune system has become fairly fixed and develops separately from the beach front.
We had been walking for about a mile and were approaching what we thought were hundreds of large rocks lying at the water's edge when the rocks moved! You guessed it, not rocks but hundreds of grey seals, adults and young, hauled up on the beach to lie in the sun. It was a phenomonal experience with group after group of seals over a mile or so, numbering in the high hundreds. Grey seals generally haul up on isolated beaches on the many islands around Great Britain but here at Horsey is one of the best mainland sites to see them. To find out more about the Horsey site, visit the Friends of Horsey Seals here.
From outside the cafe we could see over to a nearby holiday park where there were some very attractive, colourful, traditional, thatched Norfolk 'round houses'. Round houses were a standard form of house building in Great Britain from the bronze through to the iron age and in some places on in to the Roman period.
To make it slightly easier on ourselves, we went to the accommodation first where we showered and rested up before going out later to walk up and down the spit bathed in the last rays of a brilliant red sunset, before going out for a late dinner in a Greek restaurant. It was late by the time we returned to the B&B and not long before we had turned in, tired after completing a total of sixteen miles for the day, most of it on sand.