It’s easy to find things for us to do down here near Milford on Sea. We’ve driven out to places, towns and villages, hunted through book shops, been to the beach more times than we can count, eaten delicious food, bodyboarded, walked the dog in amazing places and rope swung (is that the correct past tense?!) in the woods. But we haven’t done crabbing yet. And today is the day.
We’ve crabbed a lot with the kids as they grew up but haven’t made time for it recently. So today we decided to grab the nets and see what crabulous crustaceans we could find.
We set off on the bikes (for the kids) and feet (for us) to head to the beautiful marshes of Keyhaven. We stopped off at the rope swing on the way and then made our way through Milford on Sea. As it was the weekend, the village was lively and bustling.
After this, we headed down to the Keyhaven marshes – the views are lovely and it was a windy day, which made the sea over the shingle ridge dramatic and turbulent.
The kids didn’t have to hunt for long before our daughter found her first (and only) crab – nicknamed Phillip. Once she’d found him, she was content and needed to crab no more! But we enjoyed sitting together and watching the other kids paddle in the river, messily eat ice creams and dodge the spiky rocks. Our son carried on hunting in the shallows.
Lots of kids were crabbing here, it’s a real hot spot. The rocks can be slippery (the last time she came here, our daughter slipped and fell full body into the river!), but the crabs seem to stay, despite all of the fingers poking at them, as they get so well fed with bacon!
You can see Hurst Castle here from a distance and watch little sailboats come and go, depending on the tide. We also saw a few paddle boarders. And we could see why they chose this side of the ridge… the sea waves were insane in the wind! My daughter and I were in our swim kits ready for a dip in the sea, but when we saw the waves we knew we couldn’t go in. It was way too choppy for us but there were some brave souls jumping in the surf.
Once we’d had our fill of the coast and the marshes, we headed to one of our favourite places to eat here – the Lighthouse.
Although… we’ve never stopped here in such high winds! We sat on the terrace and at one point I thought my daughter would be blown up and away by the gusts! Our son was craving proper chips (extra chunky!) so he ordered chips and a bubble team. Our daughter and I, meanwhile, ordered the 3 scoop ice cream stack – mint choc chip, honeycomb and chocolate. They were good. My husband and I enjoyed some cold beers too.
It was a bit too windy for us to comfortably walk back along the coastal path, so we made our way through the woodland again and found another set of rope swings. It’s a fantastic space for kids (although the height of these rope swings is a little intimidating!).
After being out and exploring for 4 hours, we are ready for a chilled night. Tomorrow we’ll be making our way to Christchurch after a workout, to look for books, stationery and a good coffee shop!
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