The sign points to Usine des Dunes, and refers to a huge noisy industrial site set in the middle of an extensive area of coastal dunes. The dunes themselves are the southern end of the line that continues along the Belgian and Dutch coasts to the Waddensee Islands. Near the factories is a car park provided by the Conservatoire de l'Espace Littoral et des Rivages Lacustres for visitors to the dunes.
The dunes by the factories have limited provision for public access ‑ a single footpath winds through the thickets of sea buckthorn to the beach. In some places the path is reinforced with some sort of gravelly concrete, and often, where it goes uphill, steps are provided with a wall of pine posts either side to keep people to the path and so reduce erosion. Motorcycles are prohibited.
It has been quite foggy all morning and birds don't really want to be seen; they just occasionally pop out of and back into the dense scrub. Most can be located and identified by their contact calls. One caller eludes us for a while, though we suspect that it is a firecrest. Our patience is rewarded when it does eventually show, very briefly and almost at our feet, allowing us time to see only the stripes on its head.
After the noise of the factory, the vast expanse of open sandy beach is a haven of peace. There are a few hundred gulls along the shore ‑common, black‑headed, great black‑back and herring gulls, the odd oystercatcher flew past, and out at sea are a couple of great-crested grebes. A fisherman comes along on a tractor to check lines of nets exposed at low tide.
The return walk to the van was uneventful.
Continuing our journey southwards along the coast we discover hills just south of Calais ‑ chalk downland and the French end of the Channel Tunnel. Even these gentle hills seem like mountains after so much flat land (in the Netherlands and Belgium). As dusk falls we came across a valley with a reed‑fringed lake. A male marsh harrier quarters the area in search of supper.
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