Hot, hot, hot. It is absolutely scorching right now. Maybe, at long last, the world might be waking up to the impact of climate change – we are currently seeing fire, floods and melting ice… Not that the UK media seems interested – all that should be concerning us castaways on Plague Island right now, apparently, is the ‘pingdemic’. Anyway, in last week’s post I said I’d write about the new Visitor/Discovery Centre at Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, so here we go. It is very hot here upstairs in my study, so this won’t be a long piece…
Battleaxe readers will know that we often enjoy walks at Rye Harbour – the wide horizons and cloudscapes are fabulous, and of course we see plenty of birds – not that we remember what most of them are… Here is a post from 2016 – lots of photos of avocets, and beautiful cloudscapes. When we visited last week the hot weather had not yeat arrived – it was a bit overcast.
It feels like the new Discovery Centre has been under construction for years – well, I suppose it has – and of course it was further delayed by the pandemic. When we went, it had only been open for a few weeks.
Battleaxe was unconditionally impressed and would totally recommend. Now, that’s rare for Mrs Nitpicky here. The building iteslf is sympathetic with its surroundings, and inside there is a large cafe area with fabulous views across the reserve. Good coffee in proper china cups, very good cake… excellent. Good loos, check, lots of information and good displays, and a nice shop area. There is also a classroom and a study area. Full marks all round. Battleaxe heard some woman moaning to the bloke who appeared to be the manager about lack of items to buy, but there seemed to be plenty on sale to me, and what did she expect? Harrods? Anyway, as far as I can see it is open every day from about 10am. The Sussex Wildlife Trust should be very proud of the place.
We went for our usual circular walk round the reserve after our coffee. So many wildflowers this year. The Vipers Bugloss is a particularly vibrant blue.
This strange yellow art installation was still in situ on the beach. The photo below says all about it. When we looked at it up close, with its intricate bamboo ribbing and rigging, we actually quite liked it… I see it is supposed to be a lighthouse cum yellow horned poppy. Possibly.
Honestly, it is New Visitor Centre Season right now, and Battleaxe can hardly keep up. No sooner have we been to Rye Harbour than another opens – The Bale House at Hastings Country Park. That one is made of straw – yes indeed. It cost a massive amount of money and took years to build. All that for a future post.
That looks a lovely place, Stephanie. I wish we’d had a bit of your heat, though. Last week was quite nice, but most of this summer has been cool, grey and wet. I’m not even going to mention the floods in the east. Just too horrendous.