Pumping Sand at Sunrise

I went to bed at 8 pm the previous night to be up for sunrise at 4.30 am this day. Truth be told, I should have been in position at least five minutes earlier because there were some wonderful colours in the sky.

The full photo will show you the dredger/blower pumping wet sand on to the beach at Mablethorpe. This is part of an annual exercise to restore the beach between Mablethorpe and Skegness in a bid to maintain flood defences. So far it's the cheapest way of doing it but it's not sustainable in the longer term. Not sure how Skegness and Mablethorpe would react to relinquishing their beaches to saltmarsh.

We went to Mablethorpe in the morning to see the plant equipment pushing the sand into place and also laying the pipe for the next round of sand blowing. The operation lasts from mid-May to the summer holidays in July working 24/7.