A weekend on Brean Sands with Bob the dog - Off lead experience

Last month I decided to take Bob away for a weekend to visit the beach before winter kicks in. We stayed at a Travelodge in Burnham on Sea and spent our days on the Brean Sands.

It was quite a difference experience paddling in the Bristol Channel than Bob's first beach trip which was in St Lucia, north of Durban in South Africa, where he paddled in the Indian Ocean and chased monkeys over the sand dunes.

His next beach experience was in Dubai, in the Arabian Gulf, but sadly it wasn't long before dogs were banned from the beaches there.

Bob has had a wonderful life after we adopted him in 2013 and has clocked up some air miles along the way.

His latest beach trip was a world away from South Africa and Dubai, this time it was late September and in the Bristol Channel. He had a wonderful time with miles of empty sand to run off lead and I didn't have to worry about him taking off after a monkey over the dunes in Durban like he did before or have to keep an eye out for crocodiles and hippos.

Now I've discovered we can stay in a Travelodge, it means there will be more beach trips ahead for us. Our tent is on its way over from Dubai in the shipping container so there will be camping next spring also to add to our UK adventures.

Bob's recall has diminished since moving to Dubai as outdoor spaces we have used have been shut down to dog users and the only place he's been able to run off lead for the past 3 years has been at indoor dog parks.

I started off with the short lead to get to open space.

Moved onto the longer lead to let him explore further

Let go of the lead to work on his recall, which he mastered, straight away.

Then let him off lead, knowing I had all day to get him back if necessary.

I always carry a ball and some treats as an incentive to get him to come back.

There were plenty of rest stops.

And food opportunities.

Being a dog owner in the UK is a new experience for us both. Bob hasn't been used to visiting beaches, parks, coffee shops and the sights and the sounds and the smells have taken quite a bit of adjusting to.

I don't want my experience of Dubai enhanced.

 I don’t want my experience of Dubai enhanced.

 

It's been almost 4 years since we moved to Dubai and so much has changed. New roads, buildings, a canal, investment. Everything to encourage new people to move here, preparation for 2020, new airport, new tallest building in the world under construction. You can see the changes over on #mysundayphoto tag.

Talking to other people who have been living here much longer than I have, they say similar ‘Dubai is growing’ but the response to it from the expats and locals I’ve met is ‘we don’t like it’

I feel the same way, when we first moved here, prices for tourist attractions were considerably lower, life was a lot cheaper and more simple. Now there are very few places offering resident discount or preferences. We can no longer take our dog to the beach, out into the desert, our nearest park was been reduced by 50% due to the new water canal and the facilities inside have gone down hill. Other parks charges high entrance fees and are over crowded on weekends and in the evenings.

What’s annoying me the most however is the reduction of access to public beaches. We lived 1km from the nearest beach, currently NOT on the tour bus route and apart from 1 café, showers and toilets and a life guard tower. The beaches either side of us now have food shacks, allow jet skiing and kite surfing, have umbrellas and chairs for hire and hold regular events.

The free beach, already slightly reduced in size and a new harbour wall is being built.

With the creation of the new canal and land being built to accommodate hotels, malls, restaurants etc, it won’t be long before our local beach is full on weekends as local residents get edged of their bit of beach and then due to the numbers using the beach, there will be more facilities and amenities, trouble parking, crowded beaches and tour buses stopping.

All this of course is great for tourism and the economy, but it’s not great for us locals, the people who get edged out for the tourists on the weekends and evenings. More and more rules are put in place and sanctioned. I can’t cycle along the beachfront or walk my dog. I can chose to drive out into the desert to cycle on the established cycle track now complete with restaurants and visitors who aren’t visiting for recreational purposes. More people come out to the lakes with the introduction of new facilities, but then there is more mess, more traffic and weekend events. 

But to encourage more visitors out the lakes they are now being stocked with birds and wildlife, which means dogs are now banned from the area and we’re being forced to spend money on entrance fees into private owned dog exercise companies, that already exist, and I use, but when the demand outstrips the space, that will be limited also. Dog friendly public spaces are limited, there are a handful of cafes that allow you to sit outide with your dog, more and more of the developers are banning dogs from areas such as Dubai Marina, forcing people to either give up their dog or move to more expensive areas.

I’m sure I’d have similar experiences living in other cities around the world. I no longer have kids at home, so I’m not interested in child friendly play areas, of which there seems to be plenty of in Dubai. Dubai seems to invest substantiality into families, education, child discounts, which is good for encouraging new families to move here, but for those of us here without kids, or whose children have grown up, all that leaves us with is nail bars, gyms, sports clubs and brunches.

None of which I’m particularly interested in. What I’d like to see is more public open spaces, a park I can take my dog to. More cycle tracks in the city and being allowed to take my bike on the metro so I can reach the quieter areas of Dubai to explore, away from the none stop tourism I get caught up in daily.

Have you noticed changes around the area you live in? 

My Sunday Photo - Week 149 S is for Sun

I'm returning to the UK tomorrow so I thought I'd make most of the my last day of living near the beach, as when I return to Dubai at the end of the month, we're moving further inland to a brand new, smaller and much cheaper property. As much as I love living near the beach, it's too hot to visit most of the year, and whilst I love swimming and there is a life guard, there are also rip tides that worry me and the new house has a gym with pool near by and we can always drive down to the beach on the weekends anyway.

My plans to spend time on the beach were scuppered by a last minute hospital appointment at midday the other side of the city, but I managed to pop down for this photo while my car was being valeted.

Travel The Wild Coast. from Durban to Addo, Nr Port Elizabeth

Road Trip from Centurion to Cape Town and back via Durban and Port Elizabeth

 

 

We’ve been to Durban and the surrounding areas and driven the Garden Route but we’ve never explored the East Coast and have been told that’s where we find the most spectacular beaches.

We spent 3 days travelling from home to reach Addo, North of Port Elizabeth and we did see the most amazing sites, from driving through the homeland of the Xhosa people, where Nelson Mandela is from, and their painted houses to the rugged coast line. Called The Wild Coast.
 

It’s a very long journey with an average of 7 hours a day on the road, but it’s a must. Locals warn you of the dangers on the road, people and animals. It is constant, from goats wandering across the roads to cattle delaying the traffic and not just the side roads but the National roads also.

 

I was told in advance about the Xhosa peoples green houses, today I’m assuming they’ve got a job lot of various shades of green paint, but originally their houses were decorated by extracting the green from copper in the mud.

 

We didn’t spend a lot of time in any of the places to explore but what we saw from our brief stop over in Ramsgate, Coffee Bay, visit to Port Alfred we really liked it and plan to return another time.

 

The coast line down here is peaceful and tranquil in terms of activities and visitors. If you enjoy chilling out, reading, walking and bird watching then I can’t think of a better place to visit.

Coffee Bay involved a 2 hour, return, drive on an unpaved road for 75kms. I think they should put signs up to say ‘no pot holes for the next 100 yards, otherwise they’re everywhere’

 

Thankfully the hotel was ‘All Inclusive’ as there was no village centre or local shops, the hotel owned what appeared to be the only Fuel station and banking facilities in the area.

Coffee Bay took its name after a ship carrying a cargo of coffee beans was shipwrecked in 1893, some of the beans took root but none survived the salty soil.

There is so much history to explore in regards to ship wrecks and fascinating to discover that 8 years after the English ship The Grosvenor sank in 1782, an expedition to find the survivors uncovered over 400 people of non-African descent living along the Mngazi River, believed to be the remnants of various ship wreck survivors along the wild coast.

The trip to Port Alfred took us on a detour off the N2 of around 40 minutes. We drove through a range of small villages full of bars, restaurants, craft shops and small cheese and dairy farms, to the coast. It’s obviously quite windy there judging by the size of the sand dunes and despite the constant drizzle we’d had for the past 3 days, the air was warm and we took a walk on the beach collecting shells from the Indian Ocean.

 

Back in the car for another 2 hours and we reached Addo, where we are staying for 2 nights to explore the Addo Elephant national Park.