What started with a short discussion of an idea in the garden turned into a full blown adventure. Thanks to a recent Facebook post by my cousin and his family, who had gone to the beach to watch the sunrise, my daughter Netti and I thought her three would enjoy doing something similar. We soon had the bare bones of a plan; where to go, Cleethorpes would be the easiest; early start, sunrise was around a quarter to five this week; picnic, we didn’t want hangry kids; we just needed the when. I pointed out that we probably needed to do it fairly soon, before all this run of glorious weather ended, possibly tonight or tomorrow night. At this point we left it, just an idea floating around in our minds, neither of us committing to a definite plan. I continued my day pottering around the garden and in the early evening retired to my sitting room to blob and binge watch some TV. I was well into a good series when my phone started to flash at me. I paused my programme and picked up the phone “Netti wants to FaceTime” suppressing a sigh I answered it. “Are we going tonight?”she asked. At which point the TV series was put on hold whilst we discussed the logistics involved in actually carrying out our plan. What were we taking for the picnic? Since we would be eating in the early morning we decided on a picnic breakfast of croissants and muffins with hot chocolate or coffee. What time should we set off? Under normal circumstances it takes about an hour and a half to get to Cleethorpes and sunrise was at 04.37 that morning so I suggested we needed to be setting off between two and half past. Netti took charge of sorting the picnic since she had all the food. The only thing I had to do was provide the hot chocolate. I went downstairs to Paul, explained what we had planned to and asked him to get my car out of the garage I readiness. He thought we were mad but, being as he is used to our harebrained schemes, didn’t question our plan. I decided to get my clothes, and anything else I might need, ready so I wouldn’t have to disturb Paul in the early hours, before settling back down in front of the TV. After finishing my binge watch I turned the TV off, set my alarm and nodded off. I am pretty good at the power nap after years of “not going to sleep on duty” on my night shift break. The first time I woke up was when a sudden thought came into my head. I said I’d provide the hot chocolate but I couldn’t remember if I had any left. Oh well, I told myself, it’ll just have to be coffee. I nodded off again only to be disturbed by wondering if the tide would be in or out. Well I simply had to check, didn’t I? Once I had satisfied my curiosity I settled off once more. Almost before I knew it my alarm went off telling me it was time to move. I snuck into the bathroom and got myself ready before creeping downstairs. My first job was to check on the hot chocolate situation. Thankfully I had a jar in stock. I was just boiling the milk when Netti and the kids came through the door. Joey tiptoed across the room shushing everyone because “grandad’s in bed”, followed by Lils and Netti. We added the flask of hot chocolate to the picnic bag, collected a pile of blankets, piled quietly into the car and set off.
I had forgotten to put the sat-nav in but hey, the route to Cleethorpes is one of the easiest to drive, A1, M18, M180 and through Grimsby. Except when you miss the junction for the M180. I’m not really sure how I missed it, but I did. I was beginning to wonder and had asked Netti to check on my phone when I saw the sign for the M62, so I knew for sure I’d missed my turning. Never mind, we can still get there using the M62, it’s just a bit of a long way round. As we hurtled along the deserted motorway Harry noticed the moon, hanging low in the sky like a huge copper penny caught in the pre-dawn sun-glow. He was quite impressed. Turning eastwards the sky was slowly changing from inky black to deep blue as we headed towards the light. We came to the end of the M62 and I had Netti using the phone to give me directions. Since the M62 route had taken us too far north we were now on the wrong side of the Humber Estuary so we simply had to cross the Humber Bridge. Not that we could see much in the dark! We were soon back on track and before long we were driving past the Cleethorpes Memorial Hall, where Suzy, Danii and Kate used to take part in dance festivals when they were young. We drove along the seafront to the leisure centre, where I originally thought we’d get a good view but it didn’t look like a particularly nice spot backing onto the carpark. We did spot a fox trotting along the sea wall though.
Back along the seafront we parked the car next to a set of steps leading down to the beach and unloaded the blankets and the picnic. The only other person in sight was a solitary man walking his dogs. “It’s a bit chilly this morning,” he commented, as if it was normal to see two women and a hoard of kids going to the beach at four in the morning. We descended to the beach where Harry and Joey immediately kicked off their shoes and ran down to the receding sea. Netti and I found a nice spot, with no litter and not too far from the steps and spread the blankets out against the sea wall with the assistance of Lils. Once we were settled Lils set about building a sandcastle whilst the boys wrestled in the sand. Joey dug a Joey sized pit with a headrest and settled in until Harry and Lils decided to bury him. We had only been there about ten minutes when we heard someone on the steps. A woman and small girl came down to the sand and settled themselves on the opposite side of the steps. We were soon joined by a couple of other family groups and a couple of teenage girls. We could also hear quite a bit of chatter above us and noticed the occasional pair of feet dangling over the edge of the sea wall. It was astounding how busy the beach and promenade were before sunrise.
Unfortunately we weren’t going to see the actual sunrise due to a bank of dark cloud stretching across the horizon. It was still a beautiful sight; the lead clouds became edged with a lacy trim of molten gold and the sky changed from fiery orange, through coral, to candy floss pink; the sun burst through a gap in the clouds and shot a gold ribbon across the water and still wet sand before rising above the cloud and all was lost in the infinite blue of the new day.
By now we were all getting a tad hungry so we unpacked our picnic breakfast and tucked into chocolate croissants, muffins and hot chocolate whilst watching all the activity on the beach. A strung out group of joggers went by, what sort of person gets up at four in the morning to be on the beach jogging by five o’clock? A couple of dog walkers taking advantage of the early hours as it is a dog free beach throughout the summer. A few more families letting their kids play in the sand before the inevitable hoards arrive now that they can, leaving their leftovers littering the beach, we saw the evidence. We sat a while longer, snuggled under our blankets, letting the sun warm our faces whilst the kids played on the breakwater. By half past five; apart from us and the woman with the little girl; the beach was empty again. Netti said her feet were cold which made her feel chilly. And since my bum was getting numb we decided it was time to gather our belongings and head back to the car. Lils and I had fun trying to shake the sand out of the blankets and fold them in the stiff sea breeze which had sprung up. We rounded up two reluctant boys, brushed off the sand and made them change into clean clothes before getting into the car. We turned the heaters on full blast and, by a quarter to six, we were on our way home. We all agreed we had enjoyed our night-time adventure to welcome the summer and would do it again.