It was a beautifully calm day - perfect for heading out for a beach walk towards Hersham and up the long flight of stairs to see if we could spot any dolphins.

With the Spring tide peaking yesterday (and low tide at 10:08 a.m. this morning), the conditions were perfect for a low tide beach walk to the rocks at Glentana and back.

So, back from the run and I'm told it's time for a beach walk - what's a guy to do?  Go for a beach walk, of course - and why not throw in some 70-odd stairs at Hersham for good measure...

I spotted 3 crabs at the river mouth as we set out for our low tide beach walk.  It's a bit hard to tell from the pics, but based on the direction of their tracks and the progress they had made by the time we got back 45 minutes later it looks like they were coming into the closed river from the ocean.  Cool!

These were pretty small - the largest was probably only about 15 cm's across (just the body, not the claws) - nothing at all compared to the "monster crab" that lurks under the water elsewhere around The Island!

So with the power out at 12:20 or so, seems like hitting the beach for a nice long walk was in order. Good for getting the legs working again, too.  The tide was already turning, but what the heck, it was a beautiful sunny day, and with a bit of a breeze it wouldn't be too hot.  Despite it being a Saturday, I saw just 4 people on the 8 km stretch to Glentana.  A few more on the way back.  Took 2 hours 50 minutes (the Sports Tracker time indicates 3 hours 5 minutes, but that doesn't take into account the chat I had with a neighbour about braai plans!).  

If you're thinking of doing it, my general rule of thumb is to allow 3 hours for a brisk-ish walk there and back in soft sand conditions, otherwise, 2.5 hours at low tide is quite do-able.

So what else is new? Ha!  With low tide at 10:58 a.m., heading out around 9:00 a.m. makes for perfect walking conditions there and back.

Rather a drizzly morning but that's no reason not to go for a beach walk (or a dip!).  The sand was still pretty firm, rather than the tough slog it can sometimes be at high tide.  And hey, now the sun is coming out in earnest so it's bound to turn into another great day at the beach.

It was another fantastic morning for a low-tide beach walk out to Pienaarstraand and back, and around The Island - the beach was nice and hard-packed, like walking on a highway...

Another beautiful morning - this time we came back via Hersham and down the Vishoek Trail which was built by local conservancy members around 1882.  Check out the Hiking & Walking or Beach Walking sections of the website for more details about the trail (we took the short-cut, joining it from the side-trail at the corner of Esher Crescent, instead of further down where Susan Pardew Road meets Hersham Drive) or other options in the area.

See the route we took on the Sports-Tracker.com website by clicking on the image below.

Looks like we're in store for another beautiful day - with weather like this it's sometimes hard to remember it's almost April...

Click on the image below for the full workout details on Sports-Tracker.com