Our last adventure at West Wittering Beach, West Sussex!

It’s October next week and instead of hibernating indoors watching telly with the heating on we’re exploring the coast enjoying the bright sunshine and mild weather.

It’s 18 degrees today and windy down at West Wittering beach. My mummy spends a little while hammering down the wind breaker with a bit of driftwood and Grandma lays out of thick wool picnic blanket.

It’s chilly in the breeze but hot in the sunshine. I can’t wait to put my swimming costume on and attempt to swim in the depths of the Solent.

A lot of surfers are out today but apart from that the beach is deserted. White sand dunes are piled high next to ice-cream coloured beach huts. The gentle breeze casts low-level sand snakes across the flat plains of the long beach.

I race to the water’s edge desperate to dip my toes in. My mummy isn’t so sure about being dragged into the cold sea. She hasn’t got a swimming costume on…and she’s freezing and not running around like a looney so hasn’t had time to warm herself up yet.

We pluck out shells from the ocean and take Ariel and Barbie mermaids with us. We race into the sea with them and run back to shore as soon as we see a jelly fish, it’s dead but it still spooks me.

A good hour goes by with us all being chased in and out of the water by the waves. The mermaids watch us and so do some bemused dog walkers who are all dressed in jeans and heavy winter coats. My mummy is in shorts and a t-shirt and I’m in my wetsuit. They must think we’re mad. We carve my name into the wet sand with our toes and tell the waves to stop and stay away from our masterpieces.

It starts to get too cold, so after all the fun in the water we retreat back to our beach shelter and hide under sun-dried towels and behind the wind break. Our skin is sandy and goose pimply.

Our pack lunch is all sandy. Sandy sausages and ham, sandy grapes and bananas. I chew them and sand grinds against my teeth. Urgh yuk! Sand has gotten everywhere!

Its in my ears and up my snot filled nose, I have to wear sunglasses to keep it from going into my eyes. I spend the remainder of the afternoon, jumping in large sandy holes which were pre-dug by previous visitors to the beach.

We forgot our bucket and spades so we used a plastic cup and the beakers from lunch to make a sand castle and moat. I help embellish the tops with stones and shells. Occasionally destroying them by kicking them over when my mummy isn’t looking. Just call me ‘Bellzilla’.

It takes us ages to pack up and leave, my mummy wrestles with the pop-up wind shelter/UV tent and rolling the wind break up. Grandma has a giggle and stands there watching her.

I play hide and seek in the holes, with only my mop of sandy blonde hair blowing in the breeze against the sand to give my position away. Finally we’re all packed up and head home in the car.

We leave via a cool local garden centre called Russell’s to have a cream tea and some late lunch. I enjoy chasing the resident garden centre chickens around while we wait for our food. They peck and prune their feathers and make lots of clucking noises x

I had a wonderful time today with mummy and grandma and we were all amazed that we managed to get another day at the beach this year. Talk about sucking the last drops out of the summer.

Now where’s my winter coat?!

Love Bella x