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Pray for Success

As true hungarian, I can complain about almost everything. If you interested, read, simple as that :-)

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205th - Rescue

2009.05.25. 21:14 ZmanUK

Today was an incredible day. We decided to go to Walton-on-the-naze, to see the Naze tower. Walton is basically the other bank of the Orwell bridge, when it hits the North-Sea.

We have been there before, to saw the pier, with Mrs. Smith's parents, and also saw the lifeboat station, however we did not know anything about the Naze Tower. Anyway, it is around an hour drive from Ipswich down the A12 towards Colchester, we got there around 11am. 

The Naze tower quite allright, we climbed up the stairs, saw the beautiful view, only cost us 2,5 each, so it was ok. The wind was quite strong, therefore it made huge angry waves on the sea, this time it did not look like a flat line on the horizon only.

After the tower, we got down to the shore. The shore was around 20 meter below, as the whole tower area was higher than the sea level, sat on soft rocks, which eventually were falling into the sea. (Just like the south coast, however withouth the chalk) There were a passage to go down, and from there you could choose where to go. At your right, there was a man made safe coast line up until the Walton pier at the distance. At your left, there was only a slim passage which lead along the bottom of the cliffs.

 

We decided to have a walk along the rocky side, as this part of the coast were really lovely. We were walking away from the spot we entered to this area, with a couple people. So it was not crowded at all. There were around 10 people walking there only, included us.

It was really nice, felt like Wales as we discussed. A couple minutes later, we have met some people were walking back towards the passage we came in, but we did not really care. There were only two people left in front of us, a „30 something year old” dad, and his son around 5. They also turned back a bit later, and as they were passing us, the guy asked us. „ – Do you guys know if the tide is coming or going right now?”

Well, I said it was going, as we believed the water was high enough, so we expected the low tide to come soon. The guy decided to turn back anyway, and he left. We were continued our journey for a while, when Mrs. Smith had turned back and asked if the water was THAT high, when we entered. Then it made me thinking also, and realised the guy must had been right to ask the tide situation, because the water was still getting higher. This was the part, when we started to hurry up and head back to the place we came from. As we realised the water was coming closer and closer, and at the end, we almost had to walk in the sea. In our way back getting close to our "safe point", there were a 4 membered family coming the opposite way, they were wearing rubber boots, so we believed they knew what they were doing. Well, as it turned out later, they did not.

When we reached the dad with his son (they were walking 30 meter ahead of us the whole time), we thanked to the guy, who warned us with his question, we were laughing, and the guy said. „I decided to come back but only because of HIM, (pointed to his son). His son replied straight away: „Because of ME?!!” (It was hilerious)

Anyway, then we went up the hill again to the tower, and walked along the coast (from above), it took us around 40 minutes. When we got back to our car, decided to stay for another hour, so bought a coke, an icecream, had some rest at a bench, and then went down to the sea again, but this time stayed at the safe side, and made pictures of the angry waves hitting the wave-breakers.

After a while, we heard a chopper was coming. As it turned out, it was the RAF (Royal Air Force) Coast Guard, and the family we have crossed their way got caught by the tide. They had climbed up the rocks a little bit higher, and stayed there waiting for rescue. The helicopter arrived, and let one guard down to the family on a wire. Then the helicopter flew away. We went up to the top of the rocks again to the tower, as that was a perfect spot to see, however the arriving coast guards sent us back a bit, because of the chopper. The helicopter then came back, and started to bring up the family one by one on the wire. It was very quick and perfect procedure. The helicopter was floating in the air, like a giant bee, and the guards did what they were trained to do. It was not more than half an hour, and it was done. I have made many pictures and photos, so it was a great fun, and luckily the family was allright too. (Their kids even enjoyed the ride). The helicopter had flown around the field one more time, and they waved to the crowd, then off they went.

On our opinion, the water level was not that high, so probably I would have tried to go out myself, and got my legs wet a bit, but I understand the parents, with kids, you just don’t wanna take the chance. (especially when the waves are that strong)

On second thought I don’t understand why they did not leave the place earlier, as they were equipped properly (backpacks, rubber boots, etc), so we believed, they knew about the tidal difficulities. They had seen at least 10 people crossing them, but still, they decided to stay there. The funny thing, when we met them, they were at the very begining of the shore, there were still enough place to walk on the beach, we did not even think about warning them, as we did not expect them to go further. (The mother was carrying a notepad, and wrote some stuff on that from time to time, while they were checking the rocks, so they seemed to be like professionals)

Anyway, next time, I guess we should all pay more attention to these things, and warn each other anytime, no matter how they look, or what they're doing. And this has tought us to be more careful with the tidal changes of these waters, because as this perfect example shows, you can risk your life easily. 

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