This nature reserve is only a few miles from our home and is in stark contrast to the surrounding backdrop of heavy industry. It’s an unlikely setting, but one that shows how nature can adapt and thrive in the most unlikely of situations.

It comprises sand dunes and grazing marshes, along with intertidal sand and mudflats. Apart from the huge variety of flora and fauna on display, seals can be seen basking beside the tidal channels or swimming near the road bridge (like the one above we saw on a recent visit). This is somewhere Naomi and I are sure to visit regularly with our children.