Starting the Year with an Old Friend

Setting an alarm call for 06:30 on the 1st of January isn’t something I would normally do. It’s not as if I normally stay up the night before celebrating the start of a new year, it’s just that it’s nice to stay in bed sometimes and the 1st of January always seem like the perfect day to do so.

On this occasion though, I’d already had few long mornings in bed over the festive period, and I was itching to get out with the camera and get 2026 off to a flying start! However, I wanted to share the morning sunrise with someone so heading off on a 90 minute walk to a remote tor for sunrise wasn’t an option.

A much more socially acceptable choice would be a lovely walk along a beach somewhere. But where to go? For me there was only one place. Dawlish Warren! It’s only a short drive from home, it’s good for watching sunrise, and it’s a pleasant beach to walk along. And given the number of times I have photographed the beach, I know it can yield good results.

Arriving at Dawlish Warren I could see that lots of other people also thought that a walk along the beach would be a good idea. It wasn’t overly busy, but even for sunrise it was busier than usual. There were even swimmers in the water.

What I tend to do in these situations is head up past groyne number 10 as dogs aren’t allowed past that point. It’s not only quieter, but at low tide you can still get interesting photographs like this one.

It’s not my favourite photograph of Dawlish Warren but it reminds me of what a lovely morning I had watching the sunrise on the 1st of January and if that’s not a good reason for taking a photograph, I don’t know what is.

Happy new year everyone!