TurfZone – CrabbyIsland
It’s always pleasing to see one of your zone suggestions appearing on the turf map and even more pleasing when the Wizards of Turf go with your suggestion for the name of the zone as well. The zone in question is called CrabbyIsland. The idea for the zone name came from a combination of two ideas. One was the name of the fictitious location where the priests in the comedy series Father Ted used to live, namely Craggy Island. The other is from the three crabs I found trapped inside a crabbing pot discovered one day during a fat bike ride at low tide on the exposed sands of Gosford bay. The three crabs were released to live another day.
Today, it was time to finally get round to taking the zone, still a unique to me, along with a few others in the local area. First thing you need to do should you be planning on visiting CrabbyIsland zone is to check the tide tables, as the island is tidal and surrounded by crab and golf ball infested waters twice each day. Today, high tide was around 3.30 in the afternoon, with low tide around 9.00 in the morning, so plenty of time to take the zone.
My starting point was Lyars Road, Longniddry, opposite the small bay called Longniddry Bents. Parking here on the road is free and saves the £3.00 charge for parking in the shore car parks. Not that I’m against paying the £3.00, it’s more in protest that you cannot park there during the night which means I cannot use the car park for night turf/rides along the coast. Lyars Road is better placed for some of the other unique zones on my to-take list.
The first unique I was after was another tidal zone called NeedsPlanning, which, as the name suggests, need planning to reach while keeping your feet dry. The zone is around 300m from the shore on the sand flats and can be in standing water depending on how wind and tide more the sand around. Today it was on firm dry sand though I needed a wide loop around deep standing water to remain dry.
My next unique zone was CrabbyIsland, located a couple of miles along the shore to the west following the path around Gosford Sands, also a section of the John Muir Way. It’s quite a pleasant walk, ticking of a few additional zones along the way, though perhaps spoiled by the near constant rumble of traffic on the A198 to North Berwick. And if you are into brick spotting, you will see plenty of EDINBURGH bricks scattered along the beach along with a few PRESTON GRANGE and others.
The small island is actually called GreenCraig, the name given to another zone nearby, but I think CrabbyIsland is a better. There’s not much to see on the island, just a few crabbing pots rotting away and a patch of grass. A nice spot for a picnic lunch had it not been for the bitingly chilly wind. So, I didn’t linger too long, heading across to the point for zone CraigielawPt, before retracing my steps back long the shore path. I found a sheltered spot out of the wind behind a wall for lunch.
Back at the car, I picked off another unique zone, IsNiddryBent, then a session of, yes, I’m not ashamed to admit, car turfing. Boo hiss, I hear some cry. But it is a legal form of transport, therefor allowed under Turf Law. First zone was RollAndSquare, located in a new housing estate to the south of Longniddry. Thought the design of the houses and the layout of the estate was quite in keeping with the older areas of East Lothian. Another unique zone was MindThePost, located on the coast at massive Seton Sands Holiday Village. And that was that. Back soon.
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