Deadly Killer Seagulls
Joss Bay, Broadstairs, July 2010
This is Milo’s favourite picture, taken when he was about 5 years old, on a seaside outing to Joss Bay near Broadstairs. It’s a fine but quite blustery Saturday afternoon, and we had baby Dash with us who needed to be kept snuggled up out of the wind - we ended up not staying at the beach as long as we’d planned because of the weather and the blowing sand. Our older boys cared not one iota about the wind - they were in the water straight away and stayed there till we left. Milo decided to try feeding the seagulls some of his crisps but had not bargained for their rather overenthusiastic reaction. I was lucky to be in the right spot with my camera poised when this happened and managed to catch this amusing image!
Joss Bay is a popular sandy beach edged with steep chalk cliffs and backing onto the North Foreland golf course near Broadstairs. It is one of Kent’s best-known surfing beaches and has an established surf school, with plenty of surf hire shops in the nearby town. Stretching for around 200 metres, this is a great place for a family day by the sea, with a beach cafe, toilets, plenty of car parking and deck-chair hire if you want to go for the full English seaside experience! Along with Viking Bay, just along the coast, Joss Bay is one of the most popular beaches in Thanet.
The bay is thought to be named after an eighteenth-century smuggler, Joss Snelling, who was notorious for importing contraband to the various beaches of the Isle of Thanet in the late 1800s. Snelling managed to evade the customs men and lived to the ripe old age of 96 whilst many of his contemporaries went to the gallows or were deported.
Joss Bay is located approximately halfway between Broadstairs and Margate on the B2052 and is a good starting point for coastal walks and cycle rides. Dogs are banned from 1st May to 30th Sept, from 10 am to 6 pm. The postcode for navigation apps is CT10 3PG.
Canon Powershot S90, 6.85mm lens, 1/800 sec, f/5.6, ISO 80, Lightroom, Photoshop, Silver Efex Pro 2
