Beach Walk

I had just arrived in Provincetown and checked in at the Watership Inn. Then I drove to Head-Of-The-Meadow Beach, parked my car and started hiking. A solitary walk along the ocean is an experience unlike any other. Well, a solitary view from the top of a mountain would be similarly calming, meditative and restorative. I sometimes feel I live a blessed life because I get to have these experiences:

For most of the hike, my only companions were the seagulls. But they are sociable in their own fashion:

The plastic slippers I was wearing allowed me to repeatedly wade right out into the chilly Atlantic, sometimes to explore and sometimes to rid my shoes of sand:

I found a piece of sponge:

A short video taken at Head-Of-The-Meadow Beach:



Large sand dunes followed the shoreline and after I'd walked for a long way, I decided to climb right up them:

I soon noticed these concrete and steel structures atop the dunes. I remembered reading that in World War II, bunkers had been built to help with our national defense. I've since checked the internet without finding anything, but I think that's what these were:

Defense bunkers, manned by people back when my parents were young and in love - and the world was at war:

Anything wooden had rotted long ago, and the steel was deteriorating rapidly. But the concrete will stand for a long time yet, watching out over the Atlantic:

The view from atop the sand dunes was magnificent:

From my lofty position I saw only a very few other souls - beach explorers and fishermen:

And plants which appeared to be wild cranberries grew in profusion on the sand dunes. I thought it must be far too arid up there for cranberries, but when I tasted a berry, decided that must be what they were: