The sea, Tradition and Brabants
It's not often that WWII effects my life, but that happened the other day when travelling to Belgium to photograph the traditional shrimp fishing with Brabant horses in Oostduinkerke.
Wednesday they were supposed to fish at 10.30am local time, meaning that we had to catch the 6am ferry from Dover - although I consider myself a morning person, leaving home before 4am was painful! We had a lovely trip down to Dover and watched the sun rise from behind the white cliffs before sailing over to Dunkirk over a perfectly quiet sea.
After arriving at Oostduinkerke, the weather was perfect and the light was beautiful - I really thought I had struck gold with my choice of day. Little did we know that the beach had been closed off and was being evacuated by police just as we arrived because of a WWII bomb that just had been found, adn they were waiting for the bomb to be neutralised before the beach could be opened again.
Most of the fishing was cancelled, but we managed to find one fisherman a bit further down - who unfortunatly just had finished for the day as we got there. But at least we got to see one of these beautiful Brabant horses and take some photos as they were leaving. Before heading back to the UK, we had lunch at a small and quirky Belgian cafe, enjoying some local beer, and bought some Belgian chocolates.
Overall a very lovely day, but I can't wait to get back to actually photograph the fishing!
