On a beautiful day whilst sitting on Camber beach it’s hard to think of a better place to be. It’s not surprising that the location is often used by advertising pretending to be the Hamptons, Long Island or even further afield.
In the winter we deliver our Christmas trees to the beach car park so that they can be buried in the dunes. The trees are ‘planted’ on their sides in shallow trenches where gaps (caused by trampling from visitors) have been created in the dunes. The trees help trap wind-blown sand, allowing vegetation to grow and stabilise the sand. The great news is that the dunes are gradually getting bigger. This is particularly good news for Camber village which lies below the high tide level and would quickly be flooded.
Walking over the dunes from Beach Haven, using path no 6, you will catch sight on the right (though it’s currently sinking into the sand) of a second world war concrete pillbox (bunker). Which ties in nicely as I wanted to mention that Camber beach was used in the 1958 film Dunkirk starring John Mills to recreate Operation Dynamo. It was used again as the Normandy beaches during D-Day in the 1962 epic The Longest Day.
Camber is right on the eastern edge of East Sussex but is the only sand dune system in the county and is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) under the name ‘Dungeness, Romney and Rye Bay’. In the winter, 17 different species of bird make their home here. http://www.sssi.naturalengland.org.uk/Special/sssi/index.cfm
This is a good local website if you love nature and want to know what’s going on.
In the winter we deliver our Christmas trees to the beach car park so that they can be buried in the dunes. The trees are ‘planted’ on their sides in shallow trenches where gaps (caused by trampling from visitors) have been created in the dunes. The trees help trap wind-blown sand, allowing vegetation to grow and stabilise the sand. The great news is that the dunes are gradually getting bigger. This is particularly good news for Camber village which lies below the high tide level and would quickly be flooded.
Oh and Carry On Follow That Camel was shot on location on the beach during the early months of 1967 when Camber Sands doubled as the Sahara Desert although filming had to be stopped several times because the dunes were covered in snow! Heard the one about the camel that wouldn’t walk on sand...
