17th - 18th February 2007
Rye Bay Scallop Festival
The 5th Rye Bay Scallop
Festival
took place between the 17th and 25th of February, so as keen seafood scoffers,
we shot down there on the first day to get some scallops inside us. We also
wanted to explore the Rye Harbour Nature Reserve which is a regular favourite of
ours. Rye is situated where the River Rother meets the sea in East Sussex. There
are large scallop beds in the bay and the festival is an annual event to raise
awareness for the local catch.
We found a great place to stay for Saturday night (Oaklands)
just outside of the town, and we had a fantastic scallop meal at a restaurant
inside a converted triple oast house.
Oaklands B&B. We got the room with the four poster!
From there we shot into town. A quick snack of 9 oysters
for me and smoked herring roe for Gill.
Then a good bit of exploring in the town. Oh look, more
seafood!
A lot of the towns old walls are still intact, as is this
gate built in 1329.
We also climbed the church tower to get a great view of
the whole area. I made a small (4.2 mb)
movie file of it.
The Playden Oasts Restaurant. We stuffed ourselves on
three different scallop dishes.
Then onto the reserve. We managed to see 30 species, but
even though we waited at the bittern watchpoint until sunset, we didn't get to
see one.
The bittern watchpoint. A very romantic spot to watch the
sun set. Serenade is courtesy of all manner of birds and frogs, but sadly for
us, not bitterns!
