Up until recently I didn’t realise how lucky I was to live in such a pretty, rural area.

We have so many nature walks, and I especially enjoy the local beaches.

There is a National Trust estate called Parke near Bovey Tracey for example which my family and I visited recently.

It is abundant in trees, birds, and the River Bovey flows through it.

The beaches are definitely something we shouldn’t take for granted.

I spoke to a friend recently and she told me she was going to the seaside.

At first I didn’t think much of it but then she told me it took her more than two hours to get to the closest beach near her.

The closest beach to us is only 10-15 minutes away and I have to admit that I have moaned about that being too far before!

The other day, in the half term, we decided to go to Beer in East Devon. It was a very hot day and it was low tide.

When the tide was out, it led to a secret little area where we discovered many rock caves, but when the tide was in, we were able to jump from the rocks into the deep parts of the sea (if the sea was clear).

Because the tide was out, we couldn’t jump from the biggest rock but we could from a slightly lower one nearer to the shallower part of the sea. It was fun but also quite exhilarating as the water was freezing and the jump seemed pretty high.

We then decided to explore the rock caves and found that the beach was more expansive than we realised. There were some caves that you could fit yourself into and hide if you wanted to.

After a short while, the rock pools also formed so we could explore that part and jump off of them and into the sea too.

It was fun but it also made me think that I take for granted having beaches and nice walks near to us when a lot of people are not nearly so lucky.