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Original poster

Weird one. Kids moving up the beach when playing at the shore.

46 replies

nevergoogle · 25/09/2011 09:00

Not sure which topic this one is for.
Yesterday we went to the beach and the kids stood at the shore throwing stones (and feeding penguins Hmm), but they kept sort of drifting up the beach away from where we were sitting.
We would call them back and they would play a bit more then the same thing would happen always in the same direction.

Then i remembered the same thing happening when i was little. I'd play at the beach, get totally engrossed and when i looked up to see my parents, i'd have moved down the beach. And DH agreed this happened to him.

Is there an explanation for this?

OP posts:
ColdSancerre · 25/09/2011 09:04

Feeding penguins at the beach? Is this in South Africa? Do they come close to the beach?

belgo · 25/09/2011 09:08

What a strange question. Are you looking for some sort of meta physical explanation? Or more mundane relating to wind direction?

You can get guillemots on UK beaches, they look a bit like penguins.

Original poster
nevergoogle · 25/09/2011 09:08

not real penguins. imaginary south devon ones i think. they were being served stones, lobbed into the sea. Hmm

OP posts:
Original poster
nevergoogle · 25/09/2011 09:10

the penguins bit wasn't really the point.

yeah, i'm looking for a magnetic pull theory, or tidal thing, or just children wandering or yes, wind direction.

or even just to be told it's just us and no-one else has this problem. Smile

OP posts:
BellaBearisWideAwake · 25/09/2011 09:11

This used to happen to us as well.

ColdSancerre · 25/09/2011 09:11

Sorry for the penguin excitement derailment. But it was understandable. I mean, penguins on a beach.

belgo · 25/09/2011 09:11

Grin of course the penguins are totally the point!

RoundOrangeHead · 25/09/2011 09:12

I know what you mean, I think it's the lack of obvious landmarks

which beach were you on

belgo · 25/09/2011 09:13

I love the beaches in Devon. I will be looking out for penguins on them.

Original poster
nevergoogle · 25/09/2011 09:13

my favourite beach, blackpool sands in Devon.

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purplepidjinawoollytangle · 25/09/2011 09:14

I've always known it in relation to swimming in the sea and it's tidal. No idea if that would affect someone who wasn't actually in the water, though...

I love the idea of feeding stones to South Devon penguins Grin

RoundOrangeHead · 25/09/2011 09:16

ah, lovely beach, that one

TreeHouses · 25/09/2011 09:16

We always have this happening to us too. When you are in the water and move along it is because of the tides / long shore drift thing.
When you are standing on the beach it is because looking out to the sea there are no fixed reference points to keep positioning yourself by.

AtYourCervix · 25/09/2011 09:18

probably something to do with magnetic poles and black holes i suspect.

and have you noticed that it is always a right to left drfit (right to left if you are facing the sea).

Scoundrel · 25/09/2011 09:19

Penguins aside, there is a time/space wormhole between the sea and your parents. This is why you should have an easily identifiable brolly or towel to follow to get back to them after the sands have shifted and you end up half a mile up the beach when playing in the sea, lest you be sucked into the wormhole when making your way back. Actually, the wormhole might explain the penguins in south devon.

I always assumed it was the tide too, but that doesn't explain why it happens when you're paddling Confused

thelittlestkiwi · 25/09/2011 09:21

Are they all right handed and shifted right when throwing stones?

I remember reading that people in the desert walk in circles cos you have one side which is dominant.

(We get penguins here in Auckland btw. My daughter finds dinosaur footprints on the beaches too.)

WorkingItOutAsIGo · 25/09/2011 09:22

You've got it all wrong, because of the rotation of the earth and the fact they were near the sea which is controlled by the moon, they we're actually standing still, and it is you who was moving.

HTH.

WorkingItOutAsIGo · 25/09/2011 09:23

Were not we're....damn ipad

Original poster
nevergoogle · 25/09/2011 09:23

so it's real and not as imaginary as the penguins.

i can see you guys are more interested in the poor penguins and their diet of stones.

yy, they drift to our left. we didn't drift as we were sat on our arses (gave myself a pebble exfoliating facial for a laugh Blush). That's one for style and beauty.

anyone notice that blackpool sands has a sandpit??? double Hmm

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TashHag · 25/09/2011 09:24

I love Blackpool! Especially because you never know what it's going to be like each year when you go there - when I was little, it really was fine sand, since then at various times it's been coarse sand, pebbles or a mixture of the two - it all depends what the winter storms have thrown up. And the pond formed by the stream can be a massive lake, a tiny puddle, or even not there at all if the stream has been buried by shingle. What's it like this year?

To answer your question, I think it's because children start off going away from you and get lured further and further away in that direction by finding the perfect stone just a few more steps away....

As for the penguins, they are almost certainly descendants of a few strays from the imaginary colony that accompanied DS everywhere when he was about 3. I'm sure they loved Blackpool as much as he did, so a few would be sure to stay, and they've had 20 years to multiply.....

Snorbs · 25/09/2011 09:24

If you're feeding penguin you're not going to give them any old stone. you're going to find the kind of stone a penguin will really enjoy. Once you've found all the penguin-friendly stones where you're standing you're going to have to move to find some more. And you're not going to head back the way you came from as you already know there are no more good stones there as you've fed them all to the penguins.So you end up wandering up the beach.

IwanttobeShirleyValentine · 25/09/2011 09:25

This always happend to me as a kid and happend to my kids now!

Its the same as when we go to the park - my kids always find the most hidden place to play/stand/hangout, or someone comes and stands right in my view of where I can see them!!

Scoundrel · 25/09/2011 09:25

Another mystery is why do penguins feature so heavily on MN? Sometimes they're guillemots masquerading as penguins!

Original poster
nevergoogle · 25/09/2011 09:27

are we talking about the same beach. blackpool sands in near dartmouth, not blackpool. tiny round pebbles, impossible to get in your sandwiches and brushes off before getting in the car. my perfect beach.

DS2's ideal job would be penguin feeder. He carries his little bucket full of penguin food.

OP posts:
TashHag · 25/09/2011 09:34

Yes, it's the same beach - I always call it just Blackpool because I knew about it before I'd ever heard about the northern one - I was only 10 months old the first time I went there, and we went to the South Hams every year in my childhood, first to a guest house in Chillington, then my parents bought a bungalow there and eventually retired to it. We got married in Stokenham church and always took the children there for a couple of weeks every summer. Now my Dad lives there on his own and as he's 101 my visits are usually spent sorting out stuff for him and I don't get to the beaches much.