The life of a Landscape Photographer sometimes involves early mornings, and so it was when my phone alarm bleeped at me at 4am recently for a dawn shoot on the east coast of Norfolk and a meet-up with a couple of photo-buddies..

Our original destination was meant to be the beach in the village of Happisburgh (pronounced Haysborough). However, recent strong tidal activity coupled with record amount of rainfall meant that the path from the car park down to the beach had all but disappeared in an erosive landslip. What was left was difficult to negotiate, especially in the dark. So we re-assessed and headed for a location about a mile down the beach, or two miles by road, namely Cart Gap.

The online UK Beach Guide describes Cart Gap as a “somewhat unspoilt gem” and is off the beaten track. It is located at the end of a long narrow lane, and on the morning we visited access was further hindered by flooded roads. The car park is shared with the re-located Happisburgh RNLI Lifeboat station, that unit having been moved after continuous coastal erosion made their original station unusable.

We arrived at around 6am about 45 minutes before sunrise. It was a cool morning, which threatened rain from the north at around 9am and although there was a great deal of cloud, there was sufficient gaps to allow the sun to appear.

Above: Various stages of sunrise looking south east

Looking northeast away from the sunrise we were greeted by a beautiful red sky as low sunlight reflected on the dark cloud for about 10 minutes. This is the best of those 10 minutes.

A colour and mono treatment on the same subject.

I last visited Cart Gap in the summer of 2022 for a sunset shoot. The beach looks much different now to how it was then as illustrated by the images below:

The beach as it was in Summer 2022

Where have all the rocks gone? The beach and sea wall in February 2024.

Frequent high tides and big storms have resulted in huge sand movements, dumping tons of the stuff on the beach and covering the rocks. Even some of the slipway has been buried in sand.

All in all it was a successful shoot. As always, after an early morning shoot, we found a local coffee shop for a restorative brew and breakfast (for some)

We got some excellent images, the best of which will be shared on our various social media outlets.