11. ANCIENT ADVENTURES: Go on a fossil hunt

In the spring of this year I went up to Whitby to phpotograph the coast and try out a camp site for an article I was writing for Coast Magazine. I ended up with some time to spare so decided to take a walk on the reef at Sandsend with Bob the dog. I have surfed over the reef many times but never taken a close look at it with the eyes of a fossil hunter. On this occasion, however, I was in no hurry to get to the waves so I took my time and padded over the near perfect reef to see what treasures lie embedded within it. As you can see, I struck gold with this ammonite.

The great thing is that anyone can pull on their wellies and go looking for fossils - and will be pretty much guaranteed some kind of result. It is a great adventure.
There are two main areas to go in the UK, the Jurassic Coast in Dorset and east Devon, and the Dinosaur Coast in North Yorkshire. The Jurassic Coast in Dorset is a World Heritage Site 95 miles long and includes rocks from the triassic, jurassic and cretaceous periods in the earth's history. That means the rocks are as much as 200 million years old. Charmouth, or more specifically the Charmouth Coast heritage Centre, is the best place to start your search here. After visiting the centre you can take a walk along the beach to look for your share of the thousands of fossils that wash out of the cliffs. When I went on a seaweed course at Lyme Regis near Charmouth last year I found hundreds of really good belemnites - squid like creatures that are now extinct - in the mud on the shore without even trying. The best time to go is after storms when the waves that crash into the cliffs reveal even more fossils.
As for the Dinosaur Coast, a good place to begin would be Scarborough Museum. Having said that, the area stretches from Staithes in the north to Flamborough Head in the south so there's plenty to look at. The Museum organises fossil walks and events where you can go out in the company of an expert to identify anything you might find. If you prefer to head out on your own then you could look for dinosaur footprints on Whitby beach and all other kinds of fossils at Ravenscar, Robin Hood's Bay, Filey Brigg and Scarborough.

Natural Wonders is a fossil shop in Whitby that organises fossil tours. Click here for more.

Find out more about the Jurassic Coast here, on their offical website.