A few weeks ago, we headed up to Spittal, which is at the mouth of the River Tweed, on the south side of the river (South of Berwick-on-Tweed). We had gone there in search of Bottle-Nosed Dolphins as they had been been seen there on most days during the early summer. There were no dolphins to be seen, but I ended up watching three people doing an extreme sport I’d never come across before.
I’ve since discovered on the internet that these are kite buggies, vehicles, usually with 3 wheels, propelled by the wind using a power kite and steered with the feet.. It looks rather like a cross between sand yachting and kite surfing. I’ve seen the kite surfers at Bamburgh many times and that looks pretty spectacular, but this was something new for round here.
The big beach at Spittal was pretty quiet (even though the car park was busy), so they had plenty of space. I’m not sure how easy it is to control speed and direction!
There was a bit of a breeze, so they were zipping along pretty quickly. I suppose one of the advantages is that you don’t need to have quite such a good sense of balance as you would with kite surfing.
It looks like great fun!
