“Well the cliff isn’t going to stare at itself!”

It seems that statement didn’t fully convince my colleagues that my weekend trip to Denmark was a worthwhile undertaking. But I must admit, this turned out to be the most interesting site, from the underwhelming batch of recent additions the Danish have flung onto the world heritage list.

On my drive to the site I listened to an episode of the BBC’s impressive (though unabashedly highbrow) In Our Time about the KT boundary. It did a great job of explaining the importance of the scientific discovery and also goes to show the sort of hedonistic experience you get on a holiday with me, ¡¡Cruising in a Dacia Sandero, pumping out the Melvyn Bragg, bring your neon vest and glow sticks!!

Els has already described the visiting experience well, so no real need to expand on that. Just to say that in 2016 the museum still feels a little temporary, but explained everything I needed to know in a small manageable chunk, it also provided free wifi to enable me to download the very useful free app, that explained facts in further detail and pointed out features when I was at the cliff itself.

The unseasonably heavy snow (it was late April) had abated by the time I descended down to the beach and the blue sky and crystal clear water gave an almost tropical feel, undermined only by the near zero temperatures.

I spent a fair while just staring at the cliff, pretending I could identify the KT boundary, but inside dying a little as I had no idea where it was (I felt a little like this). I then went for a wander and discovered a herd of goats clambering along the cliff face grazing on tufts of grass in amongst the chalk. I also cracked open a few rocks and amazingly I found a fossil! It may not be the most exciting thing ever, but I was delighted to find a 65 million year old Tusk Shell mollusc.

I went for a sit down on the beach, and researched my new find on the app, when I saw that there was a gadget that would show you were to look for the KT boundary on the cliff. So I opened it up and turned to face the cliff, and then, BOOM! I saw it instantly. I must admit it was actually a really stirring experience, much more exciting than you would expect seeing a line of sediment to be. Delighted to have “completed” my visit, I headed back up the steps, attempting to avoid the goat horns poking up through the gaps.

Whilst it won’t top many ‘must see’ lists I rather enjoyed my visit to this site. I really did get a wow moment when I was able to identify the KT boundary and find a fossil, it made the importance of the site so much more tangible.

Site 4: Experience 5