I had always wanted to go fossil hunting. A keen interest in geology and archaeology that I never got to do anything with, other than watch time team re-dig up sites they knew were there. Or watch geologists tell me about different type of rocks, which I kind of learnt in science at school back in the day. Watching wasn’t good enough – I needed to see it in action and do it myself.

So my wonderful husband decided my birthday surprise a few years ago was a trip down to the Jurassic Coast, so I could stop talking about it, and do it. And we did. The great British weather did it’s usual April thing and was cold, windy and changeable, especially on the coast – but I didn’t care, I was so excited about what I was doing. Actually going to find fossils in real life, not just watch it on the television! My husband did warn me though that we might not find anything, it was not a given.

But the birthday fossil fairies were looking down on me that day, and a number of finds presented themselves. A completely unexpected and marvelous find was a Geode, a real one, on the beach. I really didn’t ever think I ever see one ‘in the wild’ as it were. It was super heavy and there was no way I could take this with me, so a small piece was taken.

But that was not all to be found over those two mornings on the coast. There were a number of people, it was not quiet by any stretch, but everyone was there for the same reason and I found it very exciting. Even standing behind other hunters while they were carefully removing or exposing something, finding all the discoveries exciting, not just my own.

I was presented with the best birthday present ever, apart from being taken there in the first place, found by his own hand. A tiny awesome little ammonite, slightly shiny from the pyrite and to me, spectacular. But that was not all.

          

It was to be a very successful trip for my collection and for my cleaning kit when I got back home.

And although the Geode and the small ammonite were great on their own, I added to the finds with more ammonites – quite a special one too with exquisite detail and small flecks of pyrite.

I can’t wait to go out again and discover more…

(c) K L Wicks