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The Sea Wall

On the way down to the Elie Harbor there's a section of roadway, about a hundred yards long, that has a raised sea wall.  The top of the wall on the road side is about four feet above the ground and on the sea side it's about sixteen feet above the rocks when the tide is out.  It's about six feet above the sea when the tide is at it's highest.  The top of the wall is about two feet in width.

One of Jems and my daredevil escapades and that of the local boys was to hoist our bikes on to the top of the sea wall at its upper end then gingerly get on and carefully kick off.  Gravity increased our pedaling speed as while looking straight ahead and not looking down we sped on down the narrow top of the wall till we got to the lower end of the wall and the faster we went the more stable we were. Right beside the lower end of the wall and across the road from Admiralty Lane was a lamp post that could be grabbed to assist in stopping and dismounting. Some of us got so daring that we could pedal from the lower to the upper end of the wall. Pedaling uphill at a much slower speed was wobbly and getting off the bike and down from the wall at the upper end, without a lamp post to assist, was considerably more difficult.

 Another of Alberto's photos. 

The upper end

 

There's no doubt that what we did was highly dangerous and the local adults were terrified that we'd fall off and either be seriously injured or drowned or even killed when we rode our bikes on top of the wall.  On spotting us doing our thing someone would immediately call for Jimmy Wilson the bobby to show up to rightfully impress on us the folly of our ways.

When he did we were long gone.  Ha, ha.

Another sea wall that we rode our bikes on top of was the raised sea wall that extends from the tip of the Elie harbor to the jetty rocks. Why? Because it was there and boys are just that, boys. Boys who occasionally have more bravado than brains. 

While I have told of riding our bikes on top of the sea walls it is dangerous and should not be done by anyone.

 

 

Elie Harbour raised sea wall