Lillevik Beach faces north toward Larvik and the mouth of the Lågen river. not so many years ago the river was used to float timber from inland to the coast. there are still logs in the river that loosen and float on their own down to the fjord. the currents are such that some of them, quite a few actually wash up on Lillevik Beach .
but there are no roads to the beach which is kept close to its natural state. to get there one has to go through a forest, either from Agnes or from Holmejordet. for me it is more convenient from Agnes and it's a walk i have done many times. nonetheless each time is different as the forest and the beach are always changing. this series of shots is from November towards the end of autumn and the onset of winter
the forest is somewhat swampy with a variety of sorts of trees. these leaves are the last of the Norway maples to fall. the Norway spruce here have been harvested for boatbuilding for centuries. the wood is light and strong and relatively easy to work with so it often the wood of preference for boats that rely on speed.
one can find some curious swamp creatures among the many fallen trees. maybe best to avoid coming here in the dark.
i had to take a closer look at this one. it's uncanny how an uprooted tree can take on such animistic form. luckily this one neither flinched when i approached to get a close shot nor chase me afterwards. it's not a long walk to the beach and though i usually take a longer route than necessary i soon arrived at the sandy shore
there is driftwood all along the beach. some of the locals get together in the spring and clear much of it away, placing it at the edge of the forest. in the summer the beach is far from crowded but the locals frequent it. it very shallow and the bottom is nice and sandy so it's most popular among families with small children or with dogs that are not allowed on many of the more popular beaches
i am particularly interested in one long log that is infested with bracket fungi, Gloeophyllum sepiarium conifer mazegills or rusty gilled polypores. the fungi live for many years but the fruit bodies, the mushrooms only last a year so i check it out a few times each year to see how things are developing and each time i manage to get nice shots. i have posted from this log several times before but always with new material.
but there are lots of other logs with great detail to focus in on these trails have been carved by an insect but i don't know what kind. the white patches are also a species of fungus that i don't know
some of the driftwood has wonderful grain with burls or some charred marks from a fire or other details well worth a closer look.
presumably these pebbles were left on top of this log during a storm but they may have been put there by children playing on the beach. whatever caused them to be placed there they mix very nicely with the chunks of decayed wood
elsewhere on the same log the rotting wood makes a wonderful design. it's unlike how rotting logs look in the forest. i believe this particular log is rotting very slowly, either because of the saltwater it floated in before it washed up here or it was underwater for many years in the river in a manner that tends to preserve the wood
i haven't focused much on the beach itself or the water. during low tide there's a lot more to see, attractive ripple designs in the sand, small tidal pools, handsome rocks etc but it's high tide here and all of that is covered up. there's just the exposed top of this one rock creating fine complex wave patterns
the continuous motion of the water around the rock makes it almost impossible for the naked eye to discern the details in the wave action. it is first when it is recorded on camera that it remains still and can be studied in detail revealing the astounding complexity and beauty of the wave action
