We parked the car at a country park and followed a sign to the beach. It led us over a saltmarsh with a few puddles, and a little detour round a place where the water had breached the old line of the path
Turns out she and her family had slopped their way across an estuary at low tide and were now dreading the swim back, thinking that was the only access to the beach
When we got to the beach, fully clothed, shoes dry, another beachgoer stared at us in amazement, as if we'd just walked on water