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
"How did you get here?" she asked
We shrugged. "We parked at the car park and followed the path," we replied, "Why?"