There are children scooping the sand for the tiny crabs trapped in dips in the sand at low tide.
The odds are stacked in the city's favour: the local produce is magnificent with peachy fresh seafood – Dungeness crabs in season and Hog Island oysters.
At the end of the day, we would head, sandy-footed, to the nearest restaurant, knowing that at every one there would be a cabinet full of fresh seafood to choose from – bass, bream, salmon, lobster, prawns, crabs, goose barnacles, clams … We never ate the same thing twice.
Unaccompanied children hurry excitedly back from the shoreline where they have been rockpooling or shrimping, with buckets full of shells and crabs.
After a few more bends, we emerged into bright sunshine on a sandy arc of a beach, deserted except for the crabs scuttling away in the surf.
The area is surrounded by creeks, marshes and reed beds where you can have fun bird-watching or fishing for crabs before enjoying a warming pint by the fire in the Lord Nelson.
I remember The Three Chimneys on the Isle of Skye (Colbost, Dunvegan, 01470 511258, threechimneys.co.uk), where the langoustine and crabs and oysters from the sea lochs beyond the windows seem to have leapt from the chilly water straight on to the plate.
Thankfully, the staff are funny and fast, and the food – mojama (sundried tuna), squid, stuffed spider crabs, baby sole, langoustines – is delicious.
Every child loves rockpooling, and at low tide Almograve is a great place for hunting down crabs, shrimp and small fish in the many pools.
At low tide, kids can also busy themselves searching for crabs under the rocks.
Researchers have re-created reef ecosystems in tanks – complete with corals, sediments, rocks, fish, crabs and plants – and then subjected them to the kinds of temperatures and carbon dioxide concentrations expected near the end of this century.
