We went to Wales for a week; to Tenby, a place I’ve visited many times before but never stayed in. So we stayed there.
The first few days were glorious. Hot sun, a gentle breeze, accommodating tides. Perfect beach weather, and we beached accordingly.
Later in the week the weather cooled a bit and we did some walking (not a lot, just a bit). We spent a couple of hours on Barafundle beach (named after the Gorky’s album of the same name, obviously). It really is a magical place.
Regular readers will know that I can drone on for hours about rocks and geology, especially rocks and geology in Wales. Tenby and south Pembrokeshire don’t disappoint. Here, the Old Red Sandstone and layers of carboniferous limestone jut and loom at all sorts of fantastic angles. Walk eastwards from Manobier Bay and you’re treated to an extraordinary few miles of vertical sandstone layers plunging into the sea, forming spectacular towers and stacks as they erode.
Staying by the sea - right by it, so that you can see it from the window - is a special treat for me. I went to bed each night with waves sloshing on the beach outside, and woke each morning able to open the blind and check the tide straight away. I could sit on beaches doing nothing for weeks if I had the chance.
(31 August 2019)