Been away this week reconnecting with the natural world……….camping on the beach in Pembrokeshire with my two boys. We try and do something simple and cheap like this at the start of the school holidays most years, without their mum and with no access to electricity, phones, TV etc. We spend most of the time in the sea or on the beach, this time we went for some nice walks too and watched the sunset with a beer in our hands. They had their first surfing lesson and we cooked on the little camping stove. Sausages sizzling, canned food, plenty of tea. Reading too (future post maybe on this). Our activities are governed by the weather and how tired we are.
I like being outdoors, rising early and having a stroll along the beach, thinking about the relentlessness of the waves, the zillions of grains of sand just there on this one beach and all the beaches in Wales, the UK, Europe, the world….the rain, the clouds, the sunshine. The wind, the sunsets, the sheep; wild horses on the hill. Farmers, farming, farmland. Cliffs, rocks, boulders, caves. Fantastic images are conjured up – of smugglers and dragons and tribesmen and fishermen.
We have a particularly favourite spot and we have probably been there half a dozen times over the years. We roll out of the tent walk across the car park, perhaps grabbing a bacon roll from the cafe as we get to the beach, just a minute’s stroll from the campsite. It’s only 180 miles from home but takes five hours to get there because of the roads, it forces you to slow down from the moment you leave the house. We love it. And i love to have a more basic, simple, natural existence for a little while, take stock of how small I am in the scheme of things and to reconnect with both nature and my proudest achievement: my two fantastic boys, now young men.
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