Perfect beach…

I spent the afternoon on the beach yesterday, sheer bliss, perfect with blue skies and a blue-green wave-swept sea, clean fine sand, rocks and rock pools to net in, lots of private places to set up your own space, not too many flies, and a barbecue lunch.

The most perfect beach I’ve ever sat on is in Barbados. Bathsheba - the first time we swung around the bend, coming down from the mountain, the yellow-white sand stretching for miles before us, it took my breath away. Bathsheba is on the Atlantic side of the island - huge, black, volcanic, rocks litter the beach, standing, as if carelessly tossed by some ancient giant, in rows at angles of thirty degrees. Palm trees fringe the road and others stand in line against the blue skies on the hills above.

Of course the Caribbean is far away, I love Bathsheba – I spend a lot of time there in my sleep - but I’ve found a beach closer to home that rivals Bathsheba in its perfection - Penllech beach, that’s where I spent yesterday afternoon.

Penllech has blue skies, blue-green, wave-swept, seas, clean, yellow-white sand, rocks and rock pools to net in, and lots of private individual coves to set up your own space – we have names for them all – Secret, Table, Happy, each a small enclosed beach, sheltered but big enough to map out a tennis court and set up a barbecue. Yesterday we set up camp on Secret beach, staking out our claim with a windbreak.

Penllech never gets too busy - the short walk through the fields to Penllech seems to put people off. I can’t understand why, the view from the hill is amazing. Of course there are no palm trees at Penllech, and you don’t need a wind-break at Bathsheba - but on a sunny day, with the right mood upon you, it’s hard to distinguish the two.

Did I really spend yesterday in North Wales or was I in the Caribbean? I’m sure I heard the sound of steel drums as I sat watching the waves.