A Week by the Water

The train journey to Barmouth was longer than I expected....over eight hours. I didn't know you could travel eight hours by train in Great Britain without falling in the ocean! LOL! The last hour of the journey, however, was pretty close to that. The tracks hugged the hillside above the sea, and the scenery was spectacular. At right is the tiny community of Barmouth, tucked between the sea and the hillsides...very picturesque indeed.


I'm not sure from whence emerged the intense desire to go to the seaside, but when I booked this vacation some two months ago, the sensation just wouldn't go away. Somehow being near the water refreshes, soothes, and renews in a most remarkable way. I love the sound of the waves, whether they're gently lapping the shoreline or rushing in with a great crash. The beach at Barmouth is one of the most spectacularly beautiful that I have ever seen. When the tide was out, there was a huge expanse of soft, fine sand that seemed to go on forever. And what amazed me was how few people seemed to be around most of the time. As the weekend approached, more and more families and arm-in-arm young couples appeared to take up space with their blankets and coolers, but for most of the week I was there, the beaches were as uncrowded as the photos here portray. Even on the busiest days, the sun-worshippers didn't show up till well after 10 a.m., and were gone again by 5:30 p.m.



One of the my first stops was at the Tourist Information Centre to pick up maps of self-directed hiking trails. I'm a little out of shape for longer treks (since I spent all of my "spare time" in the last eight months stuck in my room reading books and writing papers, rather than keeping fit), but I was pleased to find that I could still put in three to four hours without too much difficulty.

Pathways are one of my favourite subjects for photography. I love the perspective, and the hidden message of a new destination and undiscovered mysteries right around the next corner.



Another hike, another day.....and here's yours truly....proving that I did indeed wander through these beautiful landscapes. My camera is a 5.0 megapixel Canon PowerShot A530, with 4x optical zoom. Mostly I just set it on automatic and let it do its own thing. This was the first time that I stopped long enough to learn how to use the auto timer. I carefully balanced the camera on a large rock, set it for 10 seconds and scooted over to the gate. This was taken very near the Panorama viewpoint looking over the harbour, and the photo at left is from the viewpoint itself, showing the train bridge over the mouth of the Mawddach estuary.


It took me about an hour and a half to climb to the highest point of the hills behind Barmouth, and I was rewarded with beautiful views of the Welsh countryside (and the odd sheep as well *smile*). I was intrigued by the natural stone "fences." Aren't they beautiful? Many houses in Barmouth are constructed of the same local rock, and I loved how they blended right into the hillside.