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Photos: Big G


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A stroll upon the beach is a very fine thing; throw in the possibility of viewing some interesting rock formations and it soon becomes hard to resist. This month Big G leaves his mountainside cave and succumbs to the magnetic draw of the coastal fringe:

Dear NWB.com readers,

November; and at night the Ice Dragon comes and breathes its magic on the mountain tops. Its brothers and sisters are late from bed, to make the glorious sunrises. Even boulderers see sunrises this time of year!
But we mustn't rush out at first light, like flustered surfers - as if! - rather we should wait a while, for the...er...full power of the sun’s rays.
Never go without 5 or 6 strong cups of coffee. You know all this stuff!

And what better place, what more luxurious sun trap could we visit but the thoroughly odd, black rock, of Black Rock Sands. (‘Graig Ddu’ GR 523 375)
Beware; not of sea-monsters, not freak tides, not even the occasional dead dog, no... but the automobile. For here like no other beach, vehicular access allows young persons to reduce their parent’s cars to rusting detritus in their nervous driving attempts. Young faces peer out from behind the wheel, as surprised to see you as you will be to see them. Step out in front of these bad-boys and you're a radiator badge!

Now; to the barnacle populated rocks.
[Spare a thought for these pointless little organisms. They are Gods creatures after all, and probably not that genetically far removed from ourselves. When the tide is in, they come out off their shells and make wild gestures...whereas we do this when it’s out!]
It’s not obvious quite what to do, so explore and poke about, until you have found a little something above crustacean-level on the very solid smooth black sea-washed stuff. Don't worry, once you're attuned everything will come to you - slabs, walls, pockets, mantles, weird jugs in roofs - the lot. (Landings of flat but unforgiving sand.)
One-off, one-move wonders. More natural beauty then you could shake a brush-stick at.

November is the coolest month!

Love Big G


Appendices

If you like this, you might like...

1. ‘A Welsh Incident’ Robert Graves's popular poem which muses upon the creatures that could, one fine day, have emerged from this very set of caves ("beyond Criccieth yonder") if the imagination only allowed it.

2. ‘Bad Day On Black Rock [Sands]’ John Sturges's 1955 movie staring Spencer Tracey as a one-armed man who turns up in a deserty back-of-beyond sort of place (a coincidence?) and runs into difficulties during a complicated sequence/plot.

Relevant links: