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My Beach
I have a favouriteplace in Scotland that until recently was not well known. It is the place I escaped to after my old man died. The place where I did some thinking on life, if that doesn't sound too crass. It is quite simply a beach, on the North west of Scotland. For me it is the most magnificent beach in Scotland. The remoteness is powerful. It is 6 miles from the nearest road across moorland.
I have been twice, the first time was as I said after my father's death, and the second was when I took a young French girl "Estelle" who loved Scotland, to see "my beach". This was two days before I left for Rio de Janeiro in 1994. We had an emotional visit, it is an emotional place. Cameron MacNeish wrote of the place "The cliffs to the North appeared to evaporate in various shades of grey towards Cape Wrath and there was a stillness over the place that I'd never experienced before. I sat on the rocky strand and soaked it in, feeling the loneliness penetrate my very being, not an unpleasant loneliness, but rather a great peace." So it's my place along with a few more folk, but not too many. When I have been there, there have been no other visitors, you walk the mile long beach alone.
There is a small island known as Am Balg, about a mile off shore and strangely, the best dive I have had in Scotland was at that island. I had gone by boat with twelve others from Kinlochbervie, and though the beach was in sight we did not visit. It would not have been the same with twelve.
Two days after my visit to the beach I flew to Rio and on arrival at the airport in Brazil I met a guy from Wales. We shared a taxi into the city and went looking for accommodation. Pete was a banker who had opted out of the rat race, just as I had. When I unpacked my rucksack in the other side of the world the first thing to come out was a photograph of the beach that Estelle had secretly placed in my rucksack. There were nice words on the back to remember the day by.
The following day, grey and overcast, my first to be spent in South America, I walked along the famous Copacobanna Beach, said to be the most beautiful in the world. Today there were no scantily clad beauties, no sunshine. The bulldozers were on the sand clearing away all the rubbish, there were only a few walkers, like Pete and myself who were doing the "tourist thing". As we were walking and talking about how we were each going to spend the next few months, Pete said to me that he had a favourite beach in the world but it was in a place so remote that it was unlikely that I had ever heard of it!
I have a favouriteplace in Scotland that until recently was not well known. It is the place I escaped to after my old man died. The place where I did some thinking on life, if that doesn't sound too crass. It is quite simply a beach, on the North west of Scotland. For me it is the most magnificent beach in Scotland. The remoteness is powerful. It is 6 miles from the nearest road across moorland.
I have been twice, the first time was as I said after my father's death, and the second was when I took a young French girl "Estelle" who loved Scotland, to see "my beach". This was two days before I left for Rio de Janeiro in 1994. We had an emotional visit, it is an emotional place. Cameron MacNeish wrote of the place "The cliffs to the North appeared to evaporate in various shades of grey towards Cape Wrath and there was a stillness over the place that I'd never experienced before. I sat on the rocky strand and soaked it in, feeling the loneliness penetrate my very being, not an unpleasant loneliness, but rather a great peace." So it's my place along with a few more folk, but not too many. When I have been there, there have been no other visitors, you walk the mile long beach alone.
There is a small island known as Am Balg, about a mile off shore and strangely, the best dive I have had in Scotland was at that island. I had gone by boat with twelve others from Kinlochbervie, and though the beach was in sight we did not visit. It would not have been the same with twelve.
Two days after my visit to the beach I flew to Rio and on arrival at the airport in Brazil I met a guy from Wales. We shared a taxi into the city and went looking for accommodation. Pete was a banker who had opted out of the rat race, just as I had. When I unpacked my rucksack in the other side of the world the first thing to come out was a photograph of the beach that Estelle had secretly placed in my rucksack. There were nice words on the back to remember the day by.
The following day, grey and overcast, my first to be spent in South America, I walked along the famous Copacobanna Beach, said to be the most beautiful in the world. Today there were no scantily clad beauties, no sunshine. The bulldozers were on the sand clearing away all the rubbish, there were only a few walkers, like Pete and myself who were doing the "tourist thing". As we were walking and talking about how we were each going to spend the next few months, Pete said to me that he had a favourite beach in the world but it was in a place so remote that it was unlikely that I had ever heard of it!
My Beach
I have a favouriteplace in Scotland that until recently was not well known. It is the place I escaped to after my old man died. The place where I did some thinking on life, if that doesn't sound too crass. It is quite simply a beach, on the North west of Scotland. For me it is the most magnificent beach in Scotland. The remoteness is powerful. It is 6 miles from the nearest road across moorland.
I have been twice, the first time was as I said after my father's death, and the second was when I took a young French girl "Estelle" who loved Scotland, to see "my beach". This was two days before I left for Rio de Janeiro in 1994. We had an emotional visit, it is an emotional place. Cameron MacNeish wrote of the place "The cliffs to the North appeared to evaporate in various shades of grey towards Cape Wrath and there was a stillness over the place that I'd never experienced before. I sat on the rocky strand and soaked it in, feeling the loneliness penetrate my very being, not an unpleasant loneliness, but rather a great peace." So it's my place along with a few more folk, but not too many. When I have been there, there have been no other visitors, you walk the mile long beach alone.
There is a small island known as Am Balg, about a mile off shore and strangely, the best dive I have had in Scotland was at that island. I had gone by boat with twelve others from Kinlochbervie, and though the beach was in sight we did not visit. It would not have been the same with twelve.
Two days after my visit to the beach I flew to Rio and on arrival at the airport in Brazil I met a guy from Wales. We shared a taxi into the city and went looking for accommodation. Pete was a banker who had opted out of the rat race, just as I had. When I unpacked my rucksack in the other side of the world the first thing to come out was a photograph of the beach that Estelle had secretly placed in my rucksack. There were nice words on the back to remember the day by.
The following day, grey and overcast, my first to be spent in South America, I walked along the famous Copacobanna Beach, said to be the most beautiful in the world. Today there were no scantily clad beauties, no sunshine. The bulldozers were on the sand clearing away all the rubbish, there were only a few walkers, like Pete and myself who were doing the "tourist thing". As we were walking and talking about how we were each going to spend the next few months, Pete said to me that he had a favourite beach in the world but it was in a place so remote that it was unlikely that I had ever heard of it!
I have a favouriteplace in Scotland that until recently was not well known. It is the place I escaped to after my old man died. The place where I did some thinking on life, if that doesn't sound too crass. It is quite simply a beach, on the North west of Scotland. For me it is the most magnificent beach in Scotland. The remoteness is powerful. It is 6 miles from the nearest road across moorland.
I have been twice, the first time was as I said after my father's death, and the second was when I took a young French girl "Estelle" who loved Scotland, to see "my beach". This was two days before I left for Rio de Janeiro in 1994. We had an emotional visit, it is an emotional place. Cameron MacNeish wrote of the place "The cliffs to the North appeared to evaporate in various shades of grey towards Cape Wrath and there was a stillness over the place that I'd never experienced before. I sat on the rocky strand and soaked it in, feeling the loneliness penetrate my very being, not an unpleasant loneliness, but rather a great peace." So it's my place along with a few more folk, but not too many. When I have been there, there have been no other visitors, you walk the mile long beach alone.
There is a small island known as Am Balg, about a mile off shore and strangely, the best dive I have had in Scotland was at that island. I had gone by boat with twelve others from Kinlochbervie, and though the beach was in sight we did not visit. It would not have been the same with twelve.
Two days after my visit to the beach I flew to Rio and on arrival at the airport in Brazil I met a guy from Wales. We shared a taxi into the city and went looking for accommodation. Pete was a banker who had opted out of the rat race, just as I had. When I unpacked my rucksack in the other side of the world the first thing to come out was a photograph of the beach that Estelle had secretly placed in my rucksack. There were nice words on the back to remember the day by.
The following day, grey and overcast, my first to be spent in South America, I walked along the famous Copacobanna Beach, said to be the most beautiful in the world. Today there were no scantily clad beauties, no sunshine. The bulldozers were on the sand clearing away all the rubbish, there were only a few walkers, like Pete and myself who were doing the "tourist thing". As we were walking and talking about how we were each going to spend the next few months, Pete said to me that he had a favourite beach in the world but it was in a place so remote that it was unlikely that I had ever heard of it!
