Following on the autumnal theme, I have visited one or two stunning beaches this summer but the memory now is fading fast. The beaches between Arisaig and Moror in the Highlands are just unbelievable and completely beautiful - all white sand, dunes and rocky spurs with a backdrop, just to round things off, of the islands of Rhum, Eigg and Skye as a skyline out to sea.
And then totally randomly discovering Talisker Bay in Skye – a rugged rocky beach, at the end of a long walk through the fields from where the road runs out, with high cliffs either end, off the side of one a mini (but not that mini) replica of Angel Falls cascades!! And then as the tide goes out a gorgeous light and dark dappled, fine sandy beach is exposed. You’d have to see it to believe it – its almost like something out of a dinosaur movie. Have a look
at this!!!:).
I also did a humungous swim with one of my daughters off of Anaxos beach in Lesbos to a little crag of an island way out to sea – when we finally washed up on the island we felt like we’d discovered our own special secret haven.... albeit it one burnt to a crisp by the relentless sun and covered in cormorant droppings and surrounded by an urchin invested shallows :D. And Eftalou Beach much be one of the most unspoilt beaches in Greece, gorgeous but rocky with swimming costumes that soon disappear completely when you stray a couple of hundred yards from the taverna.
Anyway here’s a beach poem that kind of fits the bill...
I saw from the beach, when the morning was shining,
A bark o'er the waters move gloriously on;
I came when the sun o'er that beach was declining,
The bark was still there, but the waters were gone.
And such is the fate of our life's early promise,
So passing the spring-tide of joy we have known;
Each wave that we danced on at morning ebbs from us,
And leaves us, at eve, on the bleak shore alone.
Oh, who would not welcome that moment's returning
When passion first waked a new life through his frame,
And his soul, like the wood that grows precious in burning,
Gave out all its sweets to love's exquisite flame.
Thomas Moore