Skomer 2011

The day started at Burger King in Bristol at 5 am. Kev, Rich, Ian, Simon and me all bleary eyed but eager. A three hour car journey in front of us to get to Martins Haven for the ferry to Skomer. First stop Haverfordwest at 07:30 for a McDonalds breakfast, egg and bacon Mcmuffin for me, TWO for Kevin FB. 30 minutes and a couple of wrong turns later and we arrived at Martins Haven. At this point we were all a bit scepticle as to whether the ferry would cross due to the high winds. The cloud was breaking and it looked like it was going to brighten up but the winds remained. The parking attendant assured us the ferry was still crossing so we grabbed our gear and set off to the ticket kiosk next to the cove. From here we could see the sea, and my god it was quite a swell. The pilot of the boat made his way to the beach past the queue and said he would go out and see what it was like first before he took anyone. Once enough tickets were sold for the first boat full (40) they stopped until we heard from the pilot. Whilst waiting in the howling wind we watched while the sea came rolloing in. Then it clouded over once more and the rain started. What on earth were we thinking of? We continues to watch as the boat pulled out of the sheltered cove, up over the rollers and the bow smacking down in the following trough. We were all looking at each other not saying a word, we didn't have to. The boat disappeared around the headland and we waited. 10 minutes later over the crackle of the radio we the the words we had at first been dreading but were probably quite relieved to to hear, "No go, getting battered by a force 6 here".

That was that. Back up to car and on to plan B. What was plan B. Oh we didn't have one, bugger.

Ok back to Haverfordwest Information centre pick up some leaflets and back to Mcdonalds to discuss. With more caffiene inside us we decided to head for llanelli to the Wild fowl and wetlands trust there. We arrived there at about midday and walked the entire site. Plenty of bird shots were taken with Damselflies and lizards to boot. Ian may well have been converted, as self confessed Damdelfly hater, he thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of getting a good Damselfly shot. After doing the wild bird section where we shot Damselflies and lizards because the birds were just too easy we went on to the captive section. Here the birds are much more challenging so we concentrated on this (honest). By the time we finished here it was about 5PM and general concensus was that it wasn't bad but not as good as Slimbridge.

From here we felt perhaps a visit to Ogmore-on-sea was in order to maybe get some beach and sky shots. Arrived here about 6PM and the tide was in, so not much beach there. Not our day. Never the less we still got down onto the little bit of beach and hpefully got some useable shots.

After this it was around 7PM and we were all knackered so felt it was time to head home. Back to Burger King for about 8 ish.

Even though we were up at 5am, had a 3 hour journey, got soaked waiting a a queue, to then drive back to a wetlands centre that wasn't as good as one we could have gone to 30 minutes from home and then go to get some beach shots when the tide was in. We still enjoyed ourselves. It was a day when things were just against us, but we made the best of it and visited places we normally wouldn't have. In the process we enjoyed ourselves had a laugh and Simon was able to catch up on his sleep in the car.