Shell Island

I suppose I should get on with my blogging really, what with all this catching up to be done. Rather than sitting around playing bejeweled blitz ;).

I was waiting for all my pictures to be on flickr before blogging but I guess I can just drop them in later. And actually the lack of photos of the things I actually wanted to see sort of sets the tone for the week really.

It was a Good Holiday. Sadly it wasn’t a Great Holiday as there were just too many things that were disappointing to elevate it to such status and have words such as ‘adore’ and ‘wonder’ and ‘awe’ bestowed upon it.

I might as well get those out of the way first really. First of all Shell Island was a bit of a disappointment to me. I can’t even remember where I first heard about it but someone I know had been there and it sounded lovely. It does have the potential to be lovely but it is far too filled with groups of lads and teens out to get drunk, be noisy and surf down the sanddunes in the early hours of the morning to pull off lovely. It is strewn with litter, really, really strewn with litter. Several times we started to collect tins, bottles etc. and just gave up as we were so disheartened. I suspect it is a victim of it’s own success and also too cheap. Odd to be bemoaning that really but I think I’d rather have paid more and possible kept some people out as a result. It is so very sad that one of the things that should attract people to stay there is the natural beauty and wildlife and those are the very things that are suffering as a result of the people coming to stay there :(.

I think campsites are rather like books – there are just so many that it has to be a Very Very Special one to have me be prepared to revisit at the cost of not trying a new one. The Sustainability Centre is so far the only place to have me happy to rebook without fretting that in doing so I won’t be trying one of the thousands of other campsites I’ve not yet been to. Shell Island didn’t have that magic for me at all and in a part of the world (North Wales) that I love so much it would be my number one permanent relocation destination it fell way short of my expectations really.

Which brings me nicely to probably my biggest gripe of the week really. Now I felt I dealt with this in a humorous and self-deprecating way, poking fun at my own issues and working through my process at the same time without impacting too much on other people. Ady tells me I didn’t pull this off at all and possibly came across as petulant, moany and a nightmare holiday companion. Either way I probably wouldn’t have changed the way I acted so please feel free to use that information to back up any prior opinions you may have of me ;).

So, what I wanted from a camping holiday in North Wales, on Shell Island was the stunning views of the sea and the mountains. And Shell Island does have those. It also has sand dunes. Big, impressive, sci-fi film set style sand dunes that you can’t see over or get mobile phone signal in the middle of. And you can either choose to camp with that 360 degree view of mountains and ocean or in the middle of the giant sandpit. The group, collectively went for the sandpit. Not only did this mean we were denied the view it also meant there was bloody sand everywhere, still is, probably will be for weeks in our shoes, hair, clothes pockets, the washing machine etc. and possibly forever afterwards in our sleeping bags, tent and camping plastic wine glasses. It took Ady an hour to hoover it out of his car tonight, the patio below the washing line outside is strewn with the stuff from where I pegged out jeans and it fell from the pockets.

I don’t have an issue with sand as such. It’s not chalk or anything. And the kids did love it. When we moved and I had found what I deemed The Perfect Spot which took in the views and the group majority vote was to stay in the sand dunes I gave Davies and Scarlett the choice of staying pitched with their friends or moving to the view. They both prefered to stay with friends so that is what we did. I was never going to quietly accept it, I was always going to resent the week out of Ady and my holiday entitlement from work, the six hour drive, the 1000 mile round trip, frankly the not getting my own way. The kids both agreed if we’d been camped just the four of us the view would have won hands down over the sand dunes. Being with friends just about tipped the balance for me but it was a very close run thing and I reserve the right to go on about it forever after. 😉

The dolphins. Now this I take responsibility for totally. I didn’t manage my own and therefore Scarlett’s expectations properly on this one. Seeing dolphins was one of Scarlett’s ‘things’ I’d like to do this year’ list entries for 2009. Initially I was thinking ‘good luck with that one love, it’s not like we’ll be flying to Florida anytime soon!’ but a bit of research later and the whole thing fell into place with North Wales seeming to be a dolphin spotters paradise. A speedy few emails and phone calls later and I’d secured us a fab boat trip taking in some dolphin spotting and a bit of puffin perusal too. Job done.

Nope.

Turns out that company didn’t actually have an operational boat for the week we were there. Which is a bit of a prerequisite for boat tours really. So a trip to the Tourist Information Centre and a couple of phonecalls later I reach Tony, with a very strong Welsh accent and seafaring ways who books me onto his boat for Wednesday for a dolphin watching extravaganza. And for about 50 quid less than the first place. Result, thinks I.

Nope.

But we’ll get to that later. But to not keep you in suspense (not that you are, you all follow me on brightkite and know full well we didn’t see any dolphins) along with a view we didn’t see any dolphins.

Finally the weather. I’m not too fussy about that. We were after all camping in the Great British Summertime so rain pattering on the tent roof, soaking sleeping bags and making all that bloody sand wet and claggy and get trodden into the tent was a given really. As was the wind. The tent stood up to it all well, out of seven evenings there were only two wet ones and only one of them managed to drive us hardy folk into our tents so it didn’t actually interefere too much with the week, it’s just that a bit more sunshine would have been nice.

So, all that out of the way, let’s have a blow by blow daily account shall we?