LAST OF THE SUMMER WIRES

Fiona Cullinan

26 September 2021

Tywyn-Tonfanau-Tywyn

Steps: 15,600

There are dolphins porpoising (yes, that's a word) in the bay. Delirious, I shout over at both neighbours. Next door says they haven’t seen them in 15 years of visiting Tywyn.

Left, right or inland? My walk options from Tywyn – a coastal town in southern Snowdonia pronounced how a Brummie would say ‘town’ – are simple. All routes from here are flat. Tywyn is one of a number of communities in Wales at risk from rising sea levels, despite a £6.6m coastal sea defence being built in 2011.

The road behind the rail track to Tonfanau is a trudge. But at the River Dysynni the sun shines and turns everything from grey to blue. I follow a sheep up a track to army training camp ruins where a herd of jet black cows now stand guard. The disused camp was resurrected in the 1970s to house Ugandan refugees fleeing Idi Amin’s brutal regime. They were welcomed with meals of curried liver and vegetables. (Insert your own joke here.)

At the estuary, the river is flowing both out and in simultaneously. The waves are ‘surfy’ and the river cuts through the boom as a high-pitched babble. The air is warm and lockdown-clean with just a hint of seaweed. My skin pops out more freckles. In the stifled era since Covid, I’ve missed this hard – the big skies, the blue water, the feeling of resilience from going it alone with the wind and sun on your face.

Wish you were here.

Fiona 

One minute video: Standing at the mouth of the Dysynni River