It was already twenty degrees when we had breakfast at The Cottage and maintained the tropical feel all day. I was due to be doing some watersports with my students, but changed the plan to avoid the longish drive to the lake and instead went directly to the beach!
The tide was high and there was barely a breath of wind. The rest of the world had also had the same idea, and even though I'd only ever seen a couple of cars parked at this section of coast, today it was almost gridlocked! Through some small miracle, there was one space that was (just!) big enough to accommodate a minibus and trailer full of kayaks! While Leo took the paddlers off down the coast, I spent most of the day swimming and splashing with the non-kayakers. Not exactly what I had planned, but a fine adaptation to prevailing conditions I thought! Tough stuff...
Over in the distance, we could see Anglesey and Puffin Island. Given the spectacular conditions, having returned the kayakers, Clare and I went over to Puffin Island as I had been tipped off recently that there were lots of Puffins to be found there. The wind had picked up a bit by the time we arrived, but it was still gloriously warm.
With a light breeze behind us, we quickly made it past the light house and across Puffin Sound. Just before we reached the island, we came across our first Puffin! Bobbing in the water in front of us, we were able to drift right up next to it. Their beaks are such a vibrant colour and when they take off from the water, their feet are left trailing behind them.
There were loads of other birds that swooped down from the cliffs and right over our heads, while gannets patrolled the deeper waters. The wind picked up enough for us to decide not to venure too far around the island as in our little river boats, it was going to be hard to push back to the mainland. Instead to treaded water and watched the puffins, auks, gillimots and thousands of other birds in the crystal clear evening light. Magic.
The return journey was rough enough for us to be pretty wet from the spray that the headwind caused, but back within the shelter of the Anglesey cliffs, all was calm again.
We put the boats back in the van and settled down on the beach to enjoy the sunset. In the water around the coast shoals of Mackerel kept surfacing in a frenzy of splashes allowing the fishermen and women on the shore to literally casting off and reeling in a line full! It all looked very easy!
We stayed until the sun dipped behind the approaching clouds - the temperatures remained incredible though!
Lovely to be able to make the most of the tropical conditions while they last.... the clouds were approaching fast as we drove away!....
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