Didn't I have a lovely time (the day I went to Tenby)

 

My car has been filling up with water and was booked for a 3 day investigation starting on April 12th in North Bristol. By coincidence this was the day that Wales was due to open it's borders to visitors after several months of lockdown.

It seemed best to use this coincidence wisely, so I collected my courtesy car, filled it with fuel and set off.

It took a little while to get used to gears again and I was grateful that the 1000cc engine of my loaned, pedal car was not having to transport anyone else besides me. After a couple of hours I pulled into Swansea services, collected a coffee and messaged a friend to find out the latest news on Tenby's most famous visitor: Wally the Walrus.

Having left my maps in my own car I now discovered that sat nav was not included in the deal. So I messaged a friend whom, I knew, would have arranged to be on site by dawn. He kindly sent postcodes for a car park and the path I would need to walk towards to get views. These and my mobile phone were all I needed, plus of course, the welcome news that my journey would not be wasted.

On arriving, an hour later I found a second local friend having a packed lunch in the car park and he generously joined me in walking through the town to the exact spot.

This Walrus had first been seen in Western Ireland a couple of months previously. It had then vanished, only to be refound in Pembrokeshire a couple of weeks prior to my visit but I felt that I should not break lockdown guidance to travel until restrictions were lifted, hence todays trip.

Early morning the Walrus had been busy feeding and so was not easy to see well as it could be some distance offshore and fed deep under the waves, only coming up to breathe, and presumably, to wonder where the other Walruses hung out.

Fortunately, by the time I got there it had decided to haul out on the lifeboat station slipway for a sleep.

The pattern seems to be, eat until tired, then haul out and sleep until hungry, with breaks to see-off gulls and other birds that get too close

While it was not particularly close, as can be seen from this photo; the zoom on my Nikon P900 made short work of getting recognisable pictures.

The only thing that spoiled them, in my view, was the cockle/shellfish stuck to his muzzle all afternoon giving the impression of a third tusk.

I must admit that I never really expected to catch up with this species in Britain, and quite possibly I will never get to the arctic reaches it inhabits so I am delighted that I made the effort.

I stayed for an hour to an hour and a half in which time about 100 or more people came and went. These were almost entirely local or "localish" people, many of whom thought it would be much closer and almost everybody stayed less than 5 minutes to watch it.

I know that it takes me 10 to 15 mins to get over the first rush of excitement and frantic camera clicking before I can really enjoy the experience and this day, I had my fill.

I will finish with a snippet of video and heartily recommend a visit. It's unlikely to happen again in my lifetime