Aberdaron Beach- SUP, BBQ and Stargazing!
Never underestimate the difficulties of a BBQ in the dark!
One sunny weekend in September, a friend and I decided to make the most of the last bit of summer with a sunset SUP, a BBQ and some stargazing. We headed to Aberdaron on the Llyn Peninsula, and traffic on the way slowed us down. In good spirits we arrived, and got parked. Neither of us had been on our SUPs on the sea before, and as we inflated our boards I watched the tide coming in and giggled nervously. Those waves looked big! And although I knew the tide coming in was good, I didn’t fancy trying to get on the board on those waves.
Boards inflated, we headed to the sea. Where the ridiculousness of the situation hit us. We both laughed uncontrollably as we tried and failed to get on our boards, and just kept getting pushed back onto the shore. Unfortunately for me I managed to get on the board, for a few seconds at least. Until I was violently ejected against my will! Completely off the board for the first time and I was not impressed, my friend however was highly amused by this! I did managed to get on in the end past the waves, no standing and my friend decided to watch from the beach! After a nervous few minutes I decided enough was enough, and we left our boards on the beach and went for a dip instead. It is the first time I had been this beach in the day- and it’s beautiful.
The next challenge we hadn’t considered, was deflating the boards. On the sand. The sand was everywhere! we were both covered by the time we got them packed up. We then had to get changed in the car park, and somehow get the sand off us. It wasn’t until after we were dressed that we realised the toilets had showers in them….next time we will be checking the facilities out! We got our cool boxes, camping chairs and bags and headed back down to the beach.
I had purposely ordered a small foldable BBQ, and as it was getting dark I started to set this up. It then dawned on me the Milky Way core would be visible very soon, so I was back and to setting up the tracker, aligning it whilst getting a BBQ started. Neither of us had used a BBQ on our own before, and it was a challenge in the dark! By some small miracle I cooked us some food, and we didn’t get food poisoning whilst taking some shots of the Milky Way. BBQ eaten, we watched the sky. We saw some shooting stars and satellites, and the sky was so dark and clear and filled with stars! When it was time to pack up and leave, we had to use juice to cool down the BBQ so we could pack it away.
As we headed back to the car, souls full and bodies weary, I reflected on what a fun and eventful evening it had been. We had laughed all day and night, and managed to get some shots. A great adventure!