Worth saving!

Arriving in Tenby could make you wonder if you should have stayed on the train! Especially after talking to three golfers who were heading to Tenby’s golf course because it is the oldest course in Wales, was refurbished at a cost of two million pounds to be an all-weather course, and has buggies. Not one of them mentioned the golf!

In pouring rain, the climb without cover to Tenby centre could easily feel miserable, especially if you forgot to make use of the train’s onboard facilities. The ‘windows’ set in the footpath to provide light to basement rooms can be lethally slippery for the unwary too.

But then:

And:

And:

The pagoda is a wonderful echo chamber:

Tenby has hire wheelchairs suitable for the beach; inclusiveness in action:

At the Lifeboat station, which is freely open to the curious, a sixty year old woman was invasively bemoaning the fact that the lifeboat wasn’t there for her to see. When a man from the station politely explained it was out on a job, her response made it clear that was of no account. She even had the gall to say it should have been there; she wanted to see it!

Tenby has a small indoor market place complete with butcher, baker, but no candlestick maker. The cafe tables are out in the common area, and usually full; the sign of good food.

I joined an ex merchant seaman who had spent the last ten of his forty years at sea on an Antartica scientific ship. He had a plethora of seaworthy tales, and a warning.

On the eve of the millennium, the ship’s Captain called everyone on deck. Scientists were invited to speak about the changes they had seen over time, including how plastic now falls within the snow, brought south by air currents from across the globe. At the end of the scientists talk, someone asked what the next millennium holds. The response was just a long embarrassed silence.

This retired seaman is totally angry about plastics, population explosion, that the UK can no longer feed itself, fossil fuels, immigration, and apathy about litter. Listening to him, a wave of helplessness swept over me.

But then I looked around the market. Recycling bins, signs advising no single-use cups, a busy second-hand clothing store, and a customer’s meat being wrapped in good old-fashioned newsprint. Change is being made, and we can do this, one small decision after another, like the man who has planted one tree every day for decades and thus restored a desert to rich forestation inhabited by wildlife.