Whiteout.

The early morning mists that were obscuring the view soon burnt off but inland there were great cloudbanks which kept rolling down off the mountains. (2nd photo down was taken in the middle of the afternoon.) Whenever the sun burnt through the mist it was very hot but  for a lot of the day it was a little cooler under the haze. Still only shorts and t-shirt weather.

We were up and out early as the rowing club was taking part in a regatta over at Aberdyfi. The plan was for the boat to be trailered to Ynyslas and then rowed across the river to Aberdyfi. I dropped Peter off at the boatpark and then drove all the way up the Dyfi valley (above), crossed the river at Mach and then all the way down the other side of the river on a winding road cut out of the rock. My journey took 45 minutes  while the rowers took just under half an hour.

However they weren't there when I got to Aberdyfi as it took a while to organise getting the boat onto the trailer and then into the water at Ynyslas. That gave me the opportunity to have a long beach walk.

The beach which runs for miles around the headland is very like Saunton and its sand dunes but beyond are the foothills of Snowdonia.

It was lovely to march along with the sound of the waves on one side and the clear song of high up skylarks on the other. I walked for two hours and did about 5 miles. So I got my Sunday walk but without anyone to talk to except myself.

The rest of the day was spent sitting on a wall, guarding bags and watching the different races. Apart from the Novice race each race was three and a half miles so we would eventually lose sight of the boats as they went up the river and out to sea. Eventually they would come back into sight and apart from the Ladies race when three of our rowers were pirate (borrowed) rowers the Borth boat would be at the back. Though we did come in third from last in the mixed race which Peter coxed. Not unexpected when you saw the fit sporty types, think rugby players, in the other boats compared to our members who row as a hobby rather than as a competitive sport. But the experience was good and they all enjoyed themselves. There were around 15 boats in each race and it was fun to watch.

The start line was some way up the river, behind them are the sand dunes at Ynyslas at the other end of our beach.

By the time I got home the clouds were so low you couldn't see from one end of the village to the other. The ground is still very dry so I did some watering before coming in to go through my photos and to blog. And maybe watch an espisode of The Sewing Bee on my pc.