Mwnt holds a really special place in my heart because we’ve spent many holidays in West Wales, my husband, me and my son. It’s just a really lovely place. There’s a big hill part to it and then there’s a beach, and there’s a little cafe. We’ve taken to go and watch the sunset there and often you can see seals in the sea.
One of my memories of the first time we ever went (when my son was probably about six or seven) we thought we’d climb up to the top of the mount. We went around and it was a really windy day and we got halfway around and it was so, so windy and it dropped straight into the sea. It’s really high, so my husband took my son and we climbed up over the top. I can remember just almost being in tears, it was so scary. It’s like loose rocks and things. My husband just picked up my son, and carried him and they went off into the distance. I was just slowly climbing up the hill by myself and I was trying to get down the other side, and I’m sure I did cry. It’s just a resounding memory, and now whenever we’ve been able to go, we always joke, “Do you remember that time Mum made us climb up and it was really windy and she cried and it was awful!”
The last few times we’ve been able to go, I haven’t been able to climb it because I’ve had ME now for eight years. And although before becoming severe I was able to do more things, we could go on holiday, I wasn’t able to walk for long or to kind of climb up things like that. So the last few times we went, my husband and my son would climb up to the top and just wave at me from the top and I would sit down at the bottom.
It’s just a really beautiful place, Mwnt. Another memory I have, is of a time we went in the evening and it was a really beautiful still evening, just absolutely stunning sky and a really beautiful summer’s day. Me and my son decided we’d like to go swimming but we hadn’t taken our swimming stuff with us in the car. We thought we’d just go for a little drive to watch the sunset, so we hadn’t prepared. I said to him, “Come on, let’s not waste a day because we haven’t got the right thing. We’ve got underwear on, that’s fine. Nobodys gonna know that it’s not the right thing.”
So we went down to the beach, it’s really quite steep down to the beach, you have to go down lots of steps. We went over to the far corner of the beach and there were some rocks that we could hide behind. So we hid behind them and got changed. And it was okay for my son because he was just wearing black trunks. I was obviously naturally wearing mismatched underwear, so my bra didn’t match my pants. But I thought, I’m not wasting such a beautiful day. Life is for living. So we ran in, holding hands into the sea, and swam out and just spent a really lovely hour in the sea. He was jumping off the rocks and I was catching him and just swimming around and having a brilliant time.
Then when it was time to get out, we made a run for it back to hide behind the rock, and took our wet things off and just put our clothes on without them on. We made our way back up the really steep steps. We were quite tired by then. So thankfully the cafe was still open. So I think we bought ourselves a hot chocolate and some biscuits and sat at the top, and just watched the sea. And it was such a stunning, stunning evening.
It was made all the more beautiful because we just went out and really enjoyed it, rather than sitting and feeling sorry that we couldn’t go in. So those are two of my favorite memories of family time at Mwnt.
It’s a place I think of often when I’m stuck in bed. I have some photos of our time there that I can see from my bed. It reminds me of just how beautiful the world is and I really hope that at some point in the future, I will be well enough to go back to enjoy the sunset and enjoy the beauty of that part of West Wales.
