The Magic of Gower part 2 / Adventure on Burry Holmes Island

Adventure on Burry Holmes Island ( 11 / Sep / 2010 )

The following day proved to be an eventful one. The weather was gloriously sunny and perfect for a visit to the beach. I left around midday on foot, and walked along narrow country lanes down towards the beach. Half way along I took a walkers path through a small wood and up a hill side. I stopping half way up to take a break and rested in the shade of a small tree. As I often do when visiting new locations, I took the opportunity ( psychically ) to introduce myself to the local Faeries, and to invite them to part take in my project and appear in photographs if they wished. I even showed them a few images of other faeries I had captured from other parts of the country ( Ialways carry a photos around with me ).

On my way through the steep hill side I was surprised to come across several riders on horseback, it turns out they were taking part in an event called “Endurance UK”, I found out about this a little later when I met two of the organisers for the event near the beach, when I was asking for directions ( they were lovely people and very helpful ).

The Beach itself was one the most beautiful I’d experience in the UK or anywhere else. The sands of Llangennith and Rhossili are a fine golden bronze colour and a joy to walk on, a true surfer’s paradise. I made my way to Burry Holmes, a small island off the far point of Llangennith beach.

Burry Holmes is a dramatic landscape feature, separated from the beach by a short causeway. When the tied is out, you can walk from the beach to island. Which I did, I stayed there for a little while, exploring the sites and taking photos of the monastic ruins, when all of sudden I thought I saw the tide begin to came in, so I decided to make my way back to beach.

But when I got the bottom of the island, the tide had completely covered the causeway! I was trapped!! Eventhough the tide had just began to come in, because of where the island was, at the corner of the bay, the tide only had to come in by 30 feet for the causeway to be cut off completely!

It was hard to notice the change of the tide from the top of the island, and by the time I got to the bottom it was too late. The waters covering the causeway appeared to just be ankle deep, so I thought I’d try to cross it before it got worse. It was ok for the first few feet, as I waded across carrying a large bag full of cameras under my arms. Then all of a sudden, it became deeper and I found there was nothing under foot and I fell over, head first into the sea. Holding my bag full of cameras over my head and drenched from head to toe, I decided to end my attempt to cross the causeway and swam back awkwardly to Bury Holmes Island.

Standing on the rocky shore of the little island, soaking wet, I quickly took out my phone to check it. It had been in my trouser pocket so of course was fully exposed to the sea when I fell in. I decided to make a call as quickly as possible, as it could fail at any moment. I called the number I knew best, the one for the King’s Head, and spoke to someone at the restaurant. I manage to say “I am staying in room 4, I am stranded on Bury Holmes, the tide has come in and cut me off, can you call the emergency service..”, and then the phone went dead. I just had enough time to get the important details across.

After making my brief call, and wondering whether I had said enough, slightly downcast, I looked across the causeway and in front of me, some distance away was a wedding party taking photos on the beach! What fortuitous luck! I frantically began to shout and wave my arms around to trying to grab their attention. After a while the party came over, and they shouted across the tide to me and I shout back across to them to get help. The Bridegroom, shouted back across “Can you swim across?”, I said “No”. It would be a bad idea to try
to swim across, walking across were the water only came up to your ankles is one thing, but having to swim across deep areas is another thing entirely. Because the causeway is situated at the corner of the Bay it means you’ll be swimming against transverse currents which will be pushing and pulling against you at the same time. A very dangerous thing to do, and I wasn’t about to risk it, so in the end they agreed to get help.

They left me with the promise of help and faded into the distance. Ten minutes later a landrover vehicle emerges across the beach, and drives it’s way towards the causeway. Two men wearing life preservers walk from
the landrover to the edge of the tide and shout across the causeway for me to stay were I am. They then turn their attention away from me and looked out towards the left, between Bury Holmes Island and the corner of the Bay into the open sea with expectation.

A few minutes later from the corner of the Bay emerges something bouncing on the waves, a small motorised dingy carrying three coast guards quickly powers it’s way across the sea towards Burry Holmes. In no time, one of coast guards lands on the rocky shore, and checks that I am ok, soon I have a life preserver on me, and himself helped onto the rescue dingy. The plan was to drive me across to the two gentlemen on the other side of the causeway, but then that plan is dropped in favour of the more direct and exciting option of driving the dingy onto the beach itself.

We drove at full pelt towards the beach, I was made to sit low down near the front, and found myself at the same height as the waves. Surf splashed rhythmically around the boat as we made our way through with force. Despite the seriousness of the situation, I couldn’t help but think the perspective I had in the dingy at that point in time was similar to the Sea-Faeries I had captured on Venice beach California, who were riding the waves towards the beach. What an exhilarating time they must have riding close to the waves, crashing onto the beach, What fun! How I wished I had a camera on me, but alas they were safely in my bag, with one of the coast guards.

When we landed on the beach, in somewhat dramatic fashion, I apologised for been stranded and having to have them called out. But they were all smiles, and said they were glad to see me safe, and saw it as good practise!

Almost as quickly as we had arrived on the beach, with a quick pat on my back, the three coast guards were back in the dingy, all smiles, and were disappearing back to were they had came from. Leaving me in the very capable hands of the rescue services. Who took my details and gave me a lift in the landrover, all the way back to the King’s Head B&B. When I got out of the car and had thanked the rescue service personal for their help, I was met by one of the guys from the Kings Head restaurant. He greeted me and explained that it was he that picked up the phone when I made the call. He asked why I hadn’t call the emergency services directly? I explained my phone was affected by the sea and I had the Kings Head number to hand, so I call that number. He told me that they get quite a number of hoax calls, and for that reason didn’t know whether to believe my call. Whether my call was genuine or not, was debated for a full five minutes in the restaurant, before one of the guys decided to take the risk of looking a fool and called the emergencyservices.

So I don’t know who the emergency services responded to first, the wedding party or the staff member at the King head. But I am glad someone finally made that call, otherwise I might have been out there on Burry Holmes Island all night!

Jeorge Asare-Djan

The King Of The Mountains

This Deva was captured, opposite the camp site next to Llangennith beach. While walking towards the camp site, I turned around towards the hills and called for "The King of the Mountains" to appear, and this is the result. Eventhough I called for the King of the Mountains to appear, this could easily be a Queen of Mountains. Which ever may be the case, this being is very large and advanced. She has a green and fiery appearance, with her energies flowing into an emerald garment. She has two large aruic wings in a upward expression. Her face can be found in the centre near the top and is tanned / orange, looking towards the right. See what you think.

Here's an fuller version of the King of the Mountains images. Note that if he is hovering near the house on the bottom right, then he would be around 8 to 10 feet in height.