Welcome readers! I'd like to say hello to the new readers and followers which I've managed to recruit via my facebook advertising campaign and twitter account! I haven't managed to blog, update or do many edits at all due to one main problem; WiFi. I've been on holiday and have lived on my phone's internet for the past couple of weeks and now that period of time has had to be extended because my home's internet has been cut, However; let's disregard that and just give you some information about this lovely sandboarding location!
As you know, I did my first ever sandboarding 'session' here as you saw it in my previous blog post
Holywell Bay sits on the north coast of the British county of Cornwall, it is a 10 minute drive from the seaside town of 'Newquay', the nearest train station is roughly the same and the nearest airport is only a 20 minute drive from the dune complex. South of the dunes there lies a popular beach, the small but seasonal village called 'Holywell' and an active military camp, to the west of the dunes you will see the sea, that's all, sea. East of the Holywell dunes you will end up on a golf course near the dunes as there's a golf course, small amusement park and a long village road not far from the dunes and village itself; Finally, if you go north from the dunes you will not find much there at all apart from a big field and maybe a path that'll take you the next beach above the coast as Holywell Bay's beach and dunes are separated by England's 'South West Coast Path' which will take you to another beach.
 |
| Courtesy of: Ganymede81 License: CC BY 3.0 (This is the top of the highest dune, looking to the South-East) |
When I came here in August 2015, I cut my foot and toes in the sand to pieces of barbed wire and going down into ditches, the barbed wire is because that many years ago the beach was used as a training ground by the military camp in order to stave off Nazi invasion; some of the pieces of barbed wire are still in the sand today so be very careful!
On the other hand, the complex is not very big on a map and even though the dunes don't go on a network they make pretty good fun for tourists coming to the beach; unlike the Sand Master Park in Oregon, Holywell Bay does not have slopes based on difficulty level, it's more of a natural arrangement of dunes close to a seaside with a good view rather than a serious contender in the contest for 'Best sand dune complex in the universe'. On entrance via a little path towards the dune and a slightly longer one for the beach, there are 2 shops which sell general holiday and seaside souvenir goods, they both sell sandboards but one of which sells both round (sit on them and slide down) boards and also the most commonly known and more fun (stand up and ride down) boards, there are no more sandboarding related products as this sport isn't as well-known in the UK and the demand isn't high.
Final Thought:
Holywell Bay's beach or dunes are not on Tripadvisor, but if it were I personally think it wouldn't gain much credit due to not many people knowing about sandboarding itself. As a blog writer I'll explain why Holywell Bay should need some attention for its dunes as I feel there needs to be improvement in sandboarding as a whole, there should be an authority on the sport and in this particular 'final thought' I'll address why Holywell Bay needs an attraction for its sand dunes:
There isn't a dedicated park, site, reserve, attraction or even a fenced off area for a dune complex to even begin there, there needs to be a business or a public space recognised by local power so that the public and that people who want to come here can experience how sandboarding can be a thing to do and how it can become more than just a holiday hobby, there needs to be that creativity or flair that someone has in order to turn some natural lumps sand dunes into a hot tourism spot and leisure park, the risk could be high but with the right promotion and the correct management, sandboarding could be coming to the UK; it might not be the proper way or even the right way to promote a sport but I think in this exceptional case, it's an opportunity that shouldn't fade away.
I understand that this post may have been longer than others and the quantity of writing may be inconsistent among posts but I try to do them based on content, personal knowledge and the availability of outside sources such as social media, photograph sites, maps, etc... I have come up with more ideas for post and I keep these ideas on my cork board at home so I can easily refer to them if there are any writers' blocks. This post has just added some more ideas (I won't reveal them as they're gonna be future posts) but soon they'll come from an idea to a proper post!
No comments:
Post a Comment