The Best of Times

My Mum and Dad first brought me to Fairbourne when I was born in 1966. My father and his father before him had been coming to the same bungalow (Min-y-Don on the Coast Road - Penrhyn Drive South) all their lives. Mum Dad and my sister visited Fairbourne every summer till I was 16. What happy memories. Each morning we would walk to the bakery for bread rolls - I can smell them now. If the weather was fine we played on the beech, went rock climbing or took the little train to the Barmouth ferry. Each year we did the same trips, to the butcher in Dollgellau, stopping off for a coke and a packet of crisps at the George III in Penmaenpool on the way back. Maybe a trip to Aberdovey to go crabbing from the pier, or a day spent at Harlech castle. But the highlight every year was a walk to the Blue Lakes where we bounced stones across the water. I can still remember the much smaller yellow lake, which I presume has gone. Happy, carefree days - test match special, candy floss, welsh lamb, football on the beech. I am going back with my kids -I hope they love it as much as I did.