Ynyslas and Hinterland

Yesterday, we took the short drive to Ynyslas, and walked over the hilly, vegetation-punctuated sand dunes to the beach.  The beach is long.  If you follow it round to the south, you reach Aberystwyth.  If you stroll northward, ahead of you is an estuary, on the other side of which is the town of Aberdovey.  The estuary is effectively the mouth of the river Dovey.  Aberdovey looks so near, you'd swear you could actually walk there.  As the red kite flies, Aberdovey would be less than a mile away.  Perhaps a kilometre.  But Aberdovey sits on the other side of the estuary.  if you want to drive there from Ynyslas, you have to follow the road 25 miles around.

Jean and I strolled northward along the beach.  We found many, many stones washed up from the sea.  Many were smooth from their time spent in the ocean.  Many were very dark, others gleaming white.  Still others were a fusion of two stones together.  Other stones had been affected by foam.  Littering the beach were also multiple strands of seaweed, bits of wood, and more and more stones.  Entering the area of the estuary from the beach, the sand we trod widened out, and it was like we were on a vast field of sand.  Here and there, we also encountered vast fields of stones.  In the distance, to our left, was Aberdovey, straight ahead the estuary's wide upstream path with bleak horizons on either side.  

I had the idea to walk to the closest possible point to Aberdovey but on my side of the estuary.  For hundreds of yards I walked, the sandy ground beneath me frequently moist, rinsed by recent tides, my feet sinking deeper and deeper into the fragile surface.  I jumped occasionally over little water pools, and crossed over stony floors.  With Jean's enthusiasm abandoned some time before, I too turned around, the stony surface was taking too long to traverse.

I met up with Jean, and we headed together back to our hire car, parked on a sandy patch on the other side of some hilly sand dunes, near the estuary.  We discovered some people filming.  One female cast member stood still in a wet area of the sand, with Aberdovey to her north.  I asked what was going on.  They told me they were filming an episode of Hinterland.  Hinterland is a BBC production, set around Aberystwyth.  We get it in Australia, and it is very good.

The final stony surface before the edge of the estuary separating Ynyslas from Aberdovey.

A view of Aberdovey from the vegetation-filled sand dunes.

In the foreground is the path through the sand dunes.  In the distance is part of the estuary.

Jean heading through the sand dunes of Ynyslas.

It's deceptive: you'd swear you could walk to Aberdovey.

Hinterland film crew at left, a crew member by the car.  The female cast member to the right.

A future scene from Hinterland coming to our TV screens.  Two cast members on the sands of Ynyslas with Aberdovey in the background.