Travel diary: Pembrokeshire & Skomer Island
And a hard lesson in overpacking art materials.
Back in May, we took a family trip to Pembrokeshire in Wales. The main reason for our trip was to visit Skomer Island, a birthday gift from my husband that I was very excited to redeem. This was my first visit to Wales and I'm pleased to say the experience exceeded my expectations.
On the first day, we visited Tenby Beach which was beautiful; it was low-tide and the wide stretch of fine, sandy beach was spotlessly clean but dotted with treasures of shells and stones. It was a warm but windy day, my son flew his kite, we paddled in the sea and ate dripping ice creams in the sunshine bought from a little van, cruising slowly up the beach.
The wind dampened any sounds of birds so I had to rely on what I could see, which was a lot of gulls and some crows, hunting for a meal in the sand. Aside from that, we experienced the extraordinary sight of a gannet diving near the shore, just in front of us.
The entrance to the beach was busy with holidaymakers, so we found a spot away from the crowds, further down the beach, in front of an area of lush, coastal heath. I didn't get the opportunity to identify the plants, but it looked like a range of trees, shrubs and grasses, all packed together. I loved the appearance of the layers they formed, I wondered what creatures lived and thrived in this small patch.
Back in the holiday cottage later that evening, with the image of the heath still in my head, I made a dissected drawing, focusing on minimal mark-making to try and capture the forms and bring across the variety of habitats. This approach informed the theme for our materials play drawing session in June.
Day trip to Skomer and a lesson in overpacking art materials.
The day started grey, drizzly and a tad foreboding but with the forecast looking clearer in the afternoon, we remained positive that our day on Skomer Island would be a good one.
I gave myself plenty of time that morning to pack my bag with art materials, binoculars, an umbrella and various other items that may come in handy, including a small towel and plastic bag, to prevent a wet bottom when I sit to sketch. I had hardly any room for my packed lunch and water bottle, but just about squeezed it into my 20l rucksack. It was so heavy, that I struggled to lift it into the boot of the car, but I tried not to think about the long walk I had ahead of me around Skomer, with the bag on my back.
I’m not sure when I regretted packing my larger pith sketchbook and full pencil roll. It might have been when I was clambering to the top of the climb on Martin’s Haven to kill time while we were waiting to embark from there to Skomer.
I forgot about the heavy load of my rucksack on the boat trip and the sight and sound of scores of puffins and razorbills in the air and sea was too mesmerising to give it a thought as we approached the Island. It was the most incredible, awe-inspiring sight and something I'll never forget.
However, when we landed at Skomer and climbed, breathlessly up the 87 steep steps from the boat to the greeting point, I did have second thoughts about packing that tin of watercolours.
At the top, we were greeted by an enthusiastic volunteer who presented a welcome talk, health and safety guidance and rules for visitors to observe. Whilst listening to the talk, doubts crept in about whether I would use all the Ecoline and Tombow pens I brought or the brush pens filled with different inks.
I concentrated back to what the guide was saying; her instructions were strict - take the route anticlockwise and stay on the path at all times, being careful to stay away from the edges of the path because puffins will nest there and one false step could cause a nest to collapse or crush a clutch of eggs.
Crumbs.
I was nervous and worries flew around my mind; What if my accident-prone son trips and steps onto a nest? Do all the visitors have to walk single file along the path? If so, would we get to stop and observe the puffins? Would there even be an opportunity to sit and sketch?
But, I remained optimistic, the day was young and we had 4 hours on the island to explore, take in all the sights and hopefully, for me, do some sketching. The recommended path took us inland before going north and then anticlockwise around the coastline.
The guide was right, it was a narrow path for most of the time with very few options to stop and sit so sadly there wasn’t a suitable opportunity to sketch for the first hour. We hadn’t got to the first major puffin colony by this point but we had seen and heard oystercatchers, meadow pipits and red-billed choughs.
We reached a natural rest point at the farmhouse at the centre of the island which had benches and picnic tables. Not wanting to waste much time and also due to the exciting aroma from the compost toilets, we made our pit stop a quick one and carried on the path north, then west to Pigstone Bay and the first puffin colony. The views from the cliffs were breathtaking and this was when we saw our first sight of puffins going in and out of their burrows and flying out to sea to feed. We also spotted grey seals bobbing about in the swell of the waves in the bay. It was a magical sight and worth the long walk.
Here I am with my insanely heavy rucksack! 😆
I wanted to stop and draw but my family were keen to carry on as it was very windy with little shelter available on the exposed cliffs. I spent as long as I could with my binoculars, observing the wildlife and beauty of my surroundings, trying to etch as much as I could into memory and taking as many photos and videos as I had time for.
We carried on around Skomer Head, spotting more and more puffins as we went. The visitor numbers started to thin out, some people taking the decision early to go across the centre of the island and return to the boat landing. This made it a bit easier to stop on the path and observe the puffins and the scenery.
By this point almost 3 hours had gone by, we’d done a lot of walking and I hadn’t got my sketch book out once! As you can imagine, I regretted my decision to pack all the materials. But I was determined to draw something by the time I left.
Fortunately, we were about to arrive at the largest puffin colony at The Wick, a deep inlet shadowed by a dramatic and expansive cliff of basalt rock. This part of the island felt different; a hazy Atlantic mist prevailed and it felt like I’d stepped onto the set of a fantasy adventure movie. It was vast, cinematic and otherworldly.
I felt humbled by the scale and wildness of it all, an insignificant bystander amongst this remarkable, natural spectacle.
The puffins were mostly unaware of our presence, they walked across the narrow path in front of us, went in and out of their burrows, took off to catch sand eels and defended themselves and their territory from the gulls with fierce defiance. Occasionally, they would look at us human interlopers with a curious tilt of their heads and then, a moment later, go about their business. The activity was not just confined to ground level, the air was teeming with puffins, gulls and kittiwakes, plus the occasional razorbill. Remarkably, I didn't get pooped on once!
On the other side of the inlet towered the vast wall of black rock, streaked white with deposits from the thousands of kittiwakes which nested there. The gulf between the edge of land we were on and the cliff face was so wide, that even with my binoculars, the kittiwakes were just a small, white blur.
We didn't have much time left on the island, my son and husband were flagging and wanted to go back to the landing for a rest before the boat arrived. We agreed I would hang back for a while and catch them up. This was my opportunity. The path was very narrow, only wide enough for someone to pass but there were fewer people now so I perched my rucksack between my feet, got out my small pencil case which contained chisel pens, a couple of grey ecolines, a couple of pental brush pens, a pencil and my A6 Jacksons sketchbook. This is basically my go-to travel set and, in hindsight, should have been the only thing I brought on the trip to Skomer.
It was very windy but I turned my back to it and did some brief sketches. They aren’t good drawings and convey little about what was happening around me, but it was good to draw those moments in this extraordinary place.
The lesson I learned is that when location drawing isn’t possible, sometimes just being present in a place is enough; as long as you’re observing, listening and getting a feel for the environment, it’s the next best thing to capturing it on paper.
My time on the island was running out and I had to head off soon to avoid missing the boat back to the mainland. I’d underestimated the distance from The Wick to the landing, so I had to half run/half walk the whole of the way. Some of the path was uphill and I was so tired by this point, I was cursing myself for taking so many art materials!
Despite the heavy load, I made it to the landing in time, and while we were waiting for our return boat to moor, we watched divers entering the bay from another small boat. I added this activity to my wish list for my next trip to this magical, awe-inspiring island.
Below is a collection of other moments, snapped for posterity (and as drawing references.)
Manor Wildlife Park
We were only two days into our trip and it felt like we had fitted in so much already.
To give our legs a rest after Skomer, we had a chilled day at the beach and the following day we visited a wildlife park. I was impressed at how densely planted the park was, with lots of well-established trees, which provided a great habitat for wild birds. In just the four hours we were there, I identified:
Chaffinch
Treecreeper
Goldcrest
Song Thrush
Blackbird
Goldfinch
Crow
Buzzard
Rook
Carrion Crow
I didn’t have time to stop and sketch as there were so many animals to see, but I got the chance to sketch the lemurs during a talk by one of the keepers and I found them captivating.
When I returned home, I continued to draw lemurs using my chisel tip pens, now a staple addition to my lightweight, travel art supply kit.
Learning from my overpacking mistakes, I brought a minimal amount of art materials with me for the rest of the trip. With just a few ecolines and pencils plus my chisel pens, I sketched at the beach while my son climbed rocks. I attempted to draw the coastline and houses but it didn't really work out. I’m not practised enough in this type of drawing, plus my A6 sketchbook was too small to do a landscape justice.
I also managed a quick drawing of a young gull, lingering for sandwich crumbs.
Seal (and rock) safari
On our final day we went on a seal safari and were fortunate to see lots of grey seals bobbing in and out of the water, eying us inquisitively.
The trip went around the hidden bays of Caldey Island and as well as seals we saw oystercatchers, razorbills, guillemots, gannets and cormorants. In some cases, the birds came up close and swam alongside the boat. The geology was stunning and as much a highlight as the wildlife we encountered.
I went on this trip for the puffins and returned with a new appreciation for Wales. Although I only visited a small part, I was struck by how well-kept its natural environment was and how passionate people were to preserve its areas of natural beauty.
I was pleased to see that Tenby hadn’t been overdeveloped. I grew up in a seaside town that was geared towards people and tourism. I don’t remember a lot of green, but I do recall a lot of iron and concrete.
The mistake I made when preparing for this trip was that I packed with the mindset of someone going on an art retreat, not a family holiday.
Jo Blaker has a hashtag -#whatitookvswhatiused and it’s heartening to know that seasoned professionals such as Jo also experience over-optimistic art material packing.
Check out her Instagram post https://www.instagram.com/p/C96sMeyomaV
I didn’t take a photo of what materials I brought vs what I used, instead, I jotted it down:
I hope the next time I go away, I’ll remember these lessons and pack light!
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Thankyou for your honesty in your post Em. I always pack far too much, when really we can get down what we need with just a few, simple materials. I love the little sketches that you squeezed in, and yes, we can memorise so much, for a certain amount of time.
It was slightly amusing to imagine you half running back to the boat with your rucksack full of materials 😆
You’ve completely sold it to me, I would love to visit Skomer Island, it looks breathtaking.
Beautiful, thank you for sharing.