Sands of speed

This is the name of a 7 mile (11 km) stretch of sandy beach located on the south Wales coastline between Tenby and Swansea . The most impressive feature of this beach is its flatness and straightness at such a long length. You can see the satellite view below.

In the early 20th century the sands were often used as a racing course and later, in the 1920s, it was used for land speed records . It was even used as an aircraft runway. Durine the 2nd world war the sands were taken over by the British MOD who used it as a firing range. It owns it to this day, but it is open to the public. There are, however many signs that warn visitors about possible unexploded devices. From 2004 the Sands are closed to vehicles due to safety reasons, but, on occasions, there are some rally car events staged there. Some episodes of BBC’s Top Gear were filmed there.

For more information about Pendine Sands please visit the Pendine Sands Wikipedia page .

There is a good parking area by the entrance to the Sands. There is a Speed museum there as well. When I arrived there I could see many horses in the car park that were used for horseback riding on the Sands. As mentioned at the top the Pendine Sands are 7 miles long and I certainly didn’t really want to walk the whole length. Don’t get me wrong, they look spectacular but after walking for 10 minutes it feels a bit like a damp sand desert. But you can see a huge stretch of water - slightly reminded me of Daytona beach. However Daytona Beach beach is about 23 miles (37 km) long.

I later moved down the coast and visited the litle village of Laugharne . First I stopped at St. Martin’s church on the northern part of the village in which grounds the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas is buried in. After that I proceeded towards Laugharne castle in the southern part of Laugharne.