Life's a beach?

It must be if you live near the beach which has just been described as the best in Downunder. I can hear my siblings now saying, "Oooh yes, if we lived close enough to walk to that one we could go swimming every day."

We knew the beach when my brother and I were in secondary school and the youngest kittens were in primary school. We lived on the island where the beach is situated. The problem for us was that the beach was much too far away to even contemplate riding our bikes let alone walking. It took about half an hour to get there in the car - over very rough roads.

When you did finally get there you then had to walk along a very stony path which hid the beach until almost the last moment. It was worth the walk even for me - and the Senior Cat would hold on to me all the way - because you suddenly came upon a bay with a natural and very safe swimming pool at one end. 

We kittens honed our swimming skills in that pool. It was situated just where the bay started to curve out into the ocean again. It was filled and emptied by the tide. There were no dangerous undercurrents. It was deep enough to dive into from the rocks at one end. At the other end it was safe enough for those with very beginner skills. It was the perfect space. 

If you were brave enough and actually had a surf board you could head further along the pristine white sand and catch a wave or two. It might not have been the best surfing beach in the world but the teenage boys seemed happy with it.

I have not been there for years. I am never likely to go again. It is possible there is a proper path to the beach now. Like the rest of the island it has been developed for the tourists. There were very few tourists back then. The locals had the place to themselves. There was never anyone much around.

There were other good beaches on the island too. There is one which will forever remain in my mind. There was a jetty there, the site of a security scare during WWII as quite large ships could dock there. You needed to look the other way to get the true beauty of the place. It had a very, very long sweep of white sand with a slow curve punctuated by rocks until you could almost see the bay where the seals liked to congregate. It must be at least seven or eight kilometres long. You still get a few beaches like that in the more remote areas of Scotland. Yes, you could swim there too - with care. It was not as safe as the other beach, certainly there were no lifeguards in either place. 

Those places seemed remote to us. They were remote. The roads that led to them were unsealed. Tourists did not venture into those places on a regular basis. Occasionally they would find their way by accident and wonder how people could live in such isolated places. Now there are holiday cottages. My darling Whirlwind and her father stayed in one twice. It was remote enough and quiet enough for C... to take a real break from his difficult work. Ms W loved it. She could read and draw for hours. They took long silent walks along the beach and "tried to forget anyone else was there".

When we lived on the island these were places we cherished. Perhaps our Scottish ancestry helped because by no means everyone cared for those places. At least for a time we liked the sense of remoteness. 

I don't want to go back. I suspect the tourists would spoil it for me. Is that very selfish?