The Wild West

Off to Tenby

Peter and I were in Fishguard today. Peter and I were the only shopperes in Fishguard today. (I use the term 'shoppers' loosely, because there are hardly any shops in the town and there were hardly any open today).

Peter bought a tube of gel in the Pharmacy because he had scratched his gum on a hand-sliced, pan-fried, sea-salted, vacuum-packed crisp. I bought Chaucer's 'The Wife of Bath's Tale' in a charity shop for forty pence, so we were happy.

We should have arrived on horseback, two strangers reining in their  horses roughly before narrowing their eyes against the dust, scanning the  horizon.  But as this wasn't 'High Noon' we'd come by car, Peter driving as he likes to do.

We saw a funeral in the distance, just like in a cowboy film, but there were few mourners, so there was plenty of room in the car park.

Thirty pence was cheap for two hours parking, but I thought we should have been paid for coming and encouraged to make the thirty mile round trip again. The town needs as many shoppers as it can get.

We walked around the deserted streets, Peter saying 'It's like a ghost town. Why?'

Pembrokeshire relies heavily on tourism, but this year the hotels have suffered, with holidaymakers staying in caravans and self-catering establishments. Despite Tenby being a Georgian gem of a town and having had four television programmes devoted to it, the hotels are only half-full. 

Tenby's coastline can rival Italy's Amalfi Coast and though the boat does not leave for Capri, it goes to Caldy Island when the weather is fine.
Pembrokeshire has many attractions:  each year there is a 'Fish Week' and a County Show, plus Classic Car rallies and Tractor Rallies. Pleasure flights leave Withybush Aerodrome and are popular. So it's not for lack of trying that tourism is suffering.

A report suggests that European funding has not done a great deal for Wales. This country, like Malta, Spain, two regions of Portugal and four in southern Italy, has suffered a drop in relative prosperity during the past decade.

I have just eaten a pot of 'Rachel's Organic Yoghurt', gooseberry flavoured and produced in mid-Wales. An enterprising farmer's wife created the brand one winter when the milk tanker failed to get through the snow to collect the milk. 'Rachel's Dairy' is now a top brand. What we need is creative thinking like this if we are not to become the 'poor man' of Europe. Enterprise will assure our places at the top table.