Roadtrip Wales · 2025

February 7, 2026

I balance on uneven, sharp-edged rocks that are scattered across the seabed, slippery algae in front of me, a pool of water and shells next to me, and in the background, the sea thundering and surging gray with white foam caps. The same sea that will soon return while we, like stumbling fools, are hiking to Worm's Head in Wales—a tidal island that is only temporarily connected to the mainland at low tide and then cut off again.
“Hey, that sounds cool! Let's walk to that island,” I had suggested. The path is only about two miles long, and the window of opportunity for hiking is five hours – two and a half hours before low tide and two and a half hours afterwards. Sounds like plenty of time – but then we realize: just because it's called a hike doesn't mean there's a hiking trail.

“Are we just going to walk... like straight across,or what?” I ask my husband, nervously.
Three people with buckets trudge along and right into the moonscape. 
“I believe so,” he says.
I look at my watch. Of the five hours, we have a little less than three left. But who knows when we'll be back in Wales at this spot. Maybe never. So it's all or nothing at all. So we go. All in.