Sinking Sat Nav in Tenby

Two American tourists proved last week that nothing beats a good map and common sense as they got stuck in the sand at Tenby’s Castle Beach – in their car!

The two tourists were travelling in a rental car and, understandably, wanted to visit the iconic Caldey Island off of the coast of Tenby but failed to notice the wide expanse of sea that blocks passage by car, foot or anything other than boat! However, ridiculous this might sound to the regular visitor or local resident of Pembrokeshire it is surprisingly common, especially with the rise of the use of Sat Navs and popularity of coastal Tenby holidays in recent years.

‘Lovely kind folks of Tenby’

Rather than causing anger or frustration the incident was found funny by locals and the two tourists were returned to solid ground with the help of the ‘lovely king folks of Tenby’. The event was reported on the Tenby Island Facebook page with residents commenting seeing the funny side and commending the locals who helped these lost holidaymakers, as shown in the above quotation.

It may have taken ‘Three separate attempts to tow out, much digging and three hours later they managed to get back to the safety of the slipway courtesy of a local 4 x 4’ for the hire car to make it back to Tenby’s solid road but it’s all in a day’s work for Tenby locals who are more than welcoming and accommodating of their visiting holidaymakers.

A similar incident occurred just in 2009 when the same beach saw another car halted by the sand. On this occasion a tractor came to the rescue proving that while Sat Navs are a great help when visiting somewhere new, particularly on Pembrokeshire seaside holidays where there are so many interesting sights to see on the coastline, it is always worth keeping your eyes on the road.

The story started trending on Facebook and was published in national newspapers, but Tenby only wished the visitors well on their return journey back to LA and empathised with their embarrassment. The message appears to be, as ever, be respectful of the sea and always take a map!

Image Credit: Peter Burgess (flickr.com)

This content was written by Emily Bray. Please feel free to visit my Google+ profile to read more stories.