“I just don’t get why everyone wanted Michael and Edwin to see Smugglers Tunnel…” said Chris.
Chris and I were chatting in bed this morning when the topic came up. Indeed, my nephew and his friend, both visiting us from Australia, had been urged by all and sundry to go to Smugglers Tunnel – even I had made the suggestion.
“It seemed quite normal to me,” I admitted.
“Yes, but I wonder what they thought… After all, it’s just a dank, dripping and dark tunnel leading down to a terrible beach – much of it isn’t even that old!” Chris pointed out.
“Yes but…” I paused for a moment to remember the first time I had seen the tunnel with my dad when I was fourteen and new to the country myself, “it’s so exciting to think of all the smugglers who used the tunnel and how they must have felt sneaking back up from the beach with their contraband. The darkness and the drips make it more eerie; anyway, it’s not that dark.”
“Exactly. Where’s the excitement?” Chris persisted.
“You should have gone with my dad – he made everything interesting. He was so good like that. And Mum was good, too – she used to write hilarious stories about the funny things that happened to her,” I paused again and chuckled remembering the story about Mum’s strawberries in the pannier on her bike (they never made it home – you’d have to read it for yourself to understand how funny that was!).
But Chris was in his own reverie…
“I don’t even think that Labrador Beach is a very nice beach,” he said, bringing me back to the original conversation.
“It’s Ness Beach, not Labrador Beach,” I informed Chris rather positively, “that’s a bit further along the coast.”
“Well, Ness Beach isn’t very nice,” he said very positively.
“Did you know that Ness Beach is a nudist beach?” I asked. “Not that I’ve ever seen any naked bodies there.”
“Nor me,” said Chris, “in fact I think it’s a complete phallusy!”
I laughed.
“Ness beach has always given rise to such humour,” my husband added.
After breakfast we drove up to the Obelisk at Mamhead for a walk in the forest and a wonderful view at the end.
According to “The Urban Dictionary”, there really is a word “phallusy” – or is it just a fallacy?