To the Sea, to the Sea! The white gulls are crying,
The wind is blowing, and the white foam is flying,
Sung by Legolas, Lord of the Rings, J R R Tolkien

I guess my love of beaches comes from my time in the Bahamas, where some of the best beaches in the world are located. I used to run on Cable Beach in Nassau every evening after work and head off to one of the other islands at the weekend. Probably the most unique beach amongst many beautiful ones is that of Harbour Island, a small

island off the north western coast of Eleuthera Island. The sand on the beach here comprises crushed coral, unlike other beaches that tend to be made of worn down shells and rock, and is actually pink rather than yellow. If you don’t believe me, I have a jar of pink sand at home you can check out!

There are some beautiful beaches in Africa that are generally only accessible to ex-pats. The beaches in Ghana have brown rather than classic yellow sand but are palm-fringed and relatively unpopulated. I have included our regular Sunday afternoon beach here that could only be reached by car; Saturdays we used to head off to Labadi Beach closer in to Accra and mix with the many local people enjoying themselves. The beaches in Sierra Leone are superb - the ‘Bounty hunter’ commercials of

the 1970s were filmed at No 2 beach (very original those empire builders). It’s sad what has happened to that country in the last few years.

I want to retire to a beach somewhere, perhaps to run a bar and restaurant, spending all day in shorts and no shoes, just chilling out...