This gets a section all of its own. As I headed towards Treaddur, I noticed the coastguard helicopter flying low above me.
After a short while it dropped one of the crew off and he moved swiftly towards a nearby cove.
I was about 30 yards away and decided , possibly not on the basis of logic, he might be glad of a hand with whatever he was dealing with.
I discarded my backpack and poles at the top of the steps leading down to the beach and, grabbing my first aid kit set off after the crewman.
Just to put things in perspective, unless the casualties were suffering from minor scratches or blisters my first aid kit would probably as much as a chocolate teapot.
I hurried down the steps and on reaching the beach found a rather odd sight.
The crewman was lying on his back on the shingle , splayed out like a large orange starfish.
It was at this stage I got my first inkling about what was going on.
I called to him but he didn’t react so I tapped him on the shoulder. He obviously wasn’t expecting this as he jumped up very quickly and looked at me in some surprise.
He moved his ear muffs so he could hear me as I asked, slightly resignedly, “is this an exercise?”
“Yes”, he said “ what are you doing?”
“I came to help” , possibly my muddied appearance and a first aid kit the size of my fist didn’t offer much hope of help as he didn’t look over enthused.
His headset crackled .
“No, no problem “ he said “it’s a member of the public trying to help”
I couldn’t make out the reply from the helicopter but I got the strong impression of laughter.
“So I can go?” I said
“Yeah, cheers mate, nice of you to try to help though”
We fist bumped and I climbed back up the steps an unneeded hero while they carried on with the ‘rescue’.
Walking the coast for Mind 
One response to “May 17th coastguard”
I had an experience with a Police helicopter whilst walking the coast path south of Saltburn. It circled around me a few times looking at me, I looked around there was no one about just me. It allowed an officer to alight a few hundred yards ahead of me he walked briskly towards me. I guessed he was not offering me a lift, he shouted to me to stay still he then looked at me and said you fit the description but you are not who we are looking for. He told me to carry on I asked if I would be safe to do so he assured me that who they were looking for was most unlikely to harm me more likely himself. On the way down the officer caught up with me and told me the search was over as who they had been looking for was located in a pub in Saltburn
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