Avast, ye filthy landlubbers. Time to shiver me timbers, set sail and walk the plank…

Earlier this month, I scrambled straight from an online lecture into my sun-baked ancient Hyundai, setting course for the North Wales Expressway with two beloved pals in the back seat. Our destination: the walled Welsh town of Conwy, where we’d made plans to stay for the weekend.

What we didn’t know when we originally booked our accommodation on the top floor of an adorable 1800s guest house: every year, Conwy becomes a temporary haven for a mass gathering of pirates, in a multi-day celebration of the much-mythologised oceanic adventurers involving re-enactments of battles between forces on land and sea, lots of live music and some incredibly impressive outfits, hats and beards.

This year, I’ve been attempting to teach myself some basic video editing skills by making short films of my various expeditions (like my recent trips to Valencia and York Viking Festival), which meant this adventure gets one too. Here’s some scenes from our weekend together:

It was joyful time being by the sea with two of my best mates, doing yoga and morning pages in the garden with a view of the medieval walls and the tide coming into the bay, and getting a glimpse into a subculture and world previously not on my radar at all. I’ll be back. And The Old Time Sailors (who you’ll see some clips of in this video) were a total blast I’ll definitely go and see again if I get the chance.