This way

It was only four nights away

but it felt like four weeks.

We followed the long road 

unwinding like a ribbon,

wide then narrow,

east then west.

There were rivers and beaches,

flat grey marshes

 and soaring red cliffs,

tidal waters and muddy creeks,

menacing military wilderness

and safe country retreats,

swans' wings beating low over the water, 

kingfishers, red kites,

hares, yellow horned poppies,

fish leaping and pheasants squawking,

 egrets and little terns,

house martins and swifts,

owls hooting across the Dart at dusk.

The photos show all this and more

hundreds of them, uploaded in an instant.

But there was something to be said 

for having to wait for the film

to come back from the developers 

in a fat yellow wallet.

It gave time for a holiday to settle;

allowing it to be retrieved after a week or so 

as a proper memory.