In July and August 1989 I went back to the UK for an extended holiday. It was a very hot summer, so I decided to go back to Cornwall for a week on the beach at St Ives. I even stayed at the Carbis Bay hotel where I worked for several summer seasons during the 1970s. (Sadly, that hotel is gone now to make way for apartments.) It was perfect weather every day for walking the cliff paths, and for swimming from the beaches and coves around St Ives and Penzance.
When I left Sydney I had been winter swimming almost daily at Wylies Baths (without the luxury of hot showers in those days). Strangely though, the summer Atlantic Ocean in Cornwall was cooler to swim in than the winter Pacific Ocean back in Coogee.
I was thinking about this one afternoon as I lazed around the hotel, reading the (Manchester) Guardian newspaper. I was surprised to come across a summer beachwear article that featured the very same Wylies Baths. I've no idea if they flew the models out to Australia to wear the swimwear, or if they flew the swimwear out and had Australian models pose in them. Either way, I thought it odd that they couldn't find a location in the UK that particular summer.
What UK beachgoers were likely to be wearing in 1989. The photo was taken on the steps up to the decking at Wylies.
The photo was taken on the rock ledge outside the perimeter chains at Wylies.
