And Since Sheep are the Topic of the Day…
A harrowing rescue was pulled off by the coastguard off the cliffs above Rhossili this past week when Jess, one sheep and a taxi driver suddenly found themselves with a beautiful ocean view from their less-than-desirable vantage point halfway down the cliff face.
Sounds like a good sheep joke, doesn’t it?
Syd Anderson from Tycoch, the dog’s owner, said he figured it safe to let the dog off the lead when he saw no sheep were about as the two walked toward Worm’s Head. Well, I should say he “thought” there were no sheep about. Unfortunately for all concerned, there were.
Spotting the sheep in a hollow, Jess gave chase and Syd watched in horror as his dog, along with one of the sheep, plunged over the edge of the cliff. Syd, as you might imagine thought it was all over. “I ran to the edge but couldn’t see her anywhere. I thought she was gone.”
Somebody notified the folks working at the National Trust shop who, in turn, let the coastguard know their services were needed.
Stuck on a narrow ledge some 40ft above the sea, there was no way Jess was coming down on her own. So Syd headed for the beach and climbed up the cliff to the dog. The coastguard, having arrived at the top of the cliff, headed down with the help of ropes and proceeded to rescue first dog and then man, lowering them back down to the beach.
The poor sheep, meanwhile was stuck farther up the cliff than the dog (probably a good thing when you think about it) and so the coastguard picked her up on their way back up.
The Carmarthen Journal quotes Syd: “The coastguard were absolutely fantastic, they were there in 10 minutes. I just can’t praise them enough. They are all volunteers and they just drop everything when the call comes .”
So it was a happy ending for everyone and the coastguard probably had one of their more interesting rescues!