Blimey, what a day (on our scale anyway)!
Reasonable start for Jane & I, both being breakfasted (bacon butties with a fried egg topping) & for me, also ‘caffeined up’. Sat out on the patio again, maybe for the last time in the sun, if the forecast is correct.
Whilst it was early’ish, we decided to do a little loop walk around the nearby section of the Coastal Walk. Up the Strawberry Hill a bit more, and then a right turn onto a section that leads to the path.
It’s a superb section of coastline, with near vertical cliffs, overlooking what looks like a tropical lagoon on a day like today. My only issue with the walk was the state of my knees. They’re knackered (as in Grade 4 osteoarthritis knackered). The uppy-downy bits are painfully hard work. Still, those views were worth it.
At the high point, and where it meets the road & a tiny carpark, we just sat awhile on a perfectly-positioned bench that overlooks the bay. We could see as far as St David’s, and I suspect on a less hazy day, you could probably see Wexford in the Republic of Ireland!
Getting back, we then decided to give my knees a break. No we didn’t, we decided to wander down into the village & back, this mission to be sussing out the ‘Lobster & Môr’, shop.
Wow! What a lovely specialist fishmongers (live lobster & crab only), with a superb selection of local artisan produce. Albeit only around 12:45, they had already sold out, although there was some joking about the fact they hadn’t been aware that there was an RNLI charity fête going on, less that 100 yards away! It also turned out that there’s another reason – no-one is catching crab, they’re in very low supply, possibly due to the unexpectedly warm seawaters.
Didn’t stop us spending a few bob on a couple of mini- truckles of cheese, oh, and a couple of bottles and cans of local ale. Well, what did you expect! But we will be back!
We’re planning on eating in tonight, nothing fancy, just some superbly huge American Hotdogs, but have realised we don’t have onions, and as everyone would agree, that is a showstopper.
Ten minutes over the headland there’s the nearest mini-market, the Londis in Broadhaven 1. So off I set in the camper for an onion. Oh, and get Romeo a frozen pizza in case he bales out of an evening meal. Oh, and get some more bread. And crackers for that cheese we bought…
Broadhaven was busy, as it should be, and the Londis was even busier, with the cold drinks & icecream sections being ransacked. It took ages to get round and pay up, like about 90 minutes of busy 😉
During that ‘missing 90 minutes’ I headed off on a research mission, and wandered over to the Victoria Inn Brewhouse.
On the wiggly-windy, single track journey from headland to headland, it became obvious very quickly that there were some serious fires burning, the worst of which were over past Nolton and some back over my shoulder, more inland.
Arriving at the Brewery/pub, I ordered a pint of session (4%) “New England style” fruity IPA, and a couple of bottles to try later, once the car keys had been hung up.
Whilst sat outside, I watched the smoke billowing on the nearby cliff tops, getting visibly worse. I also watched this beautiful wolf-husky cross watch the world go by.
My route back took me via Nolton, where the road was blocked where it turns north due to the fires, and I went south. Some moments the sky had an orange tinge to it, not from fire, but from refracted sunlight through the smoke. My previous experience of that was on Mammoth Mountain, USA, where the Yosemite wildfires gave the town and Armageddon feel.
Another narrow, winding road journey back to our lovely cottage, and then it was time to get our American Hotdog game on. Onion chopped, frying pan on, pot of water heating.
There’s rain forecast for tomorrow, so we’ve brought all the cushions inside & instead of sitting out in the heat, we’re sitting inside in the heat, watching MoTD2 and an orange moon (I suspect this is again due to refraction through the wildfire smoke!
Anyhow, that was todays round-up!
Night, night folks!
Chris