Pembrokeshire – Page 2

Day 5 – The Best of People

We were knackered again today! A nice stroll, fresh air, good food, a beer or two and wham! Knackered.

Working back from fixed time-points, we wanted to be at Betty & David’s farm for 4pm, with a meal booked 15 minutes away for 7pm.

Unsurprisingly, Romeo wasn’t having any of it and is staying here in his self-enforced hormone prison that is his room. As such, we showed him how to oven cook a frozen pizza & garlic bread without burning the cottage down and planned the rest of our day.

We decided to head back to Lobster & Môr, bag ourselves some fancy crustaceous lunch & head to Solva for a mooch and a beach stroll.

Waving goodbye to the Grunt, we set off up the coast to Broadhaven 1, then the jump over to Nolton, and then on towards Newgale. At least today, we could head north from Nolton. Two days ago the road was blocked off due to the wildfires.

Holy cow! We drove down the road to be greeted by the devastation that the fires left behind.

The scorched earth spread over large areas, and had (I presume) been controlled so well that it had left pockets of I damaged green, just a few metres from a cottage, and a farm, and further on, a static caravan park.

We were passed by a fire engine with its blues on, which I suspect was heading back to something we’d seen that was still smouldering.

Out the other side of the carnage, we hopped over the last headland before dropping down into Solva, to begin the Car Park dance – that one that’s a lot like musical chairs, where you circle an asset but don’t know when it’s becoming available.

We were really lucky and managed to get a space on lap 3. So having parked up and paid, we took out crustacean bag of goodies over to the estuary to eat alfresco.

It was too windy and that wind had a slight bite to it, so that plan was soon abandoned and we retired to our Camper & split the Lobster Roll in two & took half the crab sandwich each. Oh, my they were lovely!

Lunch over, we had a stroll through the very small village, mooched through the shop “Window On Wales”, and then headed off down the estuary towards the sea, letting Toby have a good run on the sand.

We sat a short while at the tide line, but to be honest, it was a tad too windy & again had that unfamiliar cool bite to it.

Walking round the corner of the estuary, I’d been listening to the latest 93:20 podcast, so phone was on full volume. Jane stopped and bent down to pick something up and my phone rang – “Jane Airey (Mobile) calling” it said. I told Jane she was ringing me.

I answered it. And a female voice said “Hi”. I began a conversation with “Hi” and Jane haha’d me for dicking about. Until I thanked “Hi” and told her Jane was wearing a pink hoody, and would be back to the tide line in a mo, and thank you for letting us know she’d left her phone behind. Oops!

Phone retrieved, we walked back to the van, I donned a pair of jeans, and we set off towards Puncheston using Waze satnav to guide us. Part way across the farmers field that it sent us on to, we realised we were in too deep with the route that we had no choice but to plough on (farming pun intended).

Eventually we hit tarmac but only after driving through a farm yard. Delayed slightly, I pressed on. We crossed the A40 and headed towards Letterston only to get to a point in the single track road where a Telehandler had broken down making this road impassable.

A 100-point turn later and I set off back the A40 north, and took our usual route in, with no further tribulations.

It was fantastic meeting up with Betty & David, who’ve not changed a bit in the decade since Jane & I last saw them. In conversation we also realised it was Jane’s 50th (!) anniversary of coming to stay with them.

Even better that that we got a surprise visit from Lisa & the two girls, and their lovely Cockerpoo, Coco, followed by the very-much unexpected arrival of Betty & David’s hard-working son, Pete. Fantastic!

Not going to say too much more, but after a good old chat over a cup of tea & some bara brith, we had a fabulous meal out at the community owned Tafarn Sinc, which also happens to be the highest licensed pub in Pembrokeshire. More importantly, the locally sourced food was superb. I had a 10oz sirloin medium rare, which was one of the tastiest & best-cooked steaks I’ve had in years.

Conversation and locally-brewed cask ale flowed, meaning Jane did the taxiing back to the farm, where we said our “goodbyes for now”, as we all knew 10 years was too long, and then headed off back through the wiggly-windies to Little Haven.

What a fabulous day! The company making it so!

Night, night!

Chris

Day 4 – Choughin’ ‘Seals

We took advantage of the marginally cooler weather & I for one slept much better. We also had a lie-in & an inevitable subsequently slow start.

I ovened-up some Cumberland sausages, and made a butty for breakfast, while we tried to decide what to do & where to go. One thing that’s proving tricky is finding somewhere to eat. It’s not that there aren’t any, it’s that they’re all booked up for this evening!

Jane took Toby for an ablutory (made-up word) walk, whilst I had a quick shower. As Jane arrived back, she was on the phone to Betty, for Jane an almost lifelong friend, who’s family & hospitality are the reason we know this area so well.

For those not aware, Jane’s mum & dad, along with their neighbours Kath & Colin (who’s son is also my best mate) began holidaying each year at Betty & her husband David’s farmhouse B&B, in the very early 1970s. They all swiftly became more than guests & that friendship continues to this day, despite both Ian & Jane’s parents no longer being with us.

We’ve arranged to go & meet up with them at the farm tomorrow afternoon, and go out for some tea somewhere. It’s been way too long since we last saw them, so we’re really looking forward to catching up.

Back to today, though…

By 2pm, we’d moved no further that the patio (it’s not raining yet), and still undecided where to head. On that basis, we decided we’d do one of the walks that Jane fancied over at Marloes. Romeo was told of our plans, which included not coming home for tea, so his choice was:

A) come with us and get a bought tea
B) stay at home and cook his own tea

He came with us. And boy, I bet he regretted that, later on in the day!

We packed a bit of “day-van stuff”, (lightweight waterproofs, cameras, chargers, Tobys raw meat tea in the fridge, that sort of stuff), and set off the 15 minutes down the wiggly-windies to the National Trust car park at Marloes, briefly confused ourselves as to whether we were at the right car park (we were), paid the ticket & then set off.

It was a 5 mile cliff top walk around the wonderfully Silurian/Ordovician geologic coastline of this particular section of coast. Even Skokholm & the larger Skomer nearby islands throw in some red sandstone that gives a section of the walk a purple rock tinge.

We set off in a clockwise direction, from the carpark, crossing some fields before the overlook to Marloes Beach. An awkwardly accessed beach means it’s not for the lazy, making it a great place, if you can make it down (and back up!).

Hang a right and follow the cliff tops. And then realise that there’s no chance of it raining, and in fact, it’s still hot & sunny, and. It’s not a day to be wearing a black tee shirt (or even worse joggers, a tee & a Moncler jacket, as per Romeo).

Wow! More Chris Packham, than Chris Airey, and my Michaela nailed it with her spotting skills!

Tally was:

Loads of dogs on leads
Cattle & their associated pats
At least 4 Choughs
Loads of black back gulls
Raptor feathers
Loads of European Common Blue butterflies (poor sods will be on the next flight out)
A cormorant or two
Two ravens
15+ seals, of which 2 deffo kids, one young adult.

We’ve never seen so many seals! It was amazing! Some on rocks sunbathing, some asleep on the shoreline. We even heard a little one that was inside a big cave, calling to it’s parents! Fantastic to watch, especially when I’d remembered to take the Zeiss binoculars!

A baby that we thought was dead, did move! (Photo taken through binoculars hence the ropey refraction).

A lesser-spotted Moncler Romeo (a very rare sighting)

Then my knee caved in. Mainly because we were heading home and it was uphill. So we cut the walk short, missing the northern coastline, and trudged up the hill back to the car. Still, it’s miles under my knees, so that’s good.

Plan was to try the Lobster Pot (a local pub), where we’d had good food in the past until we saw their “Apologies. We are not serving food tonight” sign. So we headed back to Little Haven hoping to snag an outdoor table at the St Brides Inn.

We parked up at our cottage and walked down, only to find it was packed inside & out, so we had one last chance. “Let’s try the Castle”. Turning the corner, it looked hopeful. Spaces outside at least. Until we saw the “We no longer serve food on Mondays” sign! Aaaargh!

We turned around and started walking back, but I suggested we had a drink at the St Brides, and say waiting or see if a table came free, on the basis that if not after finishing the drinks, we went back to the cottage & made a cheese & ham toastie.

Thankfully a table became free, we ordered and got served super quickly. (Chicken curry & rice for me).

Turns out there are as couple of missed opportunities in Little Haven. The cafe is closed down & empty, and the pub on the harbour side, the Swan Inn has stopped serving food. I nipped in to suss it out. Not sure that decision is going well for them, as I was the only one there!

Once we were done we wandered back up the road, all of us shattered, and just crashed out. This fresh air and hilly walking is exhausting!

And that’s why I’m publishing this at 8:53am the following day!

Have a good one!

Chris!

Day 3 – Twisted Firestarter

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

Day 2 – ‘L’ for Leather

Not the best nights kip, as it was hot & stuffy, so a very leisurely lie-in (watching YouTube etc), whilst Jane dozed on the ‘electric couch’, having abandoned me at around 4am, as I’m apparently “hot”. I’ll take that.

Romeo is still fast asleep, and I suspect we won’t be seeing much of him today.

Jane, Toby & I sat out on the patio, where I had a breakfast consisting of Charlie’s abandoned gammon between bread from last-night. Even straight from the fridge it was tasty! Glad we’ve booked to go back to the Castle tonight, although I will bear their portion sizes in mind this time.

Whilst I sat in the sun and plumbed a few walks into the Outdoor Active app, (which is a brilliant free walking/cycling planner, imho), Jane took Toby for a short stroll down to the harbour.

The tide was out, so Toby had a paddle, and we pondered whether you can walk along the beach, around the headland to “Broadhaven 1” beach. Will perhaps find out later in the week. (“Broadhaven 2” is actually Broad Haven Siuth beach, near Bosheston).

No plans for today, after a long journey for us all, but particularly so for the ever-stressed Toby. He’s a bloody nightmare in cars & vans, bless him. He’s exhausted, so that plus the “in-cred-ible” (read that with an excitable Catalan accent) temperatures that we are all experiencing again (28C/82.4F by midday), and much higher after our dinner.

In the sun admittedly, but it’s 46C in the garden.

When Jane got back, we had brunch (I boiled 2 eggs for a phenomenally long time, due to not hearing my alert), and decided we’d repeat Jane’s reconnaissance and head back to the beach, where 4G-permitting, I’d also listen to the match (City v Bournemouth), and maybe even nip for a pint.

My wishes came true, and I spent a few hours with the most amazing person I’ve ever met, and Toby. We just wandered along the beach, throwing the ball occasionally, whilst Toby ran around wearing his damp-jacket to keep him cool.

I tried to sunbathe then rockpool, but it was too hot and I don’t like doing those things anyway. I tried to feel comfortable on a beach with sand, which is the devils dust &needs unilaterally banning. I even tried to paddle in the sea, where as I walked in, some mollusc-type thing ejaculated what I hope was only sand, up my right shin. After which we headed ashore.

The sun was really shining on me, and totally unrelated, I even managed to pick up a match commentary, before heading back to towards the Castle for sustenance.

(City 1 – Bournemouth 0, 19mins)

A pint of the impressively mundane Birra Moretti, a coke with ice & lemon, a tub of local chocolate ice cream & a mint Magnum, and a table with a sunshade for Toby. Spot on!

A good chat with my dearest, then a chat with Jane, and before we knew it, other than being interrupted to fist-pump the air at 31’ & 37’, it was time for a half-time pint.

(City 3 – Bournemouth 0, 45mins)

Once supped, it was back up Strawberry Hill, to wash Toby down & shower before tea. Table for 4 (3+dog) booked for 6pm so a 5:45 set-off was communicated to all internal stakeholders.

Far be it for me to judge, but from the smell, it seemed that one of the houses upwind are doing some weeding, so I went inside and had a lie down before freshening up.

Last night, I’d surreptitiously timed the (now known) 7:30s walk to the pub, so I knew that the targeted set-off time was 6:45 to add contingency. At 6:45, the shower was still occupied. As such Jane headed off to the pub with Toby, and I waited for Romeo to exit.

After a frisson of tension, I agreed to join asap after my shower, but that they would head to the pub as an advance party. (That last lot of tripe read like a legal statement. Apologies – I will improve my tripe).

Despite my insistence that I didn’t need to order a main based on last nights portions, it was suggested I should. So I did, Chicken Caesar Salad. And then ate Janes remaining mussels, and Charlie’s leftover gammon, onion rings and large chips. Shambles on my part – should have stuck to my guns and saved £14, a load more washing up, and more importantly, wasted food.

Meal over, it was straight up the hill, to another evening of relaxing & enjoying the good weather. And Match Of The Day. The lead game was very entertaining…

Have a great evening folks!

Chris

Day 1 – A Lovestruck Romeo (in Pembrokeshire)

Our son is in love it turns out. A dangerous yet intoxicating drug. One that understandably means a(nother) week away with just his elderly parents & a needy dog, in the countryside, on rural Wifi has all the draw of a Wednesday night in February, playing Stoke away.

It’s a long drive, made longer by the heat. But what a joy it was to see parts of the journey sunlit beyond anything we’ve seen over the last 35-plus years (for Jane much longer) that I’ve been making this journey down to Pembrokeshire, the bestest part of South-West Wales, and one of my favourite parts of the UK.

Setting off (some reluctantly) at around 10:30am, our route is one that is “sat-nav unconventional”, but is one that has been honed by our forebears since the early 1970s. It’s a balance between fastest arrival & most interesting for driver & passengers! Basically, it’s A & B roads all the way from Queensferry.

Mold, Ruthin, and Corwen, where we stopped at the Rhug Estate (think it’s on telly tonight as one of the poshest farm shops), where we had Bison Burgers for lunch (& I bought a couple of bottles of local ale).

Bison Burger – strong flavour and dense meat

Next it’s Bala, Dolgellau, then Machynlleth, on through Aberystwyth (I once knew a girl who wore an Aber’ Blazer, in the Merry month of May, but that’s for another day), Cardigan and then down past our friends in Puncheston, to Haverfordwest* before heading out to the coast at Little Haven.

[*where Jane spent much time in Withybush Hospital one summer in the 80s, after badly dislocating her elbow in a riding accident.]

We’re staying a few hundred yards up Strawberry Hill, from the centre/beach in a newly renovated 2-bed bungalow. It’s lovely! Sprawling gardens, tucked away, out of view, and really well fitted out. Particularly taken with the electronic reclining sofa & chairs with integrated USB chargers!

We only arrived about 40 minutes before our table in the dog-friendly Castle pub was booked, so a quick unload of van & bowel, a change of tee shirt, a splash of cover-up deodorant, and we strolled down the hill to the pub, just about on time.

The Castle is really nice. Friendly staff, great service, nice timing of food (even when rammed full of folk), and the portions are mahoosive! Fish & Chips with proper mushy peas (the ones with pea-wet on top) for me. Jane had a pan-fried salmon with crayfish tails & salad, and Charlie seemed to have ordered a garlic bread loaf, and then more gammon than there is in the House of Lords.

Sated, Charlie beat a hasty path back to the cottage to ‘charge his phone’, whilst Jane & I sat on the beach with Toby & watched the sun set, before scaling Strawberry Hill & crashing out on the electric sofas!

That said, I couldn’t resist trying a bottle of the beer I bought at Rhug, a 5.2% Snowdon Craft ‘Summit’ ale.

Goosed after the drive, so an early one for me.

Night folks, so should I say “nos da”!