Early’ish start today as we had plans to head south, so it was leftover beans and sausage from yesterday’s breakfast for me. Jane was healthy with what looked like some vegetarian gravel and yoghurt.
Slightly later than planned (shocker!), we loaded the van with the neurotic dog, reformatted the SD card in the impressively installed front and rear dash cam as per recommendations, as my phone automatically connected to the Apple Car-play enabled head unit retrospectively fitted to an incredibly high standard by a “Qualified Specialist”. The above items happen to be available from Halfords and I do have friends & family discount codes*, should this have piqued your interest.
*terms and conditions apply. Send an SMS to 71077345 with the word BULLCRAP to stop further texts.
We set Waze to take us to Bosherston Lilly Pads, which is a good hour-fifteen drive from here. Apart from a few roadworks and the madness of so many speed restriction changes from 60mph to 50mph, then 20mph and then back up again, the journey was relatively uneventful.
So we arrived at the National Trust carpark at Bosherston and sussed out a fairly ambitious circular walk that would take in a lot of our favourite places in this area. Needless to say Ms National Trust was manning the booth to take £7 from me for parking, and after doing the same for the next person, she shut up shop and went home, with the car park being “on trust” from that point on.
A tanker had been turning around whilst I paid, after which the driver jumped out and disappeared briefly before jumping back in his cab and switching on some sort of pump.
When Jane and I got out of the van with Toby to set off we were greeted by the unholiest of smells! The driver was pumping the waste from the toilets into his tank. If I had eaten even more beans AND spent the evening before drinking copious amounts of Hydes Bitter, even I could not have competed with the stench.
So we left, post-haste and headed down towards the Lilly Pads and the first bridge crossing of 3.
By the way, if you ‘ve never been to Pembrokeshire, I applaud you for your great decision. Don’t bother. It’s packed full of chavvy tourists and tacky shops, the weather is terrible, you can only eat Leeks, the places are unpronounceable, lacking in TikTok opportunities and everywhere is a faff to get to. Leave it to hardier, less fortunate people like us to suffer it. We’ll do the hard yards and come back whenever we can so you don’t have to.
So we crossed the bridge. And saw Lillies. On pads. And ducks and stuff.
Up hill and down Dale (that’s not true, Dale is a fair drive from here – 45min/22 miles). It’s the Pembrokeshire Coastline. It goes up. And there are very steep cliffs. It goes down and there will be a cove/beach/harbour/smugglers hideaway round the next corner.
We climbed the ups and downs to one of our favourite beaches, Broadhaven South. It’s big, it’s quiet, and it’s beautiful. Toby loves the beach, and likes a bit of “Sexy Sand” time, where he paddles and then rolls in sand until he’s covered in the damned stuff!
Jane being a Lady of a certain age had a wee in a cave, whilst I manned the lookout. This was her view as she had said wee.
We then got back on the path and climbed up to the cliff tops and began the coastal walk part of our loop. From here on its seabirds, 150ft sheer cliffs and beautiful views.
We followed the path round to the first of a few coves before we eventually headed down the steep steps to Barafundle Beach. Compared to Broadhaven South, this was very touristy (circa 50 people) so we scurried across the deep, soft sand until all three of us ran out of breath and needed a sit down!
Once we completed the final 3rd of the “beach scurry” we headed up the very narrow & steep stone steps dodging Aldi inflatable paddle board-carrying Chavs before heading across the cliff tops once again in relative peace and quiet.
Next and final of our coastal stops was at Stackpole Quay, where we each had a slightly melted cornetto, Jane a Rhubarb Fizz can, and I a can of Craft Ale. From Kent! £17 exchanged and an accidental elbow to the left breast of an impatient lady who tried to push past me as I left the till.
A quick wee stop for me, albeit I used a public lavatory, so no equivalent photo opportunity without risk of the Police getting involved.
The next 2.5 miles (we’d done 4.5 miles by this point) were crap. On country lanes, up steep hills dodging oncoming traffic. Until we dropped down into Stackpole and saw our meal destination for later. That was incentive enough and as we had realised we were cutting it fine time wise we picked up the pace, adjusted our Bergens and yomped on towards our ‘Goose Green’, the car park at Bosherston.
Through Caroline’s Bush (sorry Caroline) into Caroline’s Grove and our commitment to pace was incredible. Ish.
We decided to stop for 5 minutes in a bird hide and look at dead tree branches sticking out of the water for a while, even getting the Leica binocs out to get a better view.
Self-chastened we got back in the groove and pushed on for another good 150 yards. Before seeing a Mam & Dad Swan with their kids, all in a little line.
We really were cutting it fine and only made it back to the now stench-free NT carpark with about 12 minute of leeway. This was getting spine-tingling exciting and the jeopardy was palpable!
So we stopped to take some photos of the Lilly Pads and ducks and stuff.
12 minutes! To drive 7 minutes down the road, feed a dog (ours if required) and check in for our evening meal at 5:30pm exactly!
I drove at breakneck speeds of between 20 & 30mph to Stackpole, screeched to a halt in the empty car park and we fed the dog. The clock was ticking and if this were an Episode of “Race Across The World” the editors would be cutting to and fro from us to the serving staff looking worried inside.
We made it with around 90 seconds to spare. Checked in and seated, we relaxed, by using their facilities to wash our hands (I did wash my face and sweaty bonce as well).
The Stackpole Inn has taken a few years for us to get to, such is its popularity. The food has been featured on TV programmes (Hairy Bikers?) and having now eaten there, we can see why!
A pint of guest ale for me (Coke for Jane) then came the food!
Service immaculate, food stunning! Go if you ever get the chance!
After settling up, we changed our plans to do more walking based on the fact Jane and I struggled to get in the Van so have headed home, where we are all struggling to stay awake!
Definitely a more laid back and local day planned for tomorrow!
Night folks!
