A Sunflower & Fruitbat's adventures: Pembrokeshire Coast

Friday

19 July

Day 19

77 to go

We were awake early this morning. It was hot in the bedroom and we needed the air. I opened the window which allowed the sounds of the sea in. I stood watching the beach, it was quiet, no one was up taking advantage of the glorious morning.

730am came and we began our usual morning routine; shower, breakfast and pack. By 8.30am, we were on our way. Today we were driving the Pembrokeshire Coast line. Our first destination was Tebnby about an hour away. The drive was mostly on the highway, so there weren’t much I the way of views, the last 20min was on A roads. These are supposed to be 60mile an hour roads, but good luck to anyone who can do that! The roads are often narrow, maybe one and a half car wide and there are foreboding hedges. How we make it around in one piece is beyond me, but we do.

Tenby is a summertime hot spot. Tourists flock here for the beaches and the quaint streets. We managed to find a park and then went for an explore. We followed the line of the old castle walls to the beach front, walking from castle beach to south beach. They even had lifeguards and flags.

We walked from the beach into the town, doing a circle of one block and entering back through the five arches of the old castle walls.

We decided to by a hot chocolate at the chocolate emporium. I was up the for the supreme version. Spoonfuls of little marshmallows, lots of whipped cream and a small flake! I want my hot chocolates like this in the future.

After our drink, we walked down some little alleyways. They were all very quaint, with plenty piquing my interest. We eventually popped out at the other side of the point and yet another beach lined with two storey town houses in all colours.

We walked out to the point to check out the old buildings, the statue, and the island housing the castle keep, before returning down an old alleyway where Paul found the Harbwr Brewery. We stopped for a chat with the guy behind the taps, then sat and enjoyed the surrounds, before making it back to the car and on to our next destination, Pembroke.

We arrived for midday, found a park and sat below the castle walls to have our lunch. After the breather, we were off to find the Elegug Rocks and the Green Bridge of Wales. We followed the GPS directions, only to find a military base. As it turned out, you had to drive between their firing range to get to the coastal attractions. Glad the tanks weren’t in use today!

We left the car and followed the marked signs for the rock stacks. They are a bit like the twelve apostles, two limestone pylons rising from the sea. It was a pretty steep and rugged coastline. You had to be wary of your step, as there were no barriers and you could easily slip.

After checking these out, we made our way along a different path for the Green Bridge of Wales. This is effectively the stage before the pylon is created, with the land still attached at the top. You could see the erosion occurring underneath, and where land slips had occurred further down the coast. It won’t be long before it occurs here too.

With these landforms ticked off, I set the GPS for St Davids, another hour up the road. This town is known for its cathedral and the Bishop’s Palace, as such it is another tourist Mecca. Parking was at the bottom of the town, but just a short walk up the hill to the cathedral. The weather had been threatening all day and was now spitting on us.

We walked around the grounds, taking in the decaying ruins of the Palace. The building reminded me of Port Arthur. We then walked up to the cathedral, where live orchestral music was being played from. We took a quick peek, before ascending the stairs and entering into the town. There wasn’t a lot more to see, so we walked back to the car, ready for the last stretch, 2 hours to Aberystwyth.

We had intended on checking out Fishguard along the way, but as time had got away with us, we only had a fleeting glance as we drove on through. The road now, was a little more coastal and we actually got glimpses through the stone work of the hedges. The road also went through plenty of towns, names plastered at entry ways, in which we took great delight in coming with how they were said. Towns also meant 20 mile an hour roads. This is why the journey took so long. We pondered over road speeds. Little lanes were often 60mile an hour, where as wider, straighter roads were 40 or 50. We could not make sense of it.

After passing through Cardigan, we finally reached Aberystwyth, pulling into a carpark in front of the Bodalwyn Guest House at 4.40pm. Self check in was a breeze, and we found our room, 4, on the first floor. We unravelled all our things and took a breather, before deciding to go for a walk along the front, the beach was only 100m away.

The promenade was busy with teenagers, I felt like we had walked into schoolies celebrations, as the year is pretty much over. There were also a lot of interesting characters about, I likened it to walking the beach fronts or Rockingham and Mandurah.

We took in the views. There was a pier to our left and a funicular railway line climbing a hill to our right, behind our guest house. We made our way to the pier. As is typical, there was a large arcade with all the flashing games. We entered through the Harbour Side Bar, ordered a drink and sat outdoors at the end of the pier. I spoke to Dad, who had had a great day with am historian friend, picking up information about the family. He sent through a photograph of my great great great grandparents on my grandmother’s side.

When our drinks were done, we passed through the pub games, marvelling at the soccer snooker and other odd games played on pool or snooker tables. We were in need of dinner, as our room had no facilities. We found a Chinese take out, ordered then continued our walk to find drinks. We located a bottle- o, opposite a Caribbean restaurant. This was a bright green venue that stood out more so for the wedding reception that it was hosting. The bride, in all her finery, was plastered to a metal chair, letting it all hang out, while wedding guests and flower girls lingered nearby. I guess if you always wanted a Caribbean wedding, this would be the next best thing!

With our drinks in hand, we returned to collect our meal and made our way back to the guest house for the night. We ate while watching The Jetty on BBC iview. We crammed in 3 episodes before finally making it to bed at 10.