Monday 19th July 2010 Saundersfoot and Amroth

The weather forecast for today wasn’t very encouraging, as it was for heavy rain, though it was simply cloudy when we got up.

We decided to risk the weather and take a short trip as far as Saundersfoot. No sooner had we reached the bottom of the hill at the site entrance than we came across a car and caravan slewed across the road.

We stopped and I went to see if we could help.

It was a two year old Audi A4 towing a caravan much like ours and the chap said the engine had run out of power as he set off up the hill.

I offered to tow the caravan up to the top of the hill, but he declined, so I dropped back and put on my hazard flashers to cover him as he started to reverse the unhitched caravan down the hill using the mover motors.

At this point a young chap in a land rover came up from our sight and his offer to tow the caravan to the top of the hill was accepted.

The man who’s car had failed to get the unit up the hill came over to thank us for stopping and confided that he knew the cylinder head gasket was leaking and the diesel fuel pump was on it’s way out, but he hadn’t had time to get them done before going on holiday!

The car was two years old and had only done 69,000 miles, lord knows how a car of the supposed quality that Audis charge their customers exorbitant prices for could be so unreliable so soon!

So we left and drove to Saundersfoot, parking on the seafront. We found the place to be very pleasant, with an interesting harbour to walk round, plenty of shops and some nice little gardens with lots of flowers.

The beach was very flat as within one hour it had been covered by the rising tide
The warm weather tempted these two for a paddle, but we preferred to watch!
There was plenty to see and do around the harbour, which was packed!
A little less so close to the harbour entrance
Some rather nice fuchias were growing as a weed out of the stones of the harbour wall
And there were some bods messing about in boats too
They had some small but attractive gardens on the front and these flowers columns
It was even sunny while we were walking around and only started to rain as we got back in the car to leave.

Next stop Amroth and the Amroth Arms where we again had the braised pork, carrots, peas and mashed potatoes with apple and cider gravy.

There was more fat on the pork than last time, but there was still plenty once we had removed the fat, and it was just as tasty as the last time.

We continued along the coast road to Pendine, but the tide was in and the famous beach out of sight, so the next stop was for an ice cream but the castle just outside St Clears, and a ride home via main roads.

There was a fairly lengthy delay which turned out to be three very large escorted loads which looked like the sides of oil tanks for the Milford Haven Refinery.

Once back at the van we stayed in as the promised heavy rain arrived and lasted throughout the evening.

Sunday 18th July: St Govans and the Elegug Stacks

Heavy rain during the night and a cloudy and drizzling start made the day look like a washout, so we went to the Morrison's in Haverford west to shop and have out lunch there.

The weather stayed dull and rainy right up until tea time, but then it brightened up a bit and we decided on an evening run the ten miles or so to St Govan's Head.

This can be reached as long as there are no red flags up signifying that there are live firing exercises on the Tank range, and the views along the coast are spectacular.

Just look at the majesty of these cliffs!
And down on the rocks there were cormorants drying their wings
This is what we had come to see, St Govans Chapel, over 500 years old, when we last came here 39 years ago we climbed down to look inside, but we passed on that this time!
Further along the coast we followed another road through the Army Tank range to "Elegug Stacks" and the "Green Bridge of Wales" which is shown here
These are the "Elegug Stacks" and they are a very impressive sight indeed!Considering how badly the weather had affected our day, the evening trip certainly made up for it, so nice to re-visit places after so many years!

Saturday 17th July The Gower area

Pat fancied a longer run out for a change, so we made the journey to Swansea and our old favourite, the Gower Peninsula. We hadn't been back for 39 years so were looking forward to seeing it again.
The journey was quite pleasant, we stopped first for our usual coffee and then for a loo and an ice cream and arrived about 10:45 leaving the M4 at junction 47 to drop down to the top side of the Gower.
We were immediately impressed with how much busier is was than how we remembered it, and somehow it seemed a much bigger place too.

We stopped to photograph Weobley Castle, which is one of the smallest we have seen!

Then continued through back roads to Port Einon, where we had a very nice Fish and Chips lunch in "The Captain's Table" near the beach. Needless to say it had changed a great deal since our last visit, about the only things we could recognise were the beach and a thatched cottage we passed in the village, and of course the pub, now there are camp sites above the harbour, and static vans on the hillside behind the pub, though I'm sure it is a great place for families and they have lifeguards these days!
Heres a view looking east, at least this was familiar and didn't seem to have changed
Looking to the west you can see the caravans I mentioned, they don't improve the view much!
Then our final destination for the day, Rhossilli and the worms head, and here there have been big changes too (though not in the bay itself of course)
Isn't that a wonderful beach? way back there were more people surfing, and less up here on the top of the cliff in the packed car parks!
I walked far enough to get a view of the worms head and then it struck me what was missing.

Back then all the paths were covered in cockle shells inches deep, they were everywhere, and now not a single one to be seen anywhere!

Sad for us, but no doubt excellent news if you happen to be a cockle!

There were the usual aerial nutters defying gravity, here's one who was having a high old time riding backwards and forwards across the bay, riding the strong up-draught on the cliff face Then it was time to make the return journey and pick up some shopping on the way home, with luck we will go back over the next few days as there's lots more places to visit on the Gower!

Friday 16th July: After a wild and windy night, a pleasant day in Tenby

Thursday night was stormy, with lashing rain and a high wind showering the caravans and cars with leaves and twigs, it was surprising in the morning that there was so little damage to the trees, which had thrashed like mad things all night.

It was still raining first thing, nevertheless we needed some shopping and we wanted to visit the "Tudor Merchants House" in Tenby, so that's what we did.

We got there in driving rain, so decided to shop at the Sainsbury's next door to the multi storey car park first.

The rain had eased by the time we got out, so we sallied down to the harbour and were rewarded with clearing skies and sunshine, so out came the cameras!

A panorama is the best way to capture such a wide view as there were so many boats in the harbour
We walked down to the harbour and then up the slope to the headland and spotted the gardeners "dead heading" the flowers
Pat spotted this youth who appeared to be rather foolhardy heading out into the bay, it was only later when we looked at the image that we could make out he was a lifeguard!

The Tudor House opened at 11 O clock so shortly thereafter we presented ourselves and visited the place.

It was fascinating, much lighter inside than we are accustomed to expect from properties of that age, it was a house that you felt could be lived in even today (it even had an indoor toilet of a sort)

This is the fireplace on the ground floor

And this is a table explaining the sort of diet the people had
The rooms were very airy and light with woven rush mats on the floor, they seemed comfortable underfoot and the guide remarked that they are hard wearing, too.
Here is the indoor loo, with lovely soft pieces of lambswool to serve as toilet paper.

The loo emptied out into the garden through a hole in the wall!

A small but very comfortable looking four poster bed, originally this room would have had a thatched roof as a ceiling and you needed a bed with a top to keep out things that would otherwise have fallen into bed with you!We were really impressed with this house, it was a pleasure to visit.

A light lunch was all we fancied so we bought Cornish Pasties and a sticky bun from a local baker and sat out on one of the benches in from of the church (just by the horse and carriage that gave rides, and really enjoyed this simple meal, it was very tasty.

By this time pat's hips and ankles were a little worse for wear, so we walked back to the car and came back to camp

Thursday 15th July, Martins Haven

It was a wet and windy morning and we had wanted to see the rest of the local peninsula, so we started off heading to Castlemartin, past the Military area, the coastal road was closed as there was a live ammunition firing test under way and the red flags were flying.

When we got to Freshwater West there was a very high sea running , it was quite spectacular!

but further on at Angle bay where it faced a different direction it was much calmer , and we watched the small tankers moving out into the rather stormy open sea from the Milford Haven oil terminal.

Doubling back to Pembroke we passed over the north bound toll bridge and over the top of Milford Haven via some rather narrow roads that had been cut deep into the landscape like railway cuttings, and follwowed the headland round to Dale where there was a shingle beach,

We had hoped to get lunch here but the café looked shut and the pub had closed for good!

so on we went

St Anns head was the next port of call, but we found that the car park was over a mile for the viewpoint, and under the strong wind conditions it didn’t seem like a good idea to make the walk, so we gave this a miss

and stopped in the village of Marloes, but a look at the menu on the café wall where they wanted £19.50 each for a two course meal made us laugh, and the “Lobster Pot” pub wanted even more at £22.50!.

There was however a village store that sold quite tasty pre-packed sandwiches , they came to £3.60 for two packs of Ham Salad and Cheese Salad, and they sold some really great local ice cream for £1.25

We had the Mocha , fudge and Cherries Flavour, excellent!

on then to Martin’s Haven where there are usually boat trips to Skomer island, but not today with such a high sea running.

I left Pat happily croquetting in the car and braved the steep hill and strong gale to struggle to the view point on top of the hill and it was well worth the effort as the panoramic view were spectacular, though the amount of spray in the air rather acted and a mist to obscure distant details from the cameras.

This moth must have been making heavy work of the high wind!

This is the view over to Skomer island
And here is a long tele shot of what is described on the map as the "Pig Stone!"
This is the view looking down into the haven and St Brides Bay

Since we still had shopping to do we headed back to Pembroke leaving the supermarket just before the weather closed in and it pelted with rain, which accompanied with high wind continued until nightfall and beyond!

Wednesday 14th July 2010 Fishguard and district

We never intended to go that far as we were looking for some Cotton for Pat to use on a pattern in "The Peoples Friend" and had found two addresses, one only about five miles away in Pembroke Dock, the other at Fishguard.

However when we got to the nearee address it had changed into a Polish Food shop! so we had to do the extra twent odd miles up to Fishguard where we were lucky enough to get the yarn and hooks Pat needed.

We drove down to the harbour and were impressed not only with the view, but also as parking was Free!

We then went to Strumble Head which was at the end of a very long and winding road,it was worth the journey as it was a scenic spot
And this is the view from the same spot if you turn to the left
Then on to a little fishing village called Abercastle, it was rather spread out so I did this panorama from three separate images

Then on to a very interesting place called Porthgain, which had been a large scale industrial quarrying enterprise up until the 1930's for over a hundred years, starting with exporting slate, then bricks and finally road stone, the ruins of the buildings up the cliffside were very impressive!
AS you can see the ruins are not only extensive, but big with it!
We had some very nice ice creams here "Joes" mine was Cappuchino and Pat's Strawberry, great!
By now it was mid afternoon and we were more than happy to make out way back to the caravan for a much needed rest.

We were happy that the weather had been much better than the forecast of continuous rain had lead us to expect.

We will cetainly be going back to this area as there is a lot we haven't seen (yet)

13th July Rain stopped play!

Continuous rain rather spoiled the day!

We went into Tenby with the intention of visiting the "Tudor Merchants House" only to find it was closed for school trips, and then the heavens opened. The Horse and carriage had no customers today and kept circling around the town centre

To get out of the rain we went into the indoor market and had a good look round, there was at least an interesting mural up high on the wall

It was still raining hard outside so we beat a hasty retreat to a local pub for lunch, then headed back to the caravan for a snooze.

The main entertainment this afternoon has been watching the odd characters on site that parade to the ablution blocks for everything from carrying the washing up in a bowl to going for a shower in the pouring rain.

It still makes me smile to see this, when they obviously have everything they could possibly need already built in!

It is still very mild despite being cloudy, though no one is sitting outside for the evening as they were yesterday!

Garfield of course is very happy, as he has the staff on hand for much longer on wet days!

Hopefully we will have better luck tomorrow?