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Nanny’s favourite photos this trip

Porth Clais ……and …….Solva

Walking round Britain’s coastline

Progress map below by courtesy of Ordnance Survey with my crimson worms highlighting the completed route so far.

England finished; Wales nearly done: Scotland nothing yet.

To complete Wales there remains most of Cardigan Bay left to finish before the end of July, but I have reached the most westerly point of mainland Wales, Penmaen Melyn. See the LHS – white dot.Dear Rosie, Lauren, Stan, Jake, Rowan and Maisie,

A sad weekend seeing Spurs losing the Champions League Final to Liverpool – no more need be said!

So I immersed myself in walking and the memory of the dubious penalty in the first minutes of the game, dissipated. Maybe – time will tell …..

which is how I became to be heading down to South Wales with Nanny and Nobby within hours of the bitter result, to resume walking North from Newgale. I have almost put it out of my mind? Not surprising considering how stunning the scenery was. And it’ll soon be Rosie’s Birthday

The route after a very damp Newgale start was via Solva, Porth Clais, Pen Dal-aderyn (or is it Penmaen Melyn, which form the most westerly point?) , Ynys Dinas, RNLI and Whitesands Bay. The weather was perfect and gave rise to several early season ice creams!

Excellent accommodation was afforded by Rhian Thompson for our overnight stay, at a B&B in Carnheydryn a few miles short of St David’s on the A487 , so good we’re going back next time – and soon

Off we go……..except,

we had to wait for some unsolicited  heavy rain to pass over, which it did and never looked back….

Starting off from Newgale Sands heading  north for a rendezvous at Solva.

Below- scenery starting to get impressive on the way to Solva

 

In Solva we discovered a redundant life boat shed to add to that collection; the tide well out and plenty of people messing around in boats; we watched a father carrying aloft a six year old, fording the River, being towed by a large recalcitrant puppy dog .which tangled in the mooring lines and chains. I wondered if there was an ancient rescue boat in the ancient boathouse for an accident about to happen?

And there was other boating activity to watch on the tidal estuary of the River Solva before moving on along the Wales Coast Path with its variety of weathered rocks and cliffs daring you to peer over cliff edges or walk into great clefts in the ground where more cliffs were getting ready to detach themselves.. The cliffs were eroding under my feet.

Sometimes there is no choice but to walk along the edge hoping my extra body weight made no difference to the cliff’s stability!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finishing the first day at Porth Clais and returning to our b&b in Carnhedryn to freshen up before a night out in the big city of St David’s, at the Farmers Arms where the food was good but getting a table was a bit of a bun fight.

Day two

On Monday fuelled up on a full English we were away early from Rhian’s excellent acommodation to resume walking from Porth Clais  – day two. The target was Whitesands Bay with a halfway visit to RNLI Station at Porthstinian . The usual problem is it’s impossible to leave out any pictures…..

 

Porth Clais – looks like day one of new diet – after I’ve finish up current supplies of snacks in my rucksack. Essential grazing along the way  include water, figs, prunes, muesli bars, oranges, apples, dark chocolate, werthers, meat slices, cheese slices and Tom Pugh’s delicious meat pies which never seem to last long?

 

Porth Clais – River Alun – St Brides Bay  at sunrise

 

 

Carreg yr Escob and Carreg Fran

 

 

 

Soon to Turn the corner to see the RNLI Station as a white speck

 

Turning the same corner at sea finds Ramsey Sound – looks treacherous; understand why there’s a lifeboat station just past St Justinians.

Ramsey Island top right.

Porthstinian RNLI Lifeboat Station below ahead;  visitors about to descend on St David’s Lifeboat and the new and old Stations alongside each other with Martin on duty guarding the new £2.7m boat named after the benefactors Mother Norah Wortley. After a long chat with Martin, something from the gift shop and a rest, it was time for lunch

 

WhitesandsBay was just round the next corner and I began my descent down to sea level where Nanny and I finished off proceedings with ice cream and a promise  to diet tomorrow.

The speck below is Nanny waiting for me to land as I descend the near vertical steps    to the bay.5

 

Whitesands Bay – not a bad place to fetch up – complete with rescue centre and cafe.

Studying the maps we found the next stretch heading for Aberedie difficult to plan. There was limited access to the coast and once started, no choice but to keep going the full 15 miles. It wasn’t prudent to start after lunch with today’s mileage already approaching double figures. If we needed help making a decision – it started to rain!

And so we decided to go home via Aberystwyth to recce the scene for the Finale.

 

Finally here’s the overall progress map again by courtesy of Ordnance Survey, showing my completed walk round mainland Britain’s coastline – in crimsom

Tywyn to Aberystwyth plus Aberystwyth To Whitesands       =   115 miles to finish

If there were no ferry across River Dovey add 27 miles going inland to Pont ar Dyfi and back to Borth ie 142 miles to finish- better get checking the ferry!

Nominal end……..