Pembrokeshire Coast - Day 1
Today is our first day of five in Pembrokeshire. We're walking part of the coast path between Pwll Deri and Marloes Sands, staying in Youth Hostels along the way. The day didn't get off to a particularly good start as I woke up feeling awful with a cold. Or possibly a female variant of Man Flu.
It took us ages to get here - about 5 hours by car including a lunch stop. I didn't realise there were any bits of Wales that far away! We stumbled across a great place where we had lunch. Unfortunately I can't remember what it's called or where it is but there were loads of birds there including red kites, woodpeckers, and loads of different finches. There was a nice cafe and no children to frighten the birds away. We want to go back there and do some mountain biking on some of the trails, so I will have to try a bit harder at remembering where it is.
We arrived at our start point at Goodwick (near Fishguard) in glorious sunshine. I was full of snot and was aching all over which was worrying. But, surprisingly, after a short four mile walk, carrying a rucksack weighing nearly 2 stone, mainly uphill, I seem to have sweated most of the aches and pains away.
We had the best tea break of the year so far this afternoon on top of a little hill overlooking tonight's Youth Hostel at Pwll Deri. We took the opportunity to take some photos of some of our outdoor kit in action, and are optimistic about getting some of them in the next Cotswold catalogue!
After tea and cakes we had a stroll downhill (almost a roll actually, as we are a bit top heavy with our rucksacks on), and arrived at the hostel just as it opened. It is perched on the edge of the cliff overlooking the sea and is a real bargain at something like £15 each a night. We are staying in an 8 bed dormitory tonight, although at the moment we seem to have the room to ourselves. Hopefully it will stay that way as I think I might get some complaints about my sniffing, sneezing and snoring all night. The beds are bunk beds, and Claire can't seem to make up her mind which one to sleep on. I think she has tried them all out, and, worryingly, seems to have a preference for the most creaky one.
I have selected a lower bunk nearest the door, in the hope that if I go sleepwalking in the night I will end up back in my own bed, rather than try and get in with someone else like when I was on Brownie pack holiday.
Tomorrow we have a 20 mile walk to St. David's youth hostel. Apparently we are setting out at 7am prompt. At the moment, we don't even know if we are physically capable of walking 20 miles carrying all this stuff, plus there is a danger of serious delay half way round in the form of the best pub in Pembrokeshire (according to the guidebook and some other people staying here). We walked about 15 miles last weekend which was OK, but we didn't have the rucksacks or pub to contend with.
We are also a little concerned that we haven't packed any sunscreen. Neither of us dared mention it for fear of jinxing the weather, but if tomorrow is as sunny as today then we will be bright red by the evening.
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Location:Pembrokeshire
Great blog Hilary :)
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