Pembrokeshire Coast - Day 3
Before I start, I just want to apologise for the volume of snot related content in this Pembrokeshire blog. But believe me, the volume of words is nothing compared to the volume of the actual green stuff. If you don't like it, then find a blogger without a cold.
Our prompt 7am start was even less prompt than yesterday, as we finally left St. David's youth hostel at 8am.
I woke up in a pool of snot and dribble with a headache. Things improved a bit with some tissues, drugs, porridge and tea (in that order). We got chatting to an Irish man at the breakfast table, who is the main reason for our delayed departure. He was doing a cycle trip on his own so was keen to talk whenever company presented itself. He did tell us that the midges in Ireland are nowhere near as bad as the Scottish ones, which is nice to know in advance of or Ireland holiday this year.
Before we'd even made it as far as the coast, my aches and pains were starting to move downwards, and my shoulders were hurting so much I wasn't even sure I could walk as far as the first tea break stop, never mind Broad Haven youth hostel. Some sneaky shoulder exercises in the toilets at the cafe we had brunch in seemed to do the trick, and for a short while at least, I felt 35, not 75!
The weather was awful this morning. It stated raining within half an hour of setting out, and it got steadily worse as the morning went on. By the time we arrived at our lunch stop, it was throwing it down. We squelched into the pub, deliberately choosing the side that allowed well behaved dogs, as dogs have a tendency to be wet and muddy sometimes too. No one complained about our wet clothes and we had a massive pub lunch. There weren't any wet dogs in there though.
The pub was showing the London marathon on TV, and one of the regulars (Terry, aged 57 - a.k.a. Marathon Man) was showing his London marathon medal round from when he was 53. He didn't really look like the marathon type to me (picture a cross between Del Boy and Tom Jones), but reckoned he did it in 3hrs 46mins! Puts our coast walking to shame. I was pleased to note that Marathon Man had sunburn (suspected sunbed burn actually) to rival mine!
I also noticed whilst drying out in the pub, that in my opinion, welsh and yam yam accents sound quite similar. This observation (do you observe things you've heard?) was from hearing Marathon Man telling a holidaying yam yam couple about his running exploits. I don't think Claire agreed, she just thinks I got mixed up about who was talking when.
The rain stopped while we were in the pub, and after an hour of walking the sun was back. Needless to say, due to the appalling weather in the morning I hadn't bothered to buy any sunscreen, so the sunburn is back with a vengeance. I haven't taken a photo as I am already paranoid that people in the pub I am sitting in now are laughing at me.
After lunch we both started suffering with more aches and pains. Our leg muscles were on fire every time we went up a hill (not surprising really - I normally do 30 step ups with a 10kg weight at the gym, and I've been up countless hills and steps today carrying somewhere between 10 and 15 kg.
As we got nearer the youth hostel, our thoughts started turning to the pub. To be fair, my thoughts had been on the pub intermittently throughout the day, but the nearer we got the more thought the pub got. We were all for missing our afternoon tea break and pressing on towards the beer, but our feet got the better of us and we had an outdoor tea break, and inspected our blisters while we ate our Welshcakes.
In short, we've both got loads of blisters, Claire more so than me, and they hurt so much we considered crawling to the pub.
We limped there eventually, and are now sat on some comfy sofas looking out at the sun setting over Broad Haven beach, enjoying our first beer of the trip.
Tomorrow, rain or shine, I WILL BUY SUNSCREEN.
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Location:Pembrokeshire Coast
Blistered face and feet, what a combo!
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