Sunday 10th October 2021

Today Jill’s brother, Andy, his wife Sue and dogs, Anna and Cerys, are coming up from Swansea to meet us on the walk somewhere near Whitesands which will be about 12 miles from our start and possibly a bit too far for it to be a lunch stop but it depends how easy the walking is. We had decided to drive to the end of today’s walk and get a taxi back to Solva. It makes things easier at the end of the day and also reduce the anxiety of trying to get a cab late on a Sunday afternoon.

Our cab turned out to be an ex-London hackney cab; a minibus not a black cab. The cab still had all its Transport for London stickers and notices on it. The driver was proud that his Mercedes minibus only had 300,000 miles on the clock.

Solva looked even better with the tide in; a bit like humans – some places look better with a few “clothes” on or even water covering the dodgy bits. The path went alongside the quay and then climbed steeply up to the cliff tops. The cloud was breaking up and the some sunshine was coming through intermittently. The path was quite easy going with easy undulations and only occasionally dipping right down to near sea level. 

We were enjoying the views of the cliffs, the ponies on the cliff tops and then we spotted a peregrine falcon and so it was a very good start to the day.

We came to Porth Clais which is a very pretty narrow harbour. We stopped there and had our morning coffees sitting on a bench in the sunshine. The tiny harbour was busy with swimmers returning from a morning dip, an artist set up painting on the quay and a group of kayakers setting off.

Back on the path, Jill was walking very fast because she was hoping we could get to meet Andy and Sue in time for a late lunch. “Pants on fire” would be a fair description. The path was just delightful and so was the weather. The path was fairly busy not surprisingly since it was a Sunday. The little coves and beaches are very pretty and the sunshine just highlighted it.

As we progressed we could see more and more of Ramsay Island. Also the kayakers we had seen at Porth Clais were working their way around the coast exploring the little inlets and other features of the coast. It was so still we could hear the conversations of the kayakers from the cliff tops. 

As we turned up to walk alongside Ramsay Sound, we could see the new and old lifeboat stations at St Justinians. The slipway near the old lifeboat station is now used for powerboat rides to Ramsay and wildlife tours.

We walked around the headland  and spotted Andy and Sue and the dogs on Porthselau beach and so we joined them on the sands and had our lunch.  That done we then walked to Whitesands Bay and walked along the sand to the end of the beach where we said “good byes”.

We continued along the path to St Davids Head. It is only a short walk but justifiably popular.

From St David’s Head we turned north-eastwards. This was the first time in Wales we had seen rough moorland coming down to the cliff top. It seems to make a dramatic change to the feel of the landscape. The path followed the profile of the coast; there were no beaches but one or two rocky inlets.

We now had the coast path pretty much to ourselves. But just at Porth y Dwfr, as I was waiting at a gate for Jill to catch up, a man in his 20s went past in the opposite direction, obviously in a hurry. He was talking on his mobile phone. He said nothing to me but hurried on his way. When Jill reached me and we looked back we saw, to our alarm, that the young man was hurrying in the direction of a young woman who had taken her coat and shoes off and was sitting on a rocky ledge at the foot of a steep grassy slope above a precipitous drop with her legs dangling over the void; she was tucked down a bit below the cliff path and so we had walked past oblivious of her presence. It seemed she was intent on jumping off and he was rushing to try and talk her back. What to do?  It seemed there was little we could do to intervene since we were a few hundred yards away and the wrong side of the drop into the inlet beneath her. However, there was every need to try and get help. I had no phone signal but legging it up the path a bit further, I managed to place a 999 call via the roaming system though I no longer had a clear view of the woman. Giving the operator all the required information took time; by the time I had given the grid reference of the incident and looked up the “What Three Words” location and spelled it out using the NATO phonetic letters and then given my address and all my details, I was getting whistle calls from Jill, who had gone higher up the path to where she could see what was happening, to draw my attention to the fact that the woman had retreated from her precarious perch and was walking more or less with the young man in the opposite direction from us. All this I relayed to the police as well as pointing out that there was no immediate road access to the coast for several miles in each direction and and I could not guess where the couple were headed.

Jill and I continued on our way and I then had a call from the Haverfordwest police asking for further information and saying that three vehicles had been dispatched from Haverfordwest and they wanted more detailed descriptions of the couple.

So that was the second time in just a week that we had made 999 calls. They will be labelling us as trouble-makers now.

Well, that would have been the eventful end of a day’s walk but for one more thing. The route off the coast back to the car had the possibility of a short cut across a field along a footpath shown on the map. The field was OK though we had to duck under a couple of electric fences but we knew we had found the correct exit from the field back on to the road as there was was even a hose pipe sheath of insulation over the electric fence there. However beyond that there was then a deep gully under trees which was totally overgrown. With difficulty I got across to the wall where there were old through stones providing steps up to the top of the wall but the other side was so thickly overgrown that all we could do was slither down the outer side of the wall in a most ungainly manner. Not something to be repeated tomorrow when we would be parking at the same place and needing to walk back to the coast path.

Saturday 9th October 2021

We parked in the car park at St Bride’s and set off. It was a warm day even at 08:30 and we were in shirt-sleeves from the start. The path stayed true to the coast starting with a short tidal section which fortunately was passable despite a relatively high tide.

Thereafter we followed the coastal undulations with nothing very demanding by way of significant descents or ascents. Today’s walk was a huge reverse C and so our latitude at the end of the day would be within 0.5 km of our starting latitude and we would travel only 6km eastwards but 13 km northwards. How these things play upon your mind as you walk!

Along the paths we walked there were many huge parasol mushrooms, apparently they are quite good to eat.

After 5.5 miles we came to Little Haven, a small sandy inlet, where there was a café but at 10am all the tables outside were already occupied and so we continued on to its bigger neighbour Broad Haven. Here we did pick up the daily paper but the cafés looked distinctly NLU. As we had coffee in our flasks (and Jill needed to adjust her footwear), we sat on a bench on the sea front instead and watched the various activities taking place on the beach – mainly involving boards of one sort or another.

From Broad Haven we climbed back up to the cliff tops and continued along the undulating way. We passed a “Grand Designs” style building built into the side of the cliff with a turf roof and then on past the Druidstone Hotel which our taxi driver referred to as being ”up itself”. I think this is because locals now have to pay a membership fee to go and enjoy its facilities – which is mainly a bar and restaurant as far as I could make out.

The next bay we came to was Nolton Haven, a tiny little inlet but with a nice looking hotel/pub and also free public loos. The previous loos required 40p payment by card for the use of some decidedly unwelcoming facilities and so we passed (or didn’t pass, in fact).

Another mile or so took us to Newgale sands and and as we approached I checked the tide times and realised that we were on a falling tide and length of the beach was exposed so I was hoping we could walk the entire length. Unfortunately, to my great disappointment, the path on to the beach at the near end of the beach was closed due to a cliff fall. Clearly a few people had attempted the descent but we settled for the safer course and got down to the beach somewhat further along.

The sands were busy, mainly with adults surfing, canoeing or some variation of those two. Newgale beach is long and sandy but the hinterland at the north end is very low lying and is protected by a natural stony bank thought to be the remains of a beach formed when sea levels rose at the end of the last ice age. Unfortunately recent storms did breach the shingle bank, putting the A487 in danger and the risk of flooding to the area beyond. There are thoughts that the A road should be re-routed and the sea allowed to reclaim the land behind as an alternative to the very expensive work of regularly restoring the shingle bank.

We sat on the shingle bank and ate our lunch.

After Newgale we were back following the cliff tops but with a couple of descents to little bays.  The cloud was clearing away and the sun was beginning to show. We had distant views of Skomer and Middle Island and back to Wooltack Point.

Approaching Solva, the path drops down to the little inlet of Gwadn where one might get round on the sands to Solva harbour so long as the tide is fully out but we stayed with the path which takes steep climb up Gribin before dropping down the other side to Solva Harbour.

To our delight a café was open and so we had a pot of tea and cake outside and enjoyed the warm afternoon sunshine whilst we waited for our taxi. The taxi driver told us how he had moved to Pembrokeshire in 1997 from Bletchley. We explained we knew that area having gone to school in Aylesbury and Jill mentioned growing up in Wingrave – he had played football for the neighbouring village of Wing.

Friday 9th October 2021

This morning, having packed up at the cottage in Burton Ferry, we drove to Dale and parked in the car park behind the beach. The sky was overcast with low cloud and mist but it was quite warm. We followed the low cliff around to St Anne’s Head. Peninsulas being as they are, we soon found ourselves only half a mile from where we had started. As we walked we could see a natural gas tanker leaving Milford Haven and the Pilot launch accompanying it.

From St Anne’s Head we turned north west and followed the cliff tops around Marloes Sands. We could see the various little islands off the coast though at times it was not easy to work out which was which.

Off Wooltack point there were lots of seals below us.

Oddly there are no benches or seats anywhere on the headland and so we went down to Martin’s Haven and sat on rock and ate sandwiches as we watched a seal and her pup on the beach.

Lunch done we only had about four miles to go to the end of the walk and  we just strode on and enjoy the views of the cliffs and Musselwick sands.

There is very little at St Brides but there is a tiny beach, St Brides Castle – a nineteenth century, fantasy, baronial castle which is now luxury holiday apartments and cottages, and a small church. We waited for a taxi to take us back to the car at Dale. He tol We then had short drive to Haverfordwest where we had booked a holiday cottage for the rest of this walking session.

Thursday 7th October 2021

Today we awoke to low cloud or mist. Cleddau bridge was only just visible.

From Cleddau bridge we followed the A477 until it crossed Westfield Pill when we could get off the main road. Then we wound around the coast and the small roads and through the Dragon Liquefied Natural Gas Facility at Waterston before coming into Milford Haven.

To get past the LPG facility we had to cross using three industrial-style bridges. The first bridge was on quite a steep incline and the footway was a steel grid which was wet and very slippery. There was a line of wooden planks for dogs to walk on but they were also wet and very slippery. There was no handrail but we could grasp the chainlink fencing that made the walls of the walkway. Jill found the experience quite unnerving and we both felt it was one of the least enjoyable 20 metres of our whole walk. The other two bridges were similar except that they were horizontal which made things a bit easier.

We stopped for morning coffee and cake at Milford Waterfront – one of those rare occasions when we passed through somewhere with an open cafe at coffee time.  We had started at 8:00 this morning because we were beginning from where we were staying – so we were more than ready to have a good break.
We needed to be at Sandy Haven around low tide to cross the river via the causeway which is only passable three hours either side of low water. In addition, we then had to get almost into Dale to cross another river with a similar window of safe crossing.

Shortly after Milford Haven we went past another liquefied natural gas terminal, now owned by Exonmobil.

We arrived at Sandy Haven about an hour before low water and found the crossing point by Ferry Cottage. There was just a short walk across the sandy estuary to a low causeway/bridge.

We had about 4.5 miles to go to reach the next river crossing. We were making quite good time so we stopped at a bench and ate our sandwiches. There were a couple of modern lighthouses along this section of the path. They probably work very well but they lack the appeal of old fashioned lighthouses. After about three miles wending our way along the cliff tops, we rounded the headland and came to Dale Roads – a broad estuary with a lagoon separated from the sea by Pickleridge, a bank of stone.

The path drops down onto the stony shore where fortunately the stones were mostly flat, interlocking ones making for easier walking than across rounded pebbles. We followed along the beach for about 3/4 mile to the crossing point.

The crossing is a curious arrangement of two board walks which fail to meet in the middle, leaving section of 15-20 foot where you just have to walk through the river. At the time we wondered why on earth they didn’t take the boardwalk right across but I subsequently found online a photo taken a few years ago when the boardwalk was complete – so we now wonder why on earth nobody has bothered to replace it.

Jill’s walking shoes are quite low cut so she changed into her (expensive) waterproof socks and (very cheap) wading shoes. The water didn’t come over the top of my boots but my boots are not waterproof any longer so I got wetter feet than Jill did.

Pickleridge is a stony ridge separating the tidal bay from a non-tidal lagoon. On the far side we had a road walk of about a mile into the village of Dale from where we got a taxi back to Burton Ferry.

Wednesday 6th October 2021

Since we would be finishing today’s walk right by the cottage we are renting, we got a taxi to the start of the walk at Angle. Quite by chance, the first cab firm I phoned was one that didn’t do school contract work and could do the trip; in rural parts we have often found getting a taxi in the morning very difficult.

We were walking just before 8:30 and the day was a real contrast from yesterday in that there was no wind and so we could talk to each other and given that we were walking on tracks and minor roads there was no excuse not to engage in conversation. But what to say? After 45 years of marriage and recently 136 days walking together not to mention all that lockdown time we hardly need to talk to each other unless there are things to point out like a flock of turnstones in the bay or a heron taking off or the choughs we saw yesterday.

Angle Bay was completely calm and with the tide well in. It looked completely different from last night when it had that desolate appearance seen when the tide has run out, leaving boats’ private parts exposed to view and a scattering of debris and rubbish along the high tide margin.

The map merely shows an unclassified road or track with a pedestrian right of way. In fact the road was a fully specced tarmac road with concrete kerbs. It was built to access the oil terminal at Popton Point for the Pembroke Oil Refinery. 

A little further on we became aware of a pervading noise like a Primus stove. It was the gas flares from the oil refinery. It seems surprising that no one has come up with a way of burning off gas silently. 

We met a couple of serious walkers coming in the opposite direction, one was cleaning his teeth by a hedge and the other remarked on the noise of the gas flares.

The paths were generally good and we were walking well. We noticed an attractive church at Pwllchrochan but there is no village. There is a picnic area and a wildlife trail and all signage has the Valero Energy company name and logo. We wondered if the houses had disappeared under the foundations of the refinery and power station. It is not entirely clear whether the church is still active; may be it folded when the power station and oil refinery were built and possibly it is maintained by one of these businesses because all the signage in the church bares the Valero name including one on the locked door saying ”Meeting in progress” though the church was obviously empty. Researching later on-line I see that Texaco, the then owners of the refinery, offered to buy all the properties in the neighbouring village of Rhoscrowther, which is also under the shadow of the refinery. I suspect the same offer was made to the residents of Pwllcrochan.

The walk on into Pembroke was as undemanding as it was uninteresting. Admittedly we could see boats on Milford Haven. Pembroke is a pretty little place. We came into it past the church and sat on a bench opposite the castle and had our sandwiches.

Pembroke retains a separate identity from its bigger sister Pembroke Docks. It has an active little High Street and all centred on the wonderful castle. Just as we moved off again, a man approached walking his dog off the lead. The dog suddenly shot up the densely wooded steep bank beside the path and failed to return. We could still hear him calling its name when we were in the far side of the moat and can only hope the dog eventually reappeared.

After lunch we crossed the sluice gates and started our loop of Pembroke Docks. First we followed the bank of the Pembroke River estuary. Jill was in the lead and the slightly confusing criss-cross of muddy paths in the woods meant she took us on to a tidal path not realising the official path ran higher up. It seemed well-trodden and the map showed a route for rejoining the main path but we missed the stile in the overgrowth, only spotting it after we had retraced our steps when the path ran out.

The remaining tour of Pembroke Docks was uneventful and brought us to the Cleddau Bridge which still has a a toll office with the prices of crossings frozen at the prices that pertained in 2019 when the tolls were abolished.

Tuesday 5th October 2021

We drove to Bosherston and parked in the National Trust car park. This was sort of day when we felt the world was against us. As we drove to Bosherston a tree fell across the road just in front of us; a few seconds later and it would have landed on the car. Fortunately, with the aid of a couple of other motorists, we managed to drag the surprisingly heavy, rotten trunk round but it broke in two leaving just one side of the road clear for us to get past; the lower part of the trunk was firmly stuck across the bank. As it meant one side of the road was still blocked with potential for an accident, Jill then had a slightly bizarre conversation with the police trying to describe the location of the obstruction (which we had since left and had no exact idea of where it was) but they also required her name, address and date of birth, perhaps so they could log her as nuisance caller.

As I mentioned yesterday, the army are most unreasonably using their Castlemartin ranges so they can play with their tanks, depriving walkers of this section of the coast. Every entry point to the range is closed off and there are red flags flying. They have also closed off some roads. The alternative route is called the Castlemartin Ranges Trail which I feel is a “sop” to fool coast walkers that this diversion has some value or purpose. This route is really just along field margins and roads. The only thing of note was that a snipe that went up near me. We noted with amusement the high tech powering of the army’s red warning light.

As the road we were walking on began to dip, the expanse of Freshwater West Bay came into view and felt like a real tonic after all the road marching and field tramping. 

After the rather chilly start we now had quite a lot of sun between the clouds that were being driven by a very strong wind. There were good, breaking waves being driven up the beach and ‘white horses’ further out. We walked along the beach almost to the far end then took the path into the dunes and back on to the coast path.

The path was very reminiscent of parts of the English SWCP; it was generally narrow and wound its way along the cliff top and dipping down to a couple of combes. Fortunately none of the climbs were very long even though a couple were quite steep.

Just past Sheep Island is an old lookout station and we stopped there and sat in lee of it to have our lunch and enjoyed the sun on us.

After lunch it was just a couple of miles to West Angle Bay where there was a café but it was closed. The wind driving up the beach was lifting the sand and sand-blasting us. Fortunately I wear glasses but the sand still stung on my face. Next we had about three miles around the Angle Peninsula.

We passed Thorne Island which is a rocky outcrop with a Napoleonic fort. It was a hotel but had stood empty for seventeen years until 2018 when it was bought by someone who wants to make it into a party venue.

As we walked, more and more of the Milford Haven refineries and jetties came into view

We noticed a lifeboat moored on the estuary and were surprised at its apparently inconvenient location – until the Angle Lifeboat Station came into view beneath the cliff.

We rounded Angle Point and then headed due west into the village of Angle. There was no café and the pub was closed and the only taxi we could get wasn’t going to pick us up for an hour – so we sat on the bench outside the closed pub and ate the remains of our food.

Monday 4th October 2021

We drove to Tenby and parked in the Beach car park as yesterday. From there we enjoyed a walk along the length of Tenby South Beach as far as Penally.

We then had a short climb to the cliff tops and came to the Penally Ranges.

I had checked on the government website which stated that there was to be no firing until November 2021 but just as we stepped into the range there was a massive bang, fortunately not from where we were but from further along the coast, probably from Manorbier.

Safely out of the range, we continued along the cliff to Lydstep Haven which has a lovely sandy beach and is spoiled only by a holiday park right down to the beach.

Leaving Lydstep, we came to Church Doors and stopped on a bench for coffee. We had heard a couple more very loud firings of some sort and next we heard a constant sound of some sort of engine. It was too constant to be from a boat and I thought it might be a drone though we could not see anything in the direction of the noise.

We walked on and approached Manorbier Camp and heard that noise again and this time I did indeed spot a drone. I pointed it out to Jill and said in jest that it looked like a doodle bug and that any moment the engine would stop and the drone fall to the ground. No sooner than I had said that, than the drone’s engine ceased and it started to fall from the sky. At the same moment a bright orange parachute appeared and the drone dropped down gently within the Manorbier range. If only I had been quick with the video on my smart phone! As we walked along the security fence for the range, a truck towing a trailer appeared from some sort of hanger and on the trailer were three drones ready to be deployed as targets probably for the Star Streak missile system.

We then continued along the cliffs and dropped down to the beach at Manorbier Bay with its castle.

Next we came to Swan Lake bay but here there were neither swans nor ballerinas. At Freshwater East we walked the length of the beach on the sand and at the far end found a bench to sit on and ate our sandwiches.

After a brief discussion we decided we would extend today’s walk by about a mile and I rang for a taxi to meet us at Bosherston at 5pm. After lunch we had a few miles of very pleasant cliff top walking to bring us to Stackpole Quay where there is a café and we might have stopped for tea had we not got a booked taxi to meet.

We crossed the beach at Barafundle Bay and had views of the natural arches there. That was followed by Stackpole Head with more natural arches.

At Broadhaven we saved a few hundred yards by going along the beach and avoiding the walk up to the footbridge at the top of the beach which spans the outflow from the Bosherston lily ponds.  Stackpole Lodge was demolished in 1963 but the landscaped estate remained and passed to the National Trust. The Lodge was the seat of the Cawdor family (and I thought all that was in Scotland).

From here a short climb took us to the cliff tops again and soon we could see the red flag indicating that the Castle Martin ranges are closed. That meant we had to cut up a minor road for a shorter than anticipated walk into Bosherston and so arrived half an hour before the taxi. We sheltered in the porch of Bosherston Church – another St.Michael and All Angels Church.

Sunday 3rd October 2021

This morning we woke to high winds but it was dry. We drove to Tenby and left the car in the South Beach car park and got a taxi back to last night’s finishing point at Plashett.

As we left the taxi we were treated to a brief shower. Fortunately we already had waterproof trousers on because the first couple of miles was through very wet fields alongside the road. We went through Llanmillo which is a rather dull looking village possibly connected to the MOD firing ranges at Pendine, the next village. Pendine is famous mainly for being the location of many of the early land speed record attempts because of the extremely long flat beach. There is restricted access to Pendine Sands because of MOD activity and so we only saw the western end.

After leaving Pendine, it felt as if we really were back on a coast path once more. We climbed up on to the cliff tops, something we have not done since leaving the Gower. The sun was intermittently shining and the steady breeze made for a very pleasant day. Our legs felt a bit unaccustomed to the ups and downs because apart from a few climbs on the Gower we have not done much rollercoaster walking since we left Minehead which must be a couple of hundred miles ago.

At the east end of Amroth we crossed the old county boundary into Pembrokeshire and a sign for the local pub stated that this was the official start (or finish) of the Pembrokeshire Coast Path which I will hereafter refer to as the PCP.  Pembrokeshire no longer exists as a political or administrative county. It was subsumed into the new administrative county of Dyfed along with Carmarthenshire and Cardiganshire in 1974.

Slightly to my surprise I discovered that the PCP is marked with acorn symbols the standard symbol used for English National Trails. In Scotland they use the thistle. In addition to the acorn symbol there were occasional markers for the Wales Coast Path.

We sat on a bench and had our lunch at the west end of Amroth. Then we had another stiff climb up the cliff before dropping down to Wiseman’s Bridge followed by another climb before dropping down to Saundersfoot. The main things of note in Saundersfoot are the three tunnels that the path threads its way through. These are in fact old railway tunnels from when there was a colliery railway here.

Saundersfoot to Tenby was a succession of climbs and descents before finally breaking out of the woodland and we could see Tenby, its harbour and North Beach. Jill spotted the old lifeboat station; its conversion into a home had been the subject of one Kevin McLoud’s Grand Designs programmes and fraught with difficulties created by the tides and difficult access.

Tenby is a pretty little town, well cared for with neatly painted hotels and houses overlooking North Beach and the harbour. The town centre was bustling even on a late Sunday afternoon.

We found our way to South Beach car park and headed back to the holiday cottage.

Saturday 2nd October 2021

Last night I decided that the best plan for today was to drive to Carmarthen and take a taxi to Llansteffan and we could then get a bus back to Carmarthen at the end of the walk. So, for maximum efficiency, I decided to book a taxi tonight to meet us at Carmarthen station tomorrow at 08:30. That was the first problem. I called about ten different numbers for cabs in Carmarthen and they were all either not answering or had their phone switched off. One answered but said call back in the morning and the other number that answered said he would call back and when he did get back in touch he said he couldn’t find a driver for Saturday morning.

I knew there was a taxi rank at the station and had seen a taxi there yesterday so I decided we should drive to the station and hope there would be a taxi on the rank. When we arrived at the station there was the same white cab on the tank that I had seen yesterday but no driver and enquiries suggested that the cab was simply parked there having been there overnight. A very helpful train official dialled all the taxi numbers he had but to no avail. Jill disappeared into the station loos and I went back to the car with view to us driving back to Llansteffan and hoping we could get a taxi in the evening. Just then a taxi appeared and turned round by the carpark to go to the taxi rank. I chased after it and Jill reappeared from the station to hail the taxi and the station official flagged him down. We gave him very little choice but he happily drove us to Llansteffan to resume our walk.

The weather forecast had been for heavy rain and wind moving in overnight and continuing all day but easing up in the late afternoon. The forecast was completely accurate as we set off in waterproofs from head to toe. We headed down to the beach at Llansteffan but then immediately took an inland route to pass beneath the castle and thence round the headland. There were some cockle-pickers or at least picking something. Each had there own semi-inflatable boat with an outboard motor. Perhaps that gave them early access as the tide dropped.

Now we were faced with a rather tedious walk up the side of the River Taf. This was about 50% on hard surfaces, the rest was through waterlogged fields and muddy tracks.

One farm was particularly uninviting to walkers on the official coast path; it was a rundown, scruffy farm with signs up telling everyone to stay away because of Covid 19, notices warning of CCTV, farm vehicles almost blocking the path, gates where it was difficult to avoid barbed wire and the cow-trodden path itself running along the foreshore of the river through mud and rubbish, much of it brought in on flood tides but hardly compatible with safe livestock grazing. Eventually the path turned up through the trees on to higher ground and the going became a little easier.

Near Llandeilo-abercowan we passed a pole barn with bits of farm machinery in it. It was too good an opportunity to miss so we sat on a couple of tractor tyres and had our coffee and flapjack in the dry.

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We moved on continuing along more road and then a short section when we actually walked along the edge of the R Taf.

Then I decided on a tiny short cut which was fine but the few hundred metres of path  was not nearly as well maintained as the official path and invoked negotiating three electric fences. 

On the southern edge of St Clears, we crossed the R. Taf and started the walk down the other side. It was still raining and my boots had given up the pretence of being waterproof miles back. After a section walking either on the road or on a path just the other side of the hedge, we then left the road but continued through waterlogged fields with long grass. We were pretty desperate to stop for some lunch and rest our legs and were delighted to spot a wood shed off the track and so we sneaked in and settled down on a couple of logs and had a late lunch in the dry.

After lunch we walked down to the river bank once more and followed the path into Laugharne. On the way we passed Dylan Thomas’s Boat house. The house is still closed due the very restrictive Welsh Covid rules.

The rain briefly abated as we walked through Laugherne but as we left it started tipping down once more. We followed round East Marsh and then up to the main road at Broadway. We walked another half mile to Plashett where there was a rather magnificent funeral director’s business in the middle of nowhere then waited to catch the bus back to Carmarthen.

Friday 1st October 2021

We left Cumbria soon after 7:15am to drive to Carmarthen. The weather was atrocious and typically some drivers were driving much too fast with no lights on. Despite that we made it to Wrexham, by which time the rain had abated. We called in at a petrol station which had petrol – much to our relief. For those reading this some time in the future; in 2021 someone suggested that petrol supplies might be a bit tight, at which point the mass media reported imminent shortages which provoked panic buying and predictably service stations soon ran dry.  As if we haven’t have enough crises and panics without creating a totally artificial one. And for those in the future; they are predicting a disaster over Christmas  with a shortage of presents and turkeys so people will start panic buying for Christmas now. Well, it is October so it’s not much different from usual.

We drove on and paused to eat our lunch shortly before reaching Carmarthen.  We set off from the station car park at 13:45 and crossed the river by the footbridge then turned left down the far side of the river. We only had about half a mile by the side of the river before the path turned up to the B4312 and from there on we had a view of the river just once before we reached Llansteffan.

Initially we walked along the road and had to dodge into the verge when vehicles came. Then the path had been routed close to the road on paths to either left or right depending on the circumstances. Eventually, after some more road walking, we followed the path uphill through fields of cows and at one point we actually had views across the river to Ferryside. You may recall from our last trip that Ferryside has no ferry but does have a rail station.

I had to keep the pace up because I wanted us to get to Llansteffan by 17:00 because there was a bus at 17:06 back to Carmarthen. I keep doing this and poor Jill just has to put up with me. We made it to Llansteffan with about 15 minutes to spare. We were the only passengers waiting at the bus stop and the bus itself was empty when it arrived. I had my mask around my neck in readiness but had not pulled it up, even so the bus driver refused to even open the doors and gesticulated at me to pull my mask up. Clearly he is a jobsworth fan of Mark Drakeford. (for readers in the future he is the First Minister of Wales and is a real “old woman” when it comes to Covid matters). Nevertheless we were back in Carmarthen by soon after 17:30  and soon on our way to the cottage at Burton Ferry that we are renting for this week.

This poster adorned the bus shelter. Without the ferry, Ferryside may well remain undiscovered and those who actually make it there may feel the effort was not really justified.