Blogs from Pembrokeshire, Wales, United Kingdom, Europe

Thursday 3 August 2023 day 17 on the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path from Pwll Deri YHA to our BNB in Goodwich, Ferryboat Inn. Alltrails app. 5 hour and 18 minutes. 9.57 miles. 1109 feet elevation gain. Garmin forerunner 25. 5 hours and 15 minutes walking. 9.51 miles. 995 feet elevation gain. Tony's Taxi picked us up at 0930 and had us at the Pwll Deri YHA ready to start the walk at 0950. The steep downhill continues almost to the water then promptly turned and went back up to the cliff tops again. Gary records 50% more elevation gain than I do. He added it up and his total to this point is very close to the advertised elevation gain. For the total 180 miles this is over 32,000 feet. We met two couples who stayed at ... read more

Tuesday 1 August 2023, day 15 on the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path - from White sands Beach to Trefin Alltrails app. 6 hours 1 minute walking. 11.85 miles. 1588 feet elevation gain. Garmin forerunner 25. 6 hours 1 minute walking. 11.9 miles. 1559 feet elevation gain. We had our last breakfast at Twr-y-Feline Hotel and paid our bill for dinner and massage. Deb took a photo of our departure just as Frank of Frank's Taxi arrived. The day was sunny bright and moderate winds. It was about 0910 when we started along the path. Today was a longer distance and had more climbing than any prior days walk. To add to the difficulty the signage was not good. And, this problem was further compounded by several direction indicators for the trail being broken off or the entire ... read more

Sunday, 30 July 2023 and a day of rest in St Davids. St David is the patron saint of Wales. Wikipedia has some information on this fifth or sixth century religious leader of Wales. The link below relates to his mother https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Non The story of his birth is above but his mother, St Non, was thought to have been raped and gave birth in a severe thunderstorm. Her hands gripped a rock so intensely that it cracked while she was giving birth. Some of the thoughts about St David are here. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_David Yesterday we visited the Cathedral so most of the photos are from this viewing. I enjoyed this poem posted in the cathedral "The Accidental Pilgrim I don't know why you've arrived, whether just because we're there, or out of faith's determination, like the myriads ... read more

Friday 28 July 2023, day 12 of walking. Pembrokeshire Coastal Path from Nolten Haven to Solva. Alltrails app. 4 hours even walking. 7.58 miles. 1276 feet elevation gain. Garmin forerunner 25. 4 hours and 1 minute walking. 7.58 miles. 1138 elevation gain. A granola, fruit, yoghurt breakfast with smoked salmon and scrambled eggs was my breakfast today. I will miss this when we leave here tomorrow. Jones Coastal Taxi was out front before 9 am and had us to Nolten Haven and on the path by 0910. Of course we can only climb up from the beach and it was about 300 feet in the first quarter mile. Gary's Garmin gave us over 1600 feet elevation gain today. From Nolten Haven to Newgale beach where we stopped for coffee and facilities was 3 miles. As we ... read more

Wednesday 26 July 2023, day 10 of pembrokeshire coastal walk. Alltrails app: 3 hour 14 minutes walking. 7.41 miles. 449 feet elevation gain. ( Gary showed 840) Garmin forerunner 25: 3 hours 16 minutes walking 7.41 miles. 511 feet elevation gain. We left our lodging in Marloes about 0930 and walked past the Runwayskiln where we had lunch yesterday. This was the first mile. Continuing along this track road in about 2/3 of a mile more we joined the pembrokeshire coastal path heading toward Martin's Haven where we had taken the boat to Skomer Island to see the Puffin's. To say the weather was abysmal is an understatement. As we reached the coast the wind seemed to be 40-50 mph and the rain soaked through our raincoats. At the third mile we came to the Lodge ... read more