Blogs from United Kingdom, Europe - page 22

If you key Bourne into a search engine, the chances are the top listing will not be Bourne, Lincolnshire. The Bourne Identity. The Bourne Supremacy. The Bourne Ultimatum. The Bourne Legacy. The Bourne film franchise. Jason Bourne. All are likely to head up the list of answers. Poor old Bourne - the market town - will probably be relegated to the also rans of the list. I can honestly say that films - movies in certain circles, without the desire or inclination to visit the cinema, often pass me by. Big screen action is fine, but listening to a soundtrack of people nearby munching on an oversized portion of popcorn isn't really too appealing. Similarly, the next bite at the showing on an overpriced satellite TV channel isn't in the family priorities. I can therefore honestly ... 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

Thursday 27 July 2023. Day 11 on the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path. We have now walked just over 100 miles of the 180. Alltrails app: 4 hours 50 minutes walking. 10.06 miles, 1050 feet elevation gain. Garmin forerunner 25. 4 hours 47 minutes walking. 9.89 miles. 1042 elevation gain. We had a great breakfast in the Castle. It is a HIGHend BnB. Jones Coastal Taxi picked us up at 0900 and drove the 25 minutes to St Bride's to begin the walk today. Possible rain but we are hoping the fog and mist will clear. We walked through Little Haven then Broad Haven and end in Nolten Haven today. We were at high tide so no beach walks. We had to do all the steep climbs. It started with a rather long climb then undulated through the ... read more