Blogs from United Kingdom, Europe - page 23

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

Whenever you travel in the third world, it can take a very long time to cover only a short distance. I shouldn’t have been surprised how long it took to get from Bath to Penzance. The train strike didn’t help my cause. There were no trains at all in Cornwall on the day I needed them. The man at the train station gave me a ticket to Plymouth and wished me luck. Everyone was very helpful. The lady at the Plymouth bus station said that all of the tickets to Penzance had been sold and came up with a convoluted arrangement of local buses that might work. I ate a Cornish Pastie in the rain and took stock of the situation. At the local bus stop I met Emile, the solo Dutch holiday maker, with a ... read more

And we're off! Car packed, the new patented 'on the go tea and coffee station' filled (we worked out we could save about a hundred quid with a couple of flasks and some easy access tea bags) and we were off. We made it to nearly junction 25 of the m1 (a whole ten minutes from home) before hitting traffic .... Great..... And a whole 73 miles before the same engine light that has been pinging it's way on and off through the last year came on. Again. It's been fixed several times but seemingly the dpf wants to let us know it's there which is lovely.........ping....... Lunch was a rare treat to see family, my aunts and cousin and her daughters. Giant Seth next to his much smaller second cousins made us all chuckle. Ping ... read more

My migration south started last Wednesday after a fantastic week in Stornoway. Half a dozen cyclists arrived at the Laxdale overnight and I think I spoke to most of them over breakfast and during packing. Some were at the end of their journey, others just setting out. There was one guy who had fortunately got a lift for himself and the bike from Tarbert to Stornoway after a stay snapped on his bike frame. A couple of ladies had spent eight days cycling here from Glasgow, mostly into the wind. Two German gents were spending a few weeks travelling in an open top Morgan. Most of my friends know my views on the environment, (I'm no saimt though. I do drive and even a quick skim through this blog will show I've put up a fair ... read more

Saturday 22 July 2023, day 7 pembrokeshire coastal path from Pembroke to Milford Haven Alltrails app: 5 hours 44 minutes walking. 12.3 miles. 1010 feet elevation gain. No Garmin data. Gary has much newer Garmin and consistently measures greater distances and elevations. We left the Coach House Hotel a couple of minutes before 0800 and walked the half mile to the start of today's walk at the Pembroke Castle. It rises above us as we walk beside the millpond and cross to the other side. It was raining steadily and wind tended to whip the water into our faces. Rain pants felt very good. We walked mainly on secondary road from Pembroke to Pembroke Dock. This ended one part of the all trails navigation and I had to connect to the next. At a market we ... read more