This Sunday, 29th September, was the Ordnance Survey's annual Get Outside Day, aimed to encourage us all to, well, get outside. If you're a regular reader of my blog you'll know that any chance I get I'll be off outside - gardening, walking, visiting gardens; they're all outside things - so I'd probably have been doing something anyway, but as it turned out we were away for the weekend staying near St Davids in Pembrokeshire, so the day turned out to be more interesting that it might have been at home.
It wasn't a brilliant day weather-wise, but considering the days either side Sunday wasn't too bad. Our first stop of the day was the village of Porthgain - once a busy port handling material from nearby quarries, it's now a sleepy sort of place, particularly outside of tourist season, but still has a couple of art galleries and places to eat.
There'd been a lot of wind and rain overnight and early in the morning but by the time we headed out the rain at least had stopped. The wind was still ferocious, whipping up huge waves - in fact out on the quay it was sometimes hard to stand up! I quickly gave up on any plans of walking along the cliffs to Abereiddi
They did, but it was till too rough for walking at the coast, so we headed into St Davids itself for an hour or so. As cities go St Davids is small, but it's my kind of city, where looking down the street you can see the blue line of the sea.
In a valley below the 'business' part of town lies the cathedral and the ruins of the Bishop's Palace, from this angle seeming to sit in the middle of the countryside
The weather was definitely improving by now, so it was time for the beach.
There are several to choose from close to St Davids, but Whitesands is the biggest. It faces west though and was still being battered by rough seas, so no chance of going for a swim. I didn't even get opportunity for a paddle as we had plans to climb the hill which overlooks the bay, and I didn't want wet, sandy feet.
Carn Llidi isn't high (just under 600 ft) but its position gives wonderful views up and down the coast. The climb, first along the coastal path, then inland and uphill, was steeper than I remembered, and I wished I brought my walking boots.
Stopping to admire the view - over Whitesands bay and Ramsey Island, or inland to St Davids - gave me chance to catch my breath and let my legs recover a little before continuing.
I didn't make it to the top though but stopped at the old war-time early warning station whose concrete footings still remain
As we headed back downhill the sun began to set, so we waited on the coastal path to watch it sink into the sea. A wonderful end to an outdoorsy day.
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