Saturday by the sea

Last weekend was spent by the seaside in Pembrokeshire. I've already talked about Sunday as Get Outside Day  but obviously when you're by the sea every day is a day for getting outside.

Saturday didn't start out too bad, weather wise - there's even some blue sky in the photos - so we headed to Solva, on the south coast of St Davids peninsula, for a walk around the village, calling in at the Window On Wales shop (because it's a holiday tradition), then walking to the sea.






Today Solva's a pretty tourist village, but the limekilns point to a past when the harbour was filled with more commercial craft than yachts.















Arrive in Solva at low tide and you might actually wonder where the sea is. There's sand, mud, and seaweed, and boats ready to float away on the tide, but no signs of the sea.

It's there - just hiding round the corner. As Solva's valley works its way to the sea it goes through a sharp almost right-angled bend!








And even then, small islands hide the entrance.












At low tide you can walk round to the next bay and back over the dividing ridge, but this day it would have required paddling









 - and I was the only one prepared to do that, so we headed back the sensible way.















Time to head for the North coast, and Abereiddi. Once the site of a slate quarry, today there's little here beyond a few ruins, some holiday cottages, and, probably its most famous feature, the Blue Lagoon which features in the Red Bull diving series, and is home to St Davids local sport of coasteering.








This is basically scrambling over sea-splashed rocks, and jumping off them into the sea. The sheer sides of the Blue Lagoon make it a relatively safe place for tombstoning, but I once heard coasteering described as 'everything your mother said you shouldn't do', and it's probably near the mark. Regardless, my daughter was off for an afternoon of it, as were this group of tiny figures on the rocks.

It's something I'd love to try but I doubt I have the energy to keep going for two hours, so I had a quieter afternoon - pottering about on the beach, walking along the coastal path, and walking round the ruins.

Lastly, because you can never visit too many beaches in one day, we headed west to Whitesands for a short walk along the sand before the rain came down.

To say 'it rained' isn't remotely strong enough. That evening a deluge fell, but at least it hadn't spoiled our day

Aberaeron

Last Friday we headed off to Wales for a long weekend near St Davids, in Pembrokeshire.

It's about a five hour drive so a couple of stops en route were called for - the first at Attingham Park just outside Shrewsbury, the second by the sea in Aberaeron.

It was early evening by the time we reached there, with the sun dropping down towards the horizon. More importantly - it was windy. Not just a bit breezy, but 'Hang on to your hat, and hope you aren't blown away' windy!!

The tide was high, and the sea rough, and it certainly wouldn't have been advisable to stand on the opposite side of the harbour.

Turning my back on the sea, things seemed much calmer though the boats were still rocking up and down.

As the sun sank into the sea we had to move on, but the sunset continued so bright and dramatic that I had to take photos from the car.

Get Outside Day

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

The sun was just starting to break through the clouds, so we went to the Sloop Inn for lunch hoping things would improve while we were inside.

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.