Pwll Caerog to Porthgain - 8 miles, Pembrokeshire

October isn't usually a month you'd associate with camping but we like to camp any month of the year! We being me and my girlfriends, as Mark is far too much of a fairweather camper to entertain the notion of camping later than early September! So, it was a weekend in the middle of October this year when we set off for 2 nights camping down Pembrokeshire.

Celtic Camping is one of our favourite campsites and a little slice of heaven (especially if you're blessed with good weather). It's set on a 250-acre working farm called Pwll Caerog which is owned by the National Trust. The campsite boasts some incredible views and we were only one of two tents there when we pulled up and pitched in the dark on Friday night. It's also set on a clifftop, so it is really exposed and subject to the elements, especially high winds a lot of the time. Regardless of the forecast, bring a durable tent and wrap up warm. We've seen so many tents just chucked in the skip because they didn't survive Celtic!

View from the electric hook up field

The pros are that there are warm showers and a communal barn with microwave, fridges and freezers, lots of picnic benches and campfires are allowed even on the ground! It has a real wild feel and the atmosphere is always really relaxed and easygoing, there are barely any rules compared to some other campsites and oodles of space to just spread out and enjoy the scenery. Also, dogs are allowed! The owner has 2 gorgeous German Shepherds - the eldest called Jack and the youngest a puppy called Thor, who is often running around outside and super friendly.

Fairy lights - an essential camping supply in order to locate your tent in the dark!

Pigs and wild boars on site - Tina and Jayne were patting them despite a sign which said not to pet them because they did bite occasionally!

I'm hoping to camp more at this site now we have a campervan as it'll withstand the weather much easier! Having been the victim of many a tent pole snapping due to extremely high winds here, I look forward to not having this problem with our VW T4! There's also bunkhouses you can stay in and hundreds of dorm rooms - check our their website for more information on Celtic Camping.

We set off on the Saturday to do a walk I've done a few times before which starts right on the campsite as the coastal path starts at the bottom of the fields. It's an 8 mile round trip which takes in Abereiddy, the Blue Lagoon and a sleepy little fishing village called Porthgain, which has some lovely food and an art gallery and is a nice place to visit.

We headed straight down the campsite through the fields to join the coastal path and despite having done this walk several times before, I always forget exactly where it starts and how to get out of the field, so it usually results in us having to climb over or under a barbed wire fence, this time was no exception:

Here is Tina crawling through aforementioned fence.

We turned right at the fork in the path and headed up towards Abereiddy. It's quite undulating and not particularly strenuous with some pretty views stretching out over towards the Blue Lagoon. It's a great area to spot wildlife and we saw quite a few seals swimming close to the cliffs and popping out near the beach.

There's a short walk along the road as you enter Abereiddy and you drop down into the car park for the beach. There's usually an ice cream van here in all weather and a lot of the outdoor adventure groups park up here to do activities in the Blue Lagoon. The beach is a pebble beach and popular to visit - we stopped to just listen to the sea and admire the view - and a seal who appeared in the waves really close by!

If you carry on following the coastal path signs at the far end of the beach, you'll come out at the Blue Lagoon. The Red Bull Cliff Diving championships are held here every year at the end of the summer and they set up a realllllllllly high board for diving off! It's really busy and people struggle to get tickets from what I hear but we've never been. Coasteering groups usually swim in the lagoon and jump off the far side. We opted to bypass walking directly to the Blue Lagoon and instead took the high path to walk up the hill overlooking the lagoon instead.

Looking down on the Blue Lagoon from above

The cliffs in this section of the coastal path are really steep so don't venture too close to the edge...there are lots of friendly signs like this which illustrate the point simply:

Obvious reminder that people plummet to their deaths if they venture from the track!

The path heads up towards Porthgain along some really impressive scenery and a wonderful beach called Llyfn which is accessed via a series of steep metal steps. It's very secluded and often quiet so great to head down and explore.

View of Llyfn Beach from the coastal path.

North Pembrokeshire is definitely one of my favourite places to visit and the coastal path in this area is some of the best walking you'll come across. There's so much to see and so many little coves and areas to explore along the way.

Once you get to this general area, branch off to the right to head down into Porthgain. The path runs along a large cottage with an indoor swimming pool and then comes out on the road heading into the village. There are a few nice places to have food here but our favourite is The Shed bistro which serves incredible fish and chips (and is dog friendly unlike The Sloop Inn), so we always sit outside and have a bite to eat and a drink. On this occasion, Tina and Jayne opted to sample some local Seaweed gin! The staff were chatting away to us about how it was made but I think they were more interested in just drinking it after 4 miles of walking!

Immensely happy about the gin!

This was within my 5 weeks of being teetotal, so I had to settle for a diet coke.

For the return leg back, we just retraced our same route back along the coastal path to Pwll Caerog and Celtic Camping. Jayne cooked up a veritable feast for dinner that evening and we enjoyed a barbecue and toasted marshmallows on the campfire to warm us up! I retired a lot earlier than the girls to the comfort of the tent with electric and a heater, as I was sober and they had a fair few gins and bottles of prosecco keeping them warm.

This is a walk that's highly recommended if you're in the area and while on this camping trip, we decided to plan a long distance hike and walk the entire length of the North Pembrokeshire coastal path....80 miles! We were going to do it in one go, but annual leave and needing support from our other halves means we are probably going to split it over two long weekends and do it next year. Stay posted for more details!

Just so happy to be outdoors adventuring!