The August bank holiday saw me and Tina (and Mark in the van as our support) set off (or so we thought) to hike 54 miles along the Pembrokeshire coastal path. We hadn't done loads of training but seem to wing it through most of our outdoor adventures so didn't think twice about committing to such a long walk. Fortunately, the weather forecast looked good for the weekend although Sunday looked pretty dire with torrential rain and high winds. Prior to arriving in Pembs, we didn't let that deter us and still planned to soldier on regardless like heroic walkers battling through the Welsh weather to clock up the mileage.
Our base for the weekend was Celtic Camping near St Davids. It's probably my favourite campsite and I've mentioned it many times before but it's not a campsite for the unprepared! Tina drove to mine after we finished work and together we drove down to Celtic in my car...left the car there and Mark picked us up and we then headed up to Boncath as we needed to start the walk closer to Cardigan to save a longer drive in the morning because we were setting off so early. We got a bit delayed in the typical rush of traffic because everyone heads down the A48 to West Wales for the bank holiday but we generally made good time. We arrived about 20 minutes later than planned at the Nag's Head, a lovely little pub (and B&B) in Boncath, not far from Newcastle Emlyn.
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| One day Mark will actually pose correctly for a photo. Who knows when that day will be? |
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| Omnomnom. |
Somehow, in the walk between the pub and the van (literally less than 60 metres) I managed to lose my phone. I only bought it a few weeks ago and had OS maps on there to track our route (although we obviously had a paper map too) so I was majorly stressed out thinking I'd completely lost it. Mark and Tina were less understanding because they'd had so much to drink...and the wine I'd had seemed to be exacerbating my paranoia of never finding it again. Thing is, we had so much stuff in the van that once we'd pulled the bed out and rearranged things, there was no hope of locating it (and it was on vibrate and we were in an area with no phone signal). Tina was sleeping on the front seats on her foam camping mat along with her backpack and 2 coolboxes and assorted snacks.
I didn't sleep that well (probably wondering how I was going to afford a new phone) although it was a really quiet night. I woke up before Mark's alarm went off at about 6:15. We got up and packed things away in a real sleepy haze, questioning why we'd even agreed to do this on a long weekend off! It was pretty chilly first thing too. The pub owner was lovely and had told us they'd be open by 8 if we wanted to use the facilities, which was nice of him - we didn't tell him we were so crazy we were setting off by 6:30!
We drove to Poppit Sands car park (which doesn't charge for parking before 9am - wahooo) as they have toilets and so we could make a cuppa and have some breakfast and get changed ready to take on the first day. It says you can't overnight in their car park but there was a big motorhome parked up in there that clearly had and a car parking attendant arrived to empty the coin machine and didn't say anything, so I guess like most places, it's probably not rigorously policed.
After refuelling on tea, coffee and porridge, we packed our rucksacks and hydration bladders and drove 5 minutes to St Dogmaels, where we were starting the walk. We ended up setting off walking an hour later than I'd planned when calculating our route and checkpoint times, but the sun was shining and we felt good, so we didn't let that deter us. I'd bought Tina a 1L water bladder as a gift for signing up to all these crazy adventures (and because she doesn't really drink enough water). I bought the same brand as mine but some of the reviews said the drinking nozzle was impossible to use and required you to be like IRONMAN just to get a few drops out. I didn't think that'd be a problem for Tina so ordered it anyway.
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| Final checks and securing the beagles.... |
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| 8:20 and we're off! |
We weren't really sure where to park in St Dogmaels, but just pulled into the first car park we saw signposted on the left and luckily saw a sign for the coastal path from there. I set GPS on my phone so we could track the route on OS maps, and we waved goodbye to Mark (we wouldn't see him until 13 miles later at the first checkpoint) and off we went! It's a bit fiddly to locate the coastal path here because it blends with some routes through a little park so about 5 minutes in, we followed what we thought was the coastal path to a dead end at the estuary. Shortly after, we headed the right way and rejoined the road we'd just driven to walk all the way back to Poppit Sands.
I was quite conscious that we had time to make up so we kept up an extraordinary pace for the first hour or so, we were walking at least 3mph if not faster. Tina was behind me and I had to keep checking I hadn't lost her but did apologise that we had to keep the pace up to make good enough time. She walked with Gracie and I took Dex because he is harder to handle!
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| 35 mins in and the walk was already turning deadly! |
We walked past the car park we'd had breakfast at and the café at Poppit Sands and followed the road around to the left and up the hill. There's a campsite close to here that Cath (a work friend who lives near Cardigan) had suggested when I'd asked her if she knew of any places we could stay nearby in the planning stages but I'd dismissed it as the track on google street view looked very narrow (despite good campsite reviews)! The track (not sure if you can call it a road) winds on for almost 2 miles. It's not a steep climb but is the first climb of the walk. There's some lovely views looking back down over the beach and further up the coastline.
It took sooooooo long to get to the campsite, it felt like forever! On the way, Tina was stopping every 60 seconds to forage blackberries off stingy nettles (we had plenty of snacks but you just can't stop her foraging fresh fruit from the wild). As we got closer to the campsite, she stopped really curious and I looked back to find her perplexed, just staring at a hedge. She was pointing to what looked like a big pile of giant blueberries growing on a bush. "Are these blueberries...or ARE THEY SLOES?" I should probably explain the reason she sounded so excited at the possibility of sloes is that she's never seen them in the wild before (I haven't actually either) and I'm brewing homemade sloe gin as favours for my wedding. I backtracked to pick one and look it over. "Hmmm...I dunno, it could be." So, you know, how else would you test if it was a sloe or a poisonous berry you shouldn't touch? Taste it of course! It was a sloe. Really bitter and not that tasty on its own, but we felt really satisfied we had located wild sloes. Tina lamented that we had so many miles to go and that she didn't have a basket to hand so she could carry on picking them. She started planning a return trip so we could collect them ready for brewing gin!
I finally managed to drag her away from the sloes and other fruit-growing foliage and we FINALLY got to Allt y Coed campsite. I'm so glad we didn't decide to camp here as the road was single track with maybe one passing place in 2 miles! It was really busy though and there were lots of tents and campervans parked up. They're in a good location with great views.
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| The view looking back the way we came from the campsite. |
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| No one had dared to incur the wrath of the farmer by parking on the side of the road. |
The coastal path goes through the campsite now following a track and going down through a gate and then up a hill past some farm outbuildings. The only problem with the signposting for the coastal path here is that it isn't very consistent in both directions. To illustrate my point, we headed through another gate and followed the path to the left which was signposted as the coastal route as the other way looked a bit like farmland. After following this up to a PRIVATE gate and what looked like the campsite owner's house, the path was then signposted left. We started to follow it before we realised we were just retracing our route in a circle back to the campsite! I sometimes wonder how I became successful at hiking mountains, it definitely wasn't because of my good sense of direction, probably just good luck stumbling along until I eventually find the right path!
Anyway, after a minor detour we turned LEFT at the gate as we went back through it and ended up on the coastal path proper. Hooray! It felt like we were making good progress now as the path follows the headland all the way around and feels a lot more remote. There were signs up that we were entering Cemaes Headland and that it was a nature reserve.
We were treated to stunning scenery in all directions and the sun was beating down mercilessly although there was quite a breeze for most of the walk so I kept my long sleeved top on although sleeves rolled up and had already put suncream on so I didn't burn.
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| Looking back the way we came. |
We carried on following the coastal path which is really easy to navigate at this section. We barely saw anyone after this point other than a handful of walkers. I've walked the coastal path all over Wales in different areas but I definitely think Pembrokeshire is the best section to walk. I haven't walked much of South Pembs but North Pembs has beautiful blue ocean, really steep rugged sea cliffs and greenery in abundance, not to mention ample wildlife. We got a bit obsessed on this trip with looking for seals. We've seen a few before and it's easy to spot them when you're walking here but they are subtle and sometimes disappear before you can focus on whether it was actually a seal or not. We felt quite elated when we spotted one and it definitely was...as later on we confused many with driftwood or other debris at sea.
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| Views over to Cardigan Island. When we first spotted it, Tina voiced that she bet you could walk from the headland out when the tide was low. A short while later in the walk, she soon realised you would definitely not be walking over there! |
The coastal path is quite undulating here so there are lots of flat stretches with a few up and downs scattered out throughout it. It's really nice walking and we were managing to keep up the same pace. I had intermittent phone signal so was sending Mark some updates of where we were (approximately) but we weren't due to meet him at the first checkpoint until Newport Sands.
We didn't stop once during this section and just kept snacking every hour or so to keep our energy up. The hydration bladders are useful to drink on the move and after Tina's initial go and only managing to "get a pipette full out," she figured out how to use it properly and had no trouble after that!
There's so many beaches you can't reach dotted along the coastline that differ in terrain around this stretch of land. It's really something hiking up and down these huge sea cliffs and then being able to look back at them from a different angle and appreciate the view. There were wildflowers everywhere and butterflies flapping their wings darting along in front of us all the way along.
A bit further along here the coastal path gets busier again as it's more accessible from the nearby areas so we did see quite a few more tourists wandering.
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| Spectacular sea cliffs. |
It was hard to appreciate the climbing and up and down of the path as it narrowed and wound up and down and along this stretch of sea cliffs, but when we reached the other side and looked back, it was a sight to behold. These crags were super impressive from this side.
We'd climbed over a few stiles by this point I think and just for ease, there were holes in the fence for the dogs to duck under which made it easier than lifting them although they're not that heavy. They were keeping up a good pace too and it was a really hot day so I was quite impressed! We thought the walk was almost over before it started 5 miles in when Gracie started limping and refused to walk. We were on a section that had a lot more prickly plants on the floor so she'd just stung her paw and was being a wimp. After a quick massage and a few words of encouragement, she was back on the trail happily wagging her tail and scampering along.
We went through a gate and the signpost read right for the costal path, so off we headed down the track, only to be confronted by a very territorial farm dog barking its head off. We kept walking towards it as the path was going in that direction but we just seemed to be heading up a driveway and it was running to meet us. I picked Dexter up to minimise any standoff of reactive dogs and Tina said to me, "Is this the right way? It looks like someone's house." "Nah," I told her, "The coastal path is always like this, it winds down through people's gardens and whatnot in these rural places." We carried on walking but as we got a bit closer and the dog's barking got louder and more aggressive, we noticed that we were indeed walking up their driveway and the dog was dutifully going mental at the arrival of two determined strangers power walking into its property carrying two dogs. It was at this point we looked to the left and noticed the footpath continuing behind a fence. We did an abrupt U-turn back to the last signpost and headed THROUGH the gate to continue on the coastal path on the other side of the fence away from the farmhouse with the dog. It did take us alongside the house though so the dog was still going mental, probably thinking we were trying to find another way inside!
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| Which way to the coastal path? |
We kept trekking onwards and were still feeling strong and energetic with no sign of aching legs or feet and eventually arrived in Ceibwr Bay. I've walked this section of the coast before (me and Mark did a circular loop from Moylegrove: see the blog post here) and it's a beautiful area. The beach must get a lot of seal pups on it as there were signs up warning people not to approach or try to help seals on the beach as they were usually fine with their mother nearby.
Ceibwr Bay is a very fishy smelling salty beach if you know what I mean. Lots of seaweed and slimy rocks but it is very pretty. We didn't see any seals in the bay but looking out for them on our way around became a fun game. Our count at this point was 2. I was convinced it should be 4 but 2 of them looked like they were just bits of driftwood although we did stop for a while to discuss whether they were actually seals or not. Sealwatch kept us going when our legs started to ache and it gave us a temporary boost to power up the next hill! I'd left my binoculars in the van although probably should have packed them. Before you chuckle that I own a pair of binoculars (what sophisticated hiker wouldn't?!), they were a free gift when I signed up to the National Trust...although I'm yet to use them.
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| Cooling off in the stream. |
There was a cool signpost when we got to the beach from the Pembrokeshire Coast asking you to help them record the changing coastline. It had a metal frame for you to put your phone on landscape so you could take the same shot for them and email it across.
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| Shot from the post. |
So that draws this chapter to a close! I've had to split this walk into two parts because it would be way too long to write in one go! So many unanswered questions: do we make it 28 miles to arrive at Fishguard? Does Mark fall asleep and forget about us? Does Tina find any more sloes? How many seals do we spot in total? Does Gracie come down with another leg injury?
Part 2 to follow shortly!
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