Wow! I’ve just looked put my
photos from my time in Pembrokeshire onto my laptop. I spent most of the time
just catching up with my mum, giving her a hand sorting out a few things around
the house, and only took photos on the day I went out walking - and there are over
200 of them!!!!
Needless to say, I won’t bore you
with all of them, but I am having trouble deciding where to start… I think I might
save some of the pictures of flowers and creatures for another post, and show
you the more scenic pictures for now :)
I began by driving the country
lanes around the coast. I chose to go to north Pembrokeshire around St Davids,
I just love it round there. St Davids is the smallest city in Britain, a status
which was lost in 1888, but reinstated in 1994 at the request of the Queen. She
came to visit for the occasion of reinstating city status, in a ceremony at St
Davids Cathedral in 1995. As a local Scout, I was one of the lucky local youths
who were due to form a guard of honour for the Queen. Unfortunately, the small,
single lane roads leading down to Pembrokeshire had meant that the Queen
arrived late, and there was no time to do a proper guard of honour and we only
had brief glimpse of her. Still, a privilege to be part of a historical event
like that :)
On my drive, I wasn’t able to
take many pictures (I was the driver!) but I did stop in a small layby to get
this shot of Newgale beach, one of my favourite bits of Pembrokeshire and where
I have done most of my surfing in the past. It was very windy and you can see
the sea is pretty rough!
At St Davids itself, I didn’t
visit the Cathedral this time around – but I did walk down there to get this
picture for you. Most Cathedrals were built up high where they could be seen
from a distance, but St David’s Cathedral was built in a dip so it wasn’t
visible from the sea, and therefore wouldn’t provide a landmark for invaders
trying to arrive by boat.
Carrying on the short drive
required to get to the coast, it took me a while to find somewhere to park – I’m
sure I used to know where parking was!
I ended up parking near a
campsite, then I followed a footpath a short way through fields to reach the
coast path.
I can’t say how much I love the
coast back home – as I arrived at the coast path and took in the views, I just
felt a smile spread across my face and feeling of deep happiness and calmness
well up within me. I love it so much!
I had 2 hours free, so I simply walked
for an hour in one direction before turning round and coming back. I would have
much preferred a full day’s walking from one point to another, but I wasn’t
organised enough for that!
The wildflowers were out in
force, woodland flowers like bluebells and pink campion, and also the coastal
flowers like sea pink (thrift) and spring squill. An absolutely glorious sight!
I didn’t see many sea birds –
just a brief sighting of a lone gannet, and also a pair of choughs. I did see sky
larks though, which were singing their little hearts out, plus lots of swallows
and swifts performing their acrobatic flight displays along the path, sweeping
down low and then darting upwards to skim over banks – and even over my head. I
also saw plenty of stone chats, which I haven’t seen inland. These pretty little
birds have a wonderful and distinctive call, a ‘peep’ followed by a sound like
two small pebbles being clashed together: “peep! chsk chsk… …peep! chsk chsk…”
Walking along the cliffs, I love seeing the changing views and shapes of the coastline and the cliffs, such spectacular views!
Hoping this doesn't happen!
On the way back, I stopped to play with some pebbles where the coast path dropped down from the cliff tops to a small beach...
It was a
very peaceful walk, just me on my own, enjoying the sounds of the sea
and the birds, watching the wildlife, enjoying the incredible flowers (playing with pebbles!) -
it was so wonderful and I am so determined to do some proper walking
here this year.
I do think that this is such a wonderful part of the world, I hope you can see why I love it so much :)
No comments:
Post a Comment