Monday 18 May 2015

St David's Area

St David's Area

16th May 2015

Today we left the Gower to head towards our new camp site near St David's in South Wales, but on the way we stopped of at The National Botanic Garden of Wales. www.gardenofwales.org.uk.  The gardens and the glass house were quite lovely, but probably not yet at there most spectacular as it is still quite early in the season.  The glasshouse claims to be the world's largest single span glasshouse, and it had a fantastic array of Mediterranean climate plants which lined the walkways and ponds.
We also visited the beautiful double walled garden with it's flowers, fruits, vegetables and organic patch where there were displays of how to promote ecological gardening.  For example, there was a comfry tube - a tall cylinder into which comfry leaves were inserted at the top, and as they rotted they produced a liquid which was collected at the bottom and which was the equivalent of tomato feed. This was then used in the garden as fertilizer.














We also visited the atmospheric old apothecary shop with it's myriads of tinctures, powders, herbs and cure alls, and then continued on to see the bee garden were you could see the bees hives as well as inside the hives via a web cam.













Lunch Guests



By this time it was lunch time so we followed one of the many way marked walks out to the fringes of the garden to find Pont Felin Gat - a pretty little water fall, and then continued on to one of the lakes where we sat and ate our picnic in the sunshine with the usual company of our feathered friends - this time ducks.

As time was getting on we left the gardens and headed to Haverfordwest to do some shopping, and then onto Lleithyr Meadow Caravan Club Site where we are nestled amongst the hills.

17th and 18th May 2015

We spent the next two days walking the spectacular coastal path.  On Sunday we walked from the camp site and followed the minor, mostly traffic free road to Waun Beddau and then took a footpath through a farm onto the Coastal Path at Aberdinas.  We turned south west and then followed the path all the way back to Whitesands Bay, but along the way we were amazed at the variety and colours of the wild flowers, which in places, clung to the cliff side right down to the water.  As we walked along we were enthralled by the ruggedness of the coast line which we consider to be the most stunning we have seen so far, and we also came across a herd of about two dozen ponies, along with 2 fairly new babies, gazing on the hillside.


















As we neared Whitesands Bay we came across a group doing an archaeological dig, but as the hour was getting late we didn't stop to investigate any further.

On Monday the weather forecast was for wind and showers.  The former nearly blew us of the cliff at times, and the later never really materialised following the downpour overnight.  We set off again from the camp site and headed down to Whitesands bay where we had finished our walk yesterday.  We had only planned a short walk today round to St Justinian's and then back into St David's, but we got carried away by the sheer grandeur of the coast line and forgot to stop.

At St Justinian's The RNLI are building a new lifeboat station and part of their kit included a huge floating barge which looked a bit like an oil platform.  It was drilling piles into the sea bed for the new slipway, and was sending up plumes of seawater in the process.  There was also a massive tower crane and a small 'town' of construction cabins and workers accommodation.


It formed a bit of a blot on the landscape, but obviously, in a very good cause and it is due for completion early next year so hopefully then the coast line will settle back into it's former glory.

The Coastal Path was diverted at this point to circumnavigate the 'town' and this is where we decided to prolong our walk seeing as the weather was so invigorating!  A signpost said Porthclais 5 miles, so we went for it.  We only had coffee and cake with us but we found a nice sheltered spot behind a large rock which protected us from the wind so we snuggled up for our break.  While we were sat we noticed a seal bobbing about in the water, so this, and the crashing waves provided adequate entertainment to keep us enthralled.

Break over, we proceeded on our way past The Bitches.  This is a set of rocks in Ramsey Sound - a stretch of extremely rough and fast running water that that passes between the mainland and Ramsey Island.   Many years ago we took a 'RIB' ride (ridged inflatable boat) over the Bitches and I can still remember quite clearly how rough and alarming the sea was when we passed through this area.

Eventually we reached our goal which was Porthclais, and then we followed the road back into St David's for late lunch of well earned Fish and Chips.


We had a quick look around the City and the Cathedral, and then followed another traffic free road back to the Tardis.  We are now sat looking out of our window at the lovely hills which are occupied by hundreds of sheep which keep dashing hither and thither, and as the sun sets behind Penberry Hill we are going to conclude today's blog and have our tea!

Tomorrow we will wend our way further North up to Abergwynant where we hope to tackle Cadair Idris - another very big hill!

So good night for now

Click to see our UK Camping Spots