Day 22 - St David’s to Aberystwyth

The last day in Pembrokeshire and the end of my 3 newly added stages of the walk around South Wales. Today we return to the North and rejoin my dads footsteps…

But before leaving Pembrokeshire I decided to walk to St David’s Head, the furthest West tip of the headland, and back to St David’s via Porthmelgan and Whitesands Bay.

I left the hostel and followed a footpath behind it through rough bracken, being extra careful as El Martino had almost stepped an adder there 2 days ago.

I made my way along the rocky headland to St David’s point, you can see Ramsey Island, the largest of the islands just off the coast, and also the mini archipeligo peculiarly named Bishops and Clerks.

I then explored Porthmelgan, a favourite beach of Kate and her family, which she played on as a child. She correctly guessed that the foxgloves would be out, and indeed they were! It was a hidden gem with not a single other person in sight!

Juat down the coast is larger Whitesands Bay, a favourite with holidaymakers.

I then followed the road back to St David’s and caught the bus to Fishguard, the first of 3 buses I was going to take along the coast following Cardigan Bay up to Aberystwyth.

There is a family connection to Fishguard - my dad caught the ferry to Cork there several times when he was younger. On other adventures sadly not chronicled, he spent 6 months working on a farm in Cork. And as a child I remember we always had an old railway poster with “Travel to Cork via Fishguard” on the wall, so it was fun to see it for myself.

On stepping off the bus the first thing I noticed was the ring of standing stones in a nearby park. They seemed too good to be true and indeed turned out to be a modern monument.

I had a quick look around the upper part of the town then took a side street leading towards the cliff path, which led to yet another ring of standing stones with a view over the harbours, both the original fishing harbour and the large deep water harbour for the cruise ships and ferries.

I walked down the cliff path and around to the old harbour, where I went to the end of the pier and saw a cruise ship docking then bought lunch from a little cafe on the pier, and ate it looking out at the boats.

Walking back a different way up to the main street, I saw a pub with a sign showing that the last invasion of Britain peace treaty was signed there after the French invaded in 1979.

Time was now upon me to get on with my journey, so I caught another bus to Cardigan where I waited for a connection to Aberystwyth. I looked out of the window as the Welsh coast flew past but was too tired to process much of it.

I arrived in sunny Aberystwyth in late afternoon, dropped my things at the guest house on Queen’s Road then went to meet a friend Andrew, the cousin of Rory with whom I walked last week.

We had a couple of beers at a craft beer bar, then were joined by his friend Dani, a lovely Italian lady, who invited us to her place for dinner (spaghetti aglio i olio as per my request!) and a most convivial evening. It was lovely to have some company and laughs to break up the solitude! When I got back to the guest house around 10.30 I was fast asleep within minutes!