A Welsh Extravaganza!!!

What a weekend we have just had...

Friday I had but a few patients at work so managed to finish by midday and picked up a rental - a Swanky new Ford Focus Zetec with under 500 miles on the clock - the day was going swell already! Loaded the car to the hilt with Bikes, clothes, tent, thermarests etc etc and then picked up the ultimate travel accessory, namely one Mez - who makes holidays fun!!

And we were off!! in search of adventure, places unseen and unexplored (well by us anyway). A sea to see and experience... Dinner stop was a seaside town about halfway down the Welsh coast called Aberystwyth. Great Chinese takeaways on a park bench overlooking the ocean. Great chinese being defined as tasty, without leaving a feeling in your gut like you just ate pure MSG or lead!

Had a bit of an explore of the old castle and a play around the ruins... as you can see...

So we then continued on down the coast road, watched a beautiful sunset unfold and arrived at our B & B in Fishguard. Great wee place, great hospitality, great views both in the evening and the next morning... If we ever go back to Fishguard we will certainly return.

Off early the next morning and the first standout thing of the day... The country way of life. Well as far as I can tell, the way of life for people outside of England... Much more laid back, walking dogs, stopping to chat to neighbours and other friendly people who are also out walking their dogs... really cool to see, and makes you feel relaxed too. You get the same impression from the irish - just that bit more relaxed. Can't yet say what the Scots are like... Hopefully we'll get there soonish.

Second standout thing for the day: Welsh sheep have tails - all of them. First I thought, hmm that one got away from the Docking man... then there were hundreds of them, all with the same manky tails... They look a bit funny when you're used to seeing them without tails.

Anyway t'was an early start because we headed to St David's which is right on the south eastern tip of Wales in Pembrokeshire... Great place, and well selected activity by us - forecast was for rain on Saturday so we thought we'd do something where we'd be wet anyway... COASTEERING! Coasteering is described as everything your mother told you not to do at the seaside... Ok so we're interested... Add an experienced guide, some newcomers, put them all in wetsuits and lifejackets, with helmets on, then send them scrambling over rocks, jumping off high ones (into the water), traversing cliff faces (if you fall, you splash), attempting to stand on rock ledges against the power of the tide trying to push you off. That's pretty much the idea.

Ok so it was a freezing day, and Ryan was not so apprehensive about the activities, but very apprehensive of getting hypothermia. Thank God for whoever invented Neoprene and Polypropylene I say! Because the weather was a bit crap the two groups that were going out got combined into one so we had 13 people which meant it was a bit slow moving and not as exciting as it could have been, but a great and fun morning nonetheless and a few challenging bits in here and there. We might go back for more at some stage in the future. Once you've had one go they let you do the more extreme versions... i'm up for it!

So Following that we continued our drive around the coast stopping in Pembroke where Providence had brought out the sun for a couple of hours for us to have lunch and wander around the Pembroke Castle. The Castle also had some people in medieval dress teaching about medieval weaponry (which was rather uninteresting I thought). I did learn one vaguely interesting fact though. When you get a 'Pommelling' nowadays it probably refers to being well beaten in a schoolyard scrap, however the origin of this term comes from the use of the bottom end of the Sword in Medieval Sword fighting - basically bashing the person over the head with the blunt end, or 'pommel' is called getting a 'pommelling'. Amazing eh?

Anyway these are some shots of Pembroke Castle (with the stars of this episode of course). Managed to climb right up on top of the castle towers too which was not only fun, but afforded great views of the surrounding countryside.

From Pembroke and Pembroke Castle we went to see some of the Natural Highlights of the surrounding area. By this stage the rain has started to spatter back down again and the wind was getting up... But we wanted to see the Stack rocks, The Green bridge of Wales and St Govan's Chapel.

St Govans Chapel was built around 600ish but it's founder was loitering about in the region a good time before that - evidently he was chased to the coastline by some nasty frenchmen, and hid in a split in the limestone cliffs which God opened for him, then closed him inside so that those who sought his end could not find him. Eventually they tired of looking for him and left, but St Govan stayed and made a little community of people there and did some teaching and prayed a lot. Excellent eh?

Onwards from there, we went to see the stack rocks where it was exceedingly windy - but fortunately blowing back towards the cliff. I saw this as an added safety feature as I scrambled my way halfway down the cliffside/hillside to get some cool shots on the Camera, while Mez simply thought I was stupid and stressed more than a little at the top. Clear difference here in the risk taking behaviour of Male vs Female. We're both still here, and happy to be!

The stack rocks are like the Majestic bows of two great and gigantic ships, permanently grounded on a rugged coastline that stretches as far as the eye can see. Great cliffs that reminded me a lot of the coastline near Dunedin's Tunnel beach - a favourite spot of Fr Mark (and many others, myself included). Beautiful. God's country. Wild. Untameable. The area also is home to the Green bridge of Wales which is where the weather has eroded some of the rock on a jutty out bit of the land (probably much like the stack rocks once were) however the land is continous out over onto the rock, which again is similar to a feature at tunnel beach near Dunedin. If you live in NZ and you've never been there - Go!!

Anyway left the stack rocks and decided against going to what has been voted the most beautiful beach in the UK... Mainly because the wind was absolutely howling and the rainclouds were looking quite menacing, and the beach concerned is only accessable by foot... So we headed to the Gower Peninsula where we'd booked a tent site for the night (Stopped only by a huge steer on the main road who was happily muching away on some Blackberries and who turned to give us a wink and a look along his long and very menacing horns as we drove past!!). Gower Peninsula is supposed to be beautiful, and what we saw of it certainly was, but it was absolutely hosing down with rain and though the forecast was to clear we decided against pitching the tent in such conditions and bailed on the tenting leaving behind our ten pound deposit.

A Mad hunt for a bed ensued and we eventually got a bed at another beautiful B & B in Swansea, owned by a lovely couple Dave and Jane who have done a lot of Travelling and Lived for a while in Wellington where Jane worked as a Nurse in Wakefield Hospital!! So they were good value. Had a great meal out at a local Indian restaurant and even corked a bottle of Moet in celebration of 'Potential'!!

The next day was a beautiful sleep in followed by a quick scoot around the bay and into the hills to the Afan forest park where we met the lovely Mr and Mrs J & J Grieve. A fantastic ride (just under 17km) punctuated (if you'll pardon the pun) only by a couple of punctures for Jake, which apparrently has become something of a norm for him. Last ride in the UK for the Grieve's who leave in a week to go travelling in Europe and then back home to Dunedin. Great to catch them up again and had an icecream sundae in a little seaside town nearby called Porthcawl. Great place, great company and great to hear of another cool young couple's plans for their life together in the near future. It was not without a slight twinge of... something, i don't quite know what to call it - maybe homesickness again?... we left, knowing that when they arrive home in November they get to stay there!! Really just genuinely thrilled for them to be headed home after an action packed OE for them. However you get over such things quite quickly!!!

Looking forward now to another weekend coming up in Ilkley and chance to spend time with Daryl and Lorna on their big day, and Amanda and Dan, and Paul who are all coming up to the wedding as well.

Hope you also had a stellar weekend. Love Life. Take Care,

Ryan