London to Goodwick near Fishguard, Wales

Sunday 24 July 2016 – Fishguard, Wales

Our journey from Australia to London Heathrow went well. A mere 24 hours of flying and 5.5 hours in stopovers just flew by.

View from home the morning we left

All packed and ready to go

When we weren’t eating we were reading menus, watching TV/movies, looking at the time or trying to sleep. The one and a half hours (literally) at Heathrow shuffling along in a queue with 1000’s of other well rested and happy non-UK/non-EU travellers at the end of their long journeys waiting to get to a customs official who was just as happy to be there as we were was a great way to welcome us to England.  All the UK/EU passport holders went more or less straight through their rather non-existent queue.

Well rested and buoyed by the conversations at Border Control, we picked up our hire car with no problems and left for a quiet drive through London and then west to Wales – with everyone else who owns a car in the UK. The weather was warm and sunny (26 degrees) so that means get in your cars Englanders, find a beach, a paddock or even a footpath (a Cornwall experience for us a couple of years ago) lay out a towel or a blanket and get yourself sunburnt! And so we drove for 6 hours (literally) along motorways, roads and backstreets with everyone going to or returning from getting sunburnt.

Lunch was held in one of our favourite types of cafes – one attached to a garden nursery. These are just great and we are always on the lookout for one as they are usually a bit away from the main roads, have good parking and reasonable light lunches. We came across a nice one at Trioscape Garden Centre in High Leadon, Gloustershire, England just off the road about 2.5 hours from London. We like these places because they have lovely fresh food and are filled with happy locals having a day out buying plants, homewares and sunscreen. No tourists at all.  After two days of plane food it was great to have plain food – a fresh ham-off-the-bone salad roll with packet potato chips of course, nice coffee and to immerse ourselves in listening to the very English conversations going on around us.

The closer to Fishguard we drove the smaller the roads became and the lighter the traffic. Driving on the motorways over here is a real experience. If there are three lanes and the speed limit is 70mph, then the left lane is for lorries and slower cars going to nursery cafes that travel anywhere up to around 65mph, the centre lane travels at 70 to 73mph and the right lane is for the blurry vehicles. The blurry vehicles are BMW’s, Audi’s, Jaguars, Porsche’s, Land/Range Rovers or motorbikes and they pass those in the middle lane at twice their speed. The English are noticeably very courteous drivers compared to Australians. Maybe we need to introduce Garden Centres with good cafés.

Interestingly, as we entered Wales, all signs were written in English (first) then Welsh (second).  The further we drove into Wales, the more likely it was that Welsh would be written first then English.  As far as we can see, there is absolutely no correlation between words written in English and words written in Welsh which is a Gaelic language which makes for very interesting driving and navigating. In fact Welsh reminds me of a Jumble Words puzzle.

Arriving in Fishguard, (which is Abergwaun in Welsh) although we are actually in the smaller neighbouring village of Goodwick (or Wdig in Welsh), we bought some provisions including Welsh cakes and fudge for Julie and some Old Speckled Hen beers for me. Our accommodation is located high up above Fishguard Harbour with commanding views over rolling farmlands in the distance. Fishguard Fort (ruins) is in the foreground and at our back fence is the Pembrokeshire Coast Path (186 miles long) which is very popular for good reason. We are in a renovated semi-detached two story house which is typical of English suburban living. The outstanding feature of the house is the back deck that is sunny (when the sun is out) and overlooks the spectacular views of this part of Wales.

View from our back deck over Fishguard Harbour

Sunday 24 July – as forecast and therefore expected the day was cool and showery. Sometimes the showers combined into what is locally called rain or in Welsh ‘pii sin gdownn’. Having spent the last few days traveling, today was slated in for a small local drive north to Cardigan then turning back south to Haversfordwest to complete our incomplete shopping for the next couple of weeks at Aldi or, in Welsh, ‘Shop’. Well not all went to plan as we ended up spending the day stumbling upon unbelievable interesting historic sites dating back as far as 5500 years.

Fishguard Fort built in 1721

Our first stumble was just over the bay where high on the headland a layover allowed us to pull in to take in the view. In the middle of the view was the ruins of Fishguard Fort built in 1783 so we just had to go to explore it. Sure enough there it was - a fort complete with cannons, old stone buildings and other old fort-like structures. So with that out of the way, a sedate drive to Cardigan was resumed. 

Not long afterwards our drive was interrupted by a sign pointing to Carreg Coetan Burial Chamber so we had to pull over again, don our warm jumpers and head down a quiet cul-de-sac past some houses to an ancient burial chamber from 6000 years ago. How inconvenient.

Carreg Coetan Burial Chamber 

Continuing towards Cardigan we stopped at a lookout before heading along some seriously narrow one lane back roads to a village called Nevern. OMG what a place!  We spied on the map a reference to an old fort so coming across an old church with a sign out front with an old map of this old area and the all-important “You are here” old red arrow on it we stopped to see if the Fort was nearby. It was, but so were Julie’s hunger pains that, in her opinion, could best be satisfied at the Trewarn Arms Pub located just nearby beside a babbling creek crossed by an ancient single lane stone bridge. Before heading for lunch at the Pub we thought we might have a look at the church we had stopped outside of. OMG what a church!

18 century Mounting Block - Julie is keen

The Great Celtic Cross (10AD) St Brynach Church, Nevern

Started around 540 AD by some famous crazy wandering monk (St Brynach), the church has just a staggering amount of ancient history. Carved over a 1000 years ago stands a Celtic Cross in the cemetery. The Cross is the finest example in existence. Next, inside the church is the 5th century Irish Maglocunus Ogham stone that forms part of a windowsill. Beside it forming another windowsill is another ancient Latin 10th century stone carving monument.Then there are the famous bleeding Yew trees out front. All this and, on a Sunday, we were the only ones there. OMG. What a place.

5th century Irish Maglocunus Ogham stone

Latin 10th century stone carving

Bleeding Yew Trees (right)

Lunch - great food and warm beer

Lunch was good at the local pub – roast beef, pork or turkey, a large variety of vegetables to die for all washed down with a local warm pint of beer. For Julie there was a nice vegetarian option plus the veggies washed down with a fine glass of white wine.

Turret where Rhys was imprissoned

With bellies full of fine local foods we headed up out of the ancient valley in search of the fort. We stumbled across a little carpark and a path, which we followed, to the ruins of Nevern Castle. In the 12th century the fort was built on a ridge and fortified by hand digging through slate to create sheer walls below. Round slate and clay stone walled turret remnants were still evident with one of the turrets used to imprison the era's infamous nobleman Rhys ap Graffudd himself. He was imprisoned by his sons! Recent archaeological diggings were evident also. 

12 century Nevern Castle 

Next it was off down the hill below to visit the Pilgrims Cross – a cross carved into a slate wall the pilgrims visit – for some reason.  We visited it and both felt very pilgrim like.

Pilgrims Cross

Pentre Ifan Burial Chamber

Pentre Ifan Burial Chamber

So what a great day was had by all of those in the car with us. Expressions of appreciation kept flowing as we turned for home along the narrow backroads of this part of Wales where the narrow roads are. Just as the expressions of appreciation were starting to die down we spied a sign pointing us to Pentre Ifan Burial Chamber. OMG!  a Pentre Ifan was the chorus from inside the car. Parking on a narrow roadside pullover we followed a path to the 3500 BC Neolithic Age burial site. The 5.1 metre 16 tonne capstone is supported by only three standing stones. The capstone is high enough to shelter a man on horseback. We couldn’t find one so we just had to accept the proposition that a horse with a man on his back would fit OK or vice versa. These magnificent ancient sites just blow our minds when we come across them.

Well that was day one of our trip in Pembrokeshire, Wales – what an amazing place as this was meant to be a very quiet settling in, getting over (non-existent jet-lag) kind of day.

Marloes Peninsula walk

On Monday, we started our walks proper in the region. In the morning we drove south to a rocky headland region called Marloes Peninsula. The 9 klm walk followed the edge of spectacular headlands - home to seabirds and the endangered choughs, a crow like bird with red legs and beak. We traversed through the ramparts of Iron Age forts, strolled past Gateholm Island the site of a prehistoric settlement, watched Atlantic grey seals feeding around the shoreline and just generally marvelled at the spectacular scenery. Showers threatened but never followed through. We had morning tea sheltered from the winds behind an old Coastguard Hut high up on a headland.

Marloes Peninsula walk

When we left for the walk our car was the only one in the carpark. When we returned there were another 30 cars with more streaming in paying 5 pounds a pop for the privilege of doing so.

Lunch was held at an award winning fish restaurant with the awards obviously judged by and presented to themselves with no criteria for assessment other than to receive an award – we’re not big devotees of English style battered fish and chips. 



Instead of heading home we headed to the village of Pwllgwaelod at the start and finish of a loop walk around Dinas Island. This was a great 5.6klm walk around a rocky headland. At the summit we overlooked where we were staying in Goodwick (aka Wdig) near Fishguard.

morning tea, Marloes Peninsula walk

It’s school holidays in the UK at the moment and that means it’s time to take the family to the beach. The definition of a beach is a pebble covered rocky cove below a carpark that you pay £5 to park in that has a Mr Whippy van strategically located where you and the kids have to walk past. Once arriving at the pebbly beach one takes off one’s clothes and, without applying any sunscreen one puts on a wetsuit to have a fun time in the freezing waters bobbing up and down. Each child under the age of 13 is issued with a 1.5 metre pole with a coloured net at the end. The said child then enters the water or rock pool and scoops anything living out of the water and leaves it to die on the pebbly beach. Some fortunate children also have a kite which is flown by one of the parents for hours on end while they eat ice creams and the child continues to take anything living out of the sea to let it rest in peace on the beach.

When all the family have finished their ice creams, flying kites, killing sea life and bobbing in the sea like a stand up seal they pick up their padded towels and all return to their cars after buying another round of Mr Whippy ice cream for everyone to let them melt in the car on the way home.

So that ended day two in this beautiful part of the UK walking circuits of the Pembrokeshire Coast Path.

Tuesday starts with an important history lesson.  It all has to do with events that occurred on 22 February 1797 over here in Wales just near where we are staying.

Four French ships arrived on the coast here to invade England.  The 1400 strong army, called La Legion Niore (The Black Legion), which had been repelled at Fishguard, ended up coming ashore three miles south. The invasion was going well but over half the army (800) were convicts, deserters and Royalist prisoners. After a few days they ended up camped at a farm, called Tre-Howel, which had recently acquired an enormous amount of wine due to a Portuguese shipwreck along the rugged coast of Pembrokeshire. The invading French army basically, well, er, got pissed.  Within two days a local defence force consisting of a local 41 year old woman, Jemima Nicholas, armed with pitchfork, who captured 12 soldiers by herself, and a quickly assembled group of locals, farmers and military catching the rest, the invasion was over. They were taken to Fishguard to sober up and imprisoned. Thus ends the last hostile invasion of Britain and it all happened here where a treaty was also signed.

So my research confirms Australia is well protected. Darwin has the country’s A-Bomb the Darwin Stubby and all the rest of Australia has to do is have multilingual signs pointing to our wineries, breweries and pubs from the coast. If all invasions of countries could be settled this way, by establishing who is the soberest, we would still have the headaches but after two days everyone would be drinking buddies!

Where La Legion Noire landed in 1797

Morning tea

Bovine captors

So this is the area we walked today. We found the carpark near Strumble Head Lighthouse and set off for an unexpectedly long & rigorous walk of 15.9klm along the spectacularly rugged coastline to a point where the Legion Noire commenced their invasion, come pub crawl, in 1797. We traversed numerous headlands and valleys, all the time being observed by Atlantic grey seals floating vertically in the little bays below us. Half way through the walk we headed up into the hills that were protected by numerous bovine creatures that, at regular intervals after being milked, chose to walk down the long path we were taking up through a farmer’s property. We hid behind electric fences and gates as they passed and we finally escaped the staring black eyes of these curious creatures to continue our journey. It is fair to say that Julie was well outside of her comfort zone and would have gladly joined any invading French army for two days of ‘calming thy nerves’.

Sitting on the ramparts of Iron Age fort, Garn Fawr

The walk took us to a 2000 year old Iron Age fort upon which walls we sat for a rest and then to another fort, now gone, that was precariously located on a promontory overlooking the sea. With weary legs we returned to our car and gladly sat down for the first time in six hours. And so ends our third day in this beautiful part of the world.

Nearing the end of Strumble Head walk

On Wednesday, with very weary legs, we headed to the town of St Davids and to the St David’s Cathedral. Arriving before the Bishop had finished cooking his breakfast we parked our car in the empty carpark.

St David's Cathedral

Bishop's Palace

Bishop's Palace courtyard

Noting that we had to return before 9am to pay parking fees we wandered into the magnificent grounds of St David’s. For almost 1500 years people have been worshiping on this site. The building of the current Cathedral began in 1181. The place was considered so sacred that in 1124 the Pope declared that two pilgrimages to this site equalled a pilgrimage to Rome and three pilgrimages were equal to one pilgrimage to Jerusalem itself. After an hour we returned to our car and paid the parking fee and returned to St David’s to help the Bishop with his washing up. So even before morning tea we had done two pilgrimages to St David’s Cathedral in one day which is equal to one pilgrimage to Rome! 

Inside the cathedral

David was born in c500AD and the Cathedral stands on the site of the monastery he founded in about the mid-6^th century. Within the grounds are the ruins of the magnificent Bishop’s Palace. It is the size and grandeur of an Abby. The Palace is the product of a series of “builder Bishops” during the 13^th and 14^th centuries. Next we entered the Cathedral and, apart from the cleaner sweeping the floors, we had the place to ourselves for about 45 minutes. What a place it is full of so much history. Centuries of Bishops are entombed here; there are relics from over 1000 years past in the Treasury which we walked through. The Cathedral grounds are an ancient cemetery with tombstones recording in just a few words the 1000’s of lives buried here.

This is the way we like to travel – get up early and leave “home” about 7.00 am which means we arrive at our destination between 7.30 am and 8.30 am so we can (a) find a carpark – often we’re the first and only car in the carpark and (b) start walking before the crowds – often we don’t see anyone on our walks until 2 to 3 hours later.

With the weather still overcast and threatening we wandered into the city of St Davids itself and found a nice café serving tasty Welsh foods so we spent a while there having brunch and the first decent coffee since we’ve been here – they do not do good coffee In the UK.

With our pilgrimages out of the way and our time running out in the parking lot we left the city of St Davids and headed to the coast to the popular Whitesands Beach and St David’s Head for a walk. The day started out drizzly and we weren’t certain we would get a walk in. As we arrived at the carpark and paid our £5 the clouds parted and the sun came out. It was the pilgrimages - I just know it.

The walk was another headland one with a climb to a towering rocky hill behind. We did the towering hill first and came across a 5000 year old burial chamber and some relics of WWII defences.

Burial chamber

View from the summit across to Ramsay Island

Wild Welsh ponies

Ship like rocks 

   

The walk to the fort

Coetan Arthur quoit (burial chamber)

Down the hill we went to the headland where we located another 5000 year old Neolithic burial chamber (aka quoit), Coetan Arthur. The capstone measures 6.5 by 2.5 metres. Then to finish this great walk off we came across St David’s Head Hillfort and walked through the ruins of this important defensive fort built around 100AD. The rampart stone wall we climbed through was once 4.6 metres high.

A walk through the ramparts of the ancient fort

Behind this now crumbled wall were several easily identifiable stone circles that were houses/barracks complete with fireplaces still in situ. With the sun out and light winds we (I) took off the backpack and sat on the rocks above the Fort and just took it all in. There are numerous other archaeological sites visible around here including a prehistoric defensive wall and field systems. Wow!

Houses from 2000 years ago

The trip back to the car was another experience in its own right. The previously lightly filled carpark was now chock-a-block with cars overflowing into paddocks and there were people everywhere. The beach was packed, wet-suited surfers (it is the middle of summer) were riding the breakers and a lady was sitting on a folding beach chair in a paddock of long grass all by herself throwing a ball for her dog.

A day at the beach in Wales

A day at the beach

Pigeons can only fly so high before hitting houses

To home we headed to then go for a walk around the local community in search of another reported Neolithic burial site on the hill behind us where four Welsh princes were buried after being killed in the wars in France.

Front door of Harbour View our Goodwick house

Our suburban street in Goodwick

In search of princes tombs behind our house in Goodwick

We eventually found it but it was too overgrown to get near it so we returned home and spent the afternoon planning for tomorrow and enjoying the idyllic weather on the back verandah.

Porthgain and the walk to Blue Lagoon

The next morning we woke to a rainy day but still set off in the hope of seeing, if not blue, then clearing skies. The rain kept on so we went home to wait it out. The wait paid off so after an early lunch and a changed itinerary we drove about half an hour to 30 minutes to a little village that was once the port and an extensive slate quarry. Today that port still is Porthgain, a beautiful quaint collection of stone houses and a pub in a valley between two lush green headlands that now rides on the back of tourism. The walk from Porthgain to the famous Blue Lagoon at Aberdeiddy, a closed down slate quarry now open to the sea, traverses another beautiful part of the Pembrokeshire coastline. We were going to do a loop taking us inland but the coastal scenery to Blue Lagoon was just too good not to see it from the other direction when returning to Porthgain so we retraced our steps.

Old bakery - note how big the loaves were back then

On the walk to Blue Lagoon

The Blue Lagoon, Aberdeiddy (or Aberdeiddi in Welsh)

Walk from our place at Goodwick

With that walk done and dusted we headed home to walk part of the coastline from our accommodation in Goodwick. As luck would have it, we struck up a conversation with one of our neighbours, Jon Welson, who apart from holding a degree in physics, a degree in philosophy and a doctorate in Admin Law, is a published author, historian and poet, a prize sheep farmer and also an artist with paintings in the Tait Museum of Modern Art, New York etc. It is fair to say that Jon was both fascinating to talk to and a wealth of information about the area. After a long while talking to Jon we did the local walk to the headland overlooking Fishguard Harbour and returned home. Another wonderful day.

Walk from Goodwick

Friday 29 July 2016. A week ago today we were getting on a plane in Brisbane. Today is our final full day in this part of Wales. The start of our first walk took us to a carpark on the beach near the little village of Bosherton made famous by a carpark on the beach.  Although showery at the start these soon cleared and we were left with a fine but overcast day. Temps were around 16⁰C with light winds.

Stackpole Head walk - Pembrokeshire, Wales

Church Rock and large blowhole (centre) - Stackpole Head walk - Pembrokeshire, Wales

Views from just part of our walk

One of several beach walks

Church Rock

Morning tea break

Eight Arch Bridge

This was a spectacular walk due to the limestone geology of the cliffs which produces rugged interesting landscapes with numerous arches, craggy rocks and sinkholes. We traversed several golden sandy, yes sandy, beaches and climbed numerous headlands with one having ruins of an old fort at the top. Half way through the walk we came across the quaint Old Boathouse Tearoom at Stackpole Quay and, as luck would have it, it was morning tea time – well close enough anyway. Fresh Welsh cakes and a better version of a coffee like beverage (they don’t do flat whites so we order Americanos) saw us on our way again.

Turning inland across beautiful lush dairy fields, the trail came to Eight Arch Bridge which crossed a long narrow lake surrounded by thick forest. The pretty path followed the lake to the ocean and to the little village of Bosherton made famous by the carpark where our car was parked.

Walking down to St Govan's

Next it was a 2.5mile drive to another carpark on the edge of a live military firing range to visit St Govan’s Chapel. In the 6^th century around 550 AD Mr Govan, a Celtic missionary, was being chased by pirates and hid in the craggy sandstone headland to escape them. He liked hiding here so much that he stayed and started preaching in the area until his death in 586. 700 years later a Chapel was built where he had lived and preached and the Chapel is still here today. It is unique in that it is located half way down an almost sheer cliff completely out of sight from any passer-bys and flying live ordinance. Near vertical steps take us, the passer-bys with a map, through the back of the church and into an amazing ancient world. St Govan is said to be buried in the church.  

Church entry

St Govan's Church

Then it was on to St Govan’s Inn we went for a very nice pub/café lunch.

Our final walk took us to a village nestled in a little valley flanked on both sides by impressive sandstone craggy headlands. Towering over everything is the enormous Manorbier Castle dating back to the 11^th century. What better place is there to park our car, pay £3 for the privilege, put on the backpack, head out for a walk along the mighty headlands for a couple of hours. So we did and weren’t at all disappointed that we did …. did. Towards the end of the walk we took a side track up to the 5500 year old Kings Quoit that overlooks the bay.

Blowhole (left)

Views along the walk overlooking Manorbier

Kings Quoit (burial chamber)

Manorbier Castle

So that ends our week in and around Goodwick near Fishguard, Pembrokeshire, Wales. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. Today we head to another place in Wales on a farm near Usk. To find out what happens there have a read of the next post in a week or two.

JeffnJulie.