Driving rain lashed our windscreen all the way from the Severn Bridge to the
Preseli Mountains.
“No worries, we’ll have fun whatever the weather,” my wife Hennie and I
assured our three doubting children in the back, as we dropped down towards
an angry sea. “Don’t bet on it!” howled the wind.
An ominous start, then, to our planned three days of healthy hiking from
Newport to Strumble Head, a section of the 185-mile (300km) waymarked
Pembrokeshire Coast Path around the extremity of southwest Wales.
We had decided to walk some of Britain’s wildest and most dramatic coastline,
and settled on this precise stretch because it was where we had managed to
find a trio of B&B guesthouses all close to the path and each roughly
ten miles’ walk from the last.
On Day 1, we skirted expansive mud-flats dotted with stranded fishing boats,
on the Nevern estuary at low tide. Then we zigzagged up the first of many
steep tracks to the high sea cliffs in a train of laden backpacks. We
carried our lunch, plenty of water, plasters to guard against blisters, and
three days’ clothing including full sets of wet weather gear. The latter,
luckily, never needed unpacking as that wind off the Irish Sea had
benevolently blown itself out and dispersed the rain clouds overnight.
Toby, our 13-year-old son, has the energy of a spaniel and made it a point of
pride to carry more than his share of the weight. But even so, he usually
bounded ahead, then sat on a rock chucking pebbles at squawking gannets
while waiting to berate the rest of us for being “sooooo slow.
I could have been five miles ahead by now”. All of which was water off a
seabird’s back to his sister Iona, 15, who spent much of her time trying to
send and receive text messages as we snaked round headlands and plunged down
to coves.
Hennie and Sebastian, 11, meanwhile, generally brought up the rear. “We
stopped to look for dolphins,” they would explain when they caught up, or
“we are trying to see Ireland”. According to our guidebook, both of these
were possibilities. On exceptionally clear days the Wicklow Mountains south
of Dublin appear as a smudge on the horizon; and the snouts and dorsal fins
of surfacing porpoises and dolphins are regularly spotted off Dinas Head
peninsula. Neither put in appearances for us, though we did see some grey
seals basking on a ledge, once.
Our 28-mile route, including a few deviations, was more varied than I had
expected. The far west of Pembrokeshire is a peninsula of peninsulas, and in
several places we left our packs within eyesight, and scambled out to rocky
capes to drink in the full drama of crashing waves and huge colonies of
noisy, smelly guillemots and razorbills. In other places, the path briefly
leaves behind the cliff and swings inland, out of sight and sound of the
sea, into neat green fields of grazing sheep and ponies.
The path is maintained by the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. Gorse and
bracken are cut back to keep it clear, and wooden bridges span the streams
that rattle through gullies as they splinter the coastline into headlands,
coves and rocky outcrops. However, apart from where it crosses towns such as
Newport and Fishguard, the trail is mostly single file and manages to feel
untamed. Nevertheless, according to the park authorities, nearly a million
people a year walk parts of it, though many of these are day visitors.
One thing that surprised us was how many of our fellow walkers were from
abroad. On average we would meet people coming in the opposite direction
every 20 minutes or so, and as often as not they were Dutch or German.
“Many of my guests are from overseas and almost all of them are walkers,”
confirmed Annette Keylock, our landlady at Dolwern B&B in Dinas Cross,
where we spent our second night. She moved here from England, as had our
previous hosts, Michael and Judith Cooper, at the homely Cnapan in Newport;
no wonder West Pembrokeshire is known in Wales, a touch disparagingly, as
“Little England”.
But there was no shortage of Welsh banter down at the Ship Aground in Dinas
Cross, where we had a pub supper. For example, when a lilting local drinker
heard Toby and Sebastian discussing football in their English accents, he
asked them earnestly whether they knew that Saddam Hussein had been given
the death penalty. “You hadn’t heard? Well, luckily for him, David Beckham
is going to take it!”
We soon settled into a rhythm of early to bed, early to rise, huge bacon and
sausage breakfasts, and the back of each day’s walk broken before sandwiches
(prepared by B&B landladies) on the cliffs in the company of scrounging
gulls. As parents, Hennie and I were able to reflect happily on how, in an
age in which leisure is forever being themed and packaged into paid-for
products and attractions, the real world still runs rings around the fantasy
one. Even for teenagers.
“I’d like to do some more coastal hiking,” declared Toby. And for all I know,
Iona might have been texting a similar message to her friends.
If there is one thing we would, with hindsight, have done differently, it is
staying our final night in Fishguard. I was seduced by nostalgia for the
enchanting 1971 film of Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood with
Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, which was shot here. In fact we found
ourself in a charmless urban landscape by the ferry port.
No matter, the wildest stretch of all was the final few miles from here to
Strumble Head, where stunted trees are bent like old men by the prevailing
westerlies. On the farthest outcrop, an automatic lighthouse and foghorn
warn shipping of the perilous rocks below. We reached our destination as
inky rain clouds gathered again and a chill wind whipped white horses off
the Irish Sea. But waiting here for a minibus back to our car in Newport,
the five of us were glowing.
Need to know
Getting there: Celtic Trails (0800 9707585, www.celtrail.com)
organises self-guided walking holidays in Wales. Five nights on the
Pembrokeshire Coast costs from £249 per person, including B&B
accommodation in guesthouses, transport to and from points on the path, and
luggage transfer. Half price for children.
Pembrokeshire Greenways Holidays (01834 860965, www.greenwaysholidays.com)
also designs bespoke itineraries for walking sections of the coast path.
Where to stay: In Newport, the Cnapan (01239 820575) costs
£35pp B&B (children £9 sharing a family room). In Dinas Cross,
Dolwern (01348 811266) costs £20pp B&B (children up to 4 free; 5-8
half price).
Lists of other accommodation near the coast path from St David’s Tourist
Information Centre (01437 720392, www.visitpembrokeshire.co.uk).
Getting around: A variety of local bus services connect
points on the coast path. Timetables on www.pembrokeshiregreenways.co.uk.
Reading: Pembrokeshire Coast Path by Brian John
(National Trail Guides, £12.99).
Maps: Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 North Pembrokeshire OL35
(£6.99) covers the area.
Hiking equipment: Berghaus (0191-516 5700, www.berghaus.com)
has ranges of lightweight fleeces and waterproofs in children’s and adult
sizes.
Further information: Visit Wales (0800 9156567, www.visitwales.com).
