Day 5 Broad Haven to Newgale

 We had an early start today as the bus left at 8.20 and dropped us off in Broad Haven at 9.00 am.

 Once again a very hot and sunny day so we finished at lunch time.

The Roundhouse eco friendly building

 Ann sat on the beach while I had a paddle. There were people surfing and canoeing. It was quite misty on the beach, like a sea fret.

 Once again we were back early to Haverfordwest so we had a cup of tea near the river and bought Welsh cakes in the Welsh bakery. Well you have to try them don't you! We found a quirky little place for our evening meal that was only open at night on Fridays and Saturdays. It was called The George's and was partly a shop and partly a restaurant and was full of interesting things

Day 4 Musslewick Sands to Broad Haven

 A different direction today as we set off for Marloes to pick up the path at Musslewick Sands. It was very hot and sunny all day today and we didn't walk as far as we had intended.

The Eye of the Sea

 This path through the woods is where a couple were murdered a few years ago but we didn't know that until later on.

Broad Haven beach

 Again beautiful grassy banks of thrift on one side and blue sea on the other. Once we reached Little Haven we dropped down onto the sandy beach to finish the walk and this made a pleasant change

.It should have been easy to get back from here but the bus forgot to turn up so we had to wait an hour for the next one. Once back in Haverfordwest we found the shopping centre down by the riverside and had a quick look around.

Day 3 Sandy Haven to Dale and the peninsula

A cloudy day today but still warm. The bus driver was kind enough to drop us off at the west side of Sandy Haven pill which we couldn't cross as the tide was in too far. We walked down the lane to Sandy Haven and then set off on the coastal path towards Dale. Now this day was Yorkshire day on the coastal path. We didn't see many people but most of the people we did see were from Yorkshire! First of all two men from Otley and one had just joined Otley walkers that Ann belongs to. Then a couple from Wakefield sitting on a bench eating rhubarb.....yes really. They lived in the rhubarb triangle and were very chatty. A good job we had plenty of time today. Then almost at the end of the walk two ladies, one from Skipton and one from York who belonged to York CHA group.

 The walk was quite straight forward until we came to The Gann where we had to walk on the beach for a while and cross the stepping stones. Walking on a beach sounded great in the book but when we got there it was extremely rocky and very uncomfortable to walk on.

The most outstanding thing today were the grassy banks on the cliff tops absolutely covered in wild flowers, mostly large clumps of thrift. May is the very best time to do this path and every day we were impressed by all the wild flowers.

We had time at the end in Dale for a cup of tea in the pub while we waited for the last bus back to Milford Haven. Our luck was in when we got there as a train was just about set off  to Haverfordwest so that saved us a long wait for a bus.

Day 2 Hebrandston to Hazlebeach

We did this one in reverse for complicated reasons involving tides and buses! This was the last part of the walk involving refineries which are not beautiful but they can be interesting and the industrial landscape has its own charms. But before setting off we met two chaps from Bradford at breakfast who had just completed a week on the coastal path starting at St Dogmaels and finishing at Broad Haven, We tried recruiting them to CHA and directed them to the website so who knows!

It was a warm day with some sunshine but clouded over later. We walked  from Hebrandston down to the east side of Sandy Haven pill and then along the coastal path towards Milford Haven where we stopped for lunch.

Then we carried on as far as Hazlebeach where we had finished last time we were here. It was easier to carry on to Neyland to catch the bus back to Haverfordwest and we were back for 4.00 pm.

Barbara and Ann return to Pembroke Part 2 Day 1

Another year and another part of the Pembrokeshire coastal path to be done. This time we stayed in Haverfordwest which turned out to be a very good choice. The College Guest House was to be our home for the next eight days as we walked the path between Neyland and St Davids. We had originally booked this for earlier in the month but ended up changing it when the weekend in Alnwick came up. How lucky was that? We had almost wall to wall sunshine and not a spot of rain all the time we were there. Ann had met Jill, who lives in Haverfordwest, on a previous walking trip and she very kindly picked us up at the station, delivered us to the guest house, gave us a walking tour of the town and made us welcome at her house with tea and cake. This was much appreciated and helped us to get our bearings and locate the bus stops and shops.  Apart from losing Tesco one evening Ann was really good at navigating around the town!

Haverfordwest isn't on the coast but all the coastal buses start from there so it was a convenient place to stay and it had some lovely areas to explore and a very nice Weatherspoons!

 It also had a flight of 168 steps to get from the river up to where we were staying and we walked up and down these many times instead of walking up the High Street. A good place for keeping fit!
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Day 5 Pembroke to Hazelbeach

Our last day of walking and a later start as we only had to do a 15 minute bus ride to Pembroke. It was a beautiful sunny day but not too hot.
This was the only time we had to retrace our steps as the guide book map was a little misleading and we missed the green acorn sign that was at knee level instead of head height where they had all been previously. But we soon realised that we had gone wrong and a few minutes later we were back on the right track for Pembroke Dock.

A Martello tower

Pembroke Dock 'sea' front

After a brief stop in Asda for provisions we headed for the Cleddau Bridge seen here in the distance

This is a toll bridge for motorists but walkers get to cross for free. Its quite a long bridge and the traffic was very noisy but it was an interesting experience and I took some photos from the bridge.

Neyland Marina

After crossing two bridges we turned sharp left and walked on a woodland path to Neyland where we found a seat in the park for lunch and then on to Hazelbeach. The end of our journey this time. We finished rather early as we didn't have time to get as far as Milford Haven and get back in time for tea! The joys of Milford Haven will have to wait for next time.



We sat on the front for a while watching the world go by before catching the bus back to Pembroke for a visit to the co-op and another cup of tea in Brown's Snack bar.

We had a good time walking the coastal path and didn't have any major problems finding the route. The buses all came as scheduled and we were there on time to catch them. Everyone we met was very friendly and the guest house was excellent. On the last day we even had time for a cup of tea on our terrace, in the sun!

Our journey home went well even though it took a long time and we stopped at many stations. It was very busy till we got out of Wales, standing room only on the train at first. I was going to list all the stations we stopped at but I've run out of energy! Lamphey where we caught the train was a request stop and you had to stick your hand out as if stopping a bus!
We will be back next year a little further north to complete the coastal path hopefully. See you then.



Day 4 Angle to Pembroke

I think we were both quite relieved that this was the last time we would have to walk to Freshwater East to catch the bus. It wasn't a difficult walk as it was on a country lane most of the way but it meant an early start each day. Today the bus was a little late as he had lost a mirror on the way and had to phone for a replacement to be fitted somewhere on the route.
As usual we passed through Bosherston. We worked out that during the course of the week we would have passed through Bosherston either on foot or on the bus ten times in all! We know it quite well now. The mirror was replaced in Bosherston As we left Bosherston for the last time we had to wait for half a dozen tanks being moved on low loaders. The army were on the move again.

The sun was shining as we arrived in Angle and after a trip to the delightful loos and the village shop we set off around East Angle Bay on a nice wide flat path with good views.

Yes we could see oil refineries for most of the day but we did have some lovely woodland paths too although nettles were a bit of a problem as this part of the walk looked as though few people had bothered with it.

Certainly not scenic but interesting none the less.

The path was rather overgrown in places!

After we rounded the point at Fort Popton it got very hot but we were soon rewarded with a nice breeze and a lovely meadow of wild flowers that helped to disguise the distant oil refinery views.



At last Pembroke Castle came into view, much bigger than I imagined it would be. We still had plenty of time to spare before the bus so found a cafe with an outside terrace, Brown's Snack bar, that looked like an old fashioned coffee bar but was very reasonable and had nice fruit cake, apparently.

A very quick bus journey back to Hodgeston as we were now on the main Pembroke to Tenby route 349, our 'local' bus. What a relief not to have to walk the extra mile home any more.