The end of the trail (for now!)

On the trail 6515 steps, 4,611m, 2.8 miles

Circuit to get back to the car 7,084 steps, 4900m 3 miles

I had a difficult choice to face on what to do on my final day on the trail – the next section was 3 miles or 11 miles to the next exit point with the Strumble shuttle. The final 8 miles is pretty remote with no easy exits etc, and there were a number of things to consider. I was stiff after yesterday and the weather forecast (and the weather) was not ideal. The wind had got up and rain was forecast from late morning (and it did!). I decided to do the 3 miles (and a circuit to get back to the car)!

I drove to Abereiddy and established a touching point for when I take up the trail again at this point (the Abereiddy Strumble shuttle bus stop)! and then did the inland route first. The paths were a bit overgrown but it was quite pleasant initially on paths in fields, and then about a mile on the road back to Porthgain. I touched the touching point (life buoy) and used the facilities and climbed up the steps at the end of the quay. I found a place out of the wind amongst the remnants of the brick/slate works on the cliffs and areas that had been quarried for a coffee break. At this point the rain (of the horizontal sort) began in earnest.

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I completed the rest of the cliff walk in pouring rain and high wind. It reminded me what luck I had had with the weather on this holiday!. There were dozens of ‘coasteer’ types in the ‘blue lagoon’. I returned to the car – extremely wet!

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I drove the five miles from this point to St David’s, waving at bus stop touching point as I went past. Thankfully the rain turned to drizzle as after I parked up and went to the cathedral grounds to pay my respects. This is the second place Jane is remembered – and I had had some very fond memories earlier of us visiting the ‘blue lagoon’ and walking on the cliffs at Abereiddy previously (with Ginnie the dog!)

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I returned back to base camp to attend to some necessary packing and organising (and the rain persisted!). I also did the necessary maths. This week I had done 35.8 miles on the trail and 13.2 miles linking up bits of the route on circular walks. Making a total of 49 miles, which adds to last weeks 46 miles – is 95 mile total (81.8 miles on the trail). All is at least 6% margin of error! Either way I am very pleased as much of it has been challenging going too and involved some uncharacteristic rock climbing!

I will return to this trail at some point

(but here are a few shots from what I did on my gentle route back on Saturday via a couple of favourites – Bosherston Lily ponds and Llansteffan)

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