Firstly many thanks to everyone who has sponsored us, very much appreciated. Still not too late…
October whizzed past with no opportunity for a long walk, but the forecast for Tuesday looked reasonable so we headed south-west again and parked the car at Marloes. There was little sign of the promised sunny intervals and we got cold and wet waiting for the bus to take us a couple of miles back to the start of the walk at West Dale. The ground was very wet underfoot but in general the path was good, with springy turf and not many ups and downs. The sun broke through from time to time, though rarely overhead, but giving changing light on cliffs and sea.
The gorse is just starting to come back into bloom, and there was a great variety of fungi. Choughs were enjoying the strong wind, a peregrine swept past and we saw a raven bring down a black-backed gull in a squabble over a dead sheep.
The tide was high so there wasn’t much sand at Marloes Sands, but we’ll return and explore it another day. We continued past Gateholm and on to the Deer Park which reaches out towards Skomer. The coast path cuts off the headland but it seemed a shame not to do it properly so I persuaded Ian to walk round the edges. We were rewarded by seeing a couple of end-of-season seal pups, the first during our Coast Path walk. There will be lots more seals once we’re further north. Having turned the corner we now had the whole huge sweep of St Brides Bay ahead of us; Ramsey Island only 10 or so miles away as the crow flies, but still 30 miles on foot. But it feels as if we are reaching familiar territory.
The facilities at Martins Haven were all shut until March. We walked on looking for a good lunch spot but the walk changed completely at this point from being easy to pretty unpleasant. I knew the strong northerly wind would be a factor but hadn’t realised that the path would be much narrower and very muddy. Rain squalls were drifting across St Brides Bay towards us. We slithered on east and then north, resisting the temptation to take the shortcut back to the car at Musselwick, and finally reached the little inlet of St Brides Haven with its improbable castle.
That was the end of the coast path (10 miles) but we had 2 more miles of soggy fields and tracks, uphill all the way, back to the car. The walk was finished off not with a welcome pint and pub meal but with a trip round Homebase. Winter is here!
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