Walking the Pembrokeshire Coast Path – Porthgain to Pwll Deri

We were delighted to have our daughters and their families (including newest granddaughter, just a month old) staying in the area over the last 3 weeks but it gave us yet another excuse to avoid serious walking. Now they are all back home we set out on Sunday, another glorious day. Still using two cars, but this was the closest stretch of path to our home so it didn’t feel too onerous.

As soon as we left Porthgain we could see our destination, close to the youth hostel on the high cliffs of Pwll Deri, six miles across the sea. We haven’t walked this section much, Ian having bad memories of a walk about 25 years ago (pre mobile phone) where he totally misjudged the time it would take and ended up running much of it. It’s nearly twice as far as it looks, with big inward curves of bays and many headlands and inlets that you walk round three sides of.

On the first part of the walk we were often skirting cultivated fields or crossing pasture, with not too many ups and downs apart from dropping into the inlets at Aberfelin and Abercastle. We saw a couple of seals, it won’t be long before there are pups on the quieter beaches.

Abercastle, a pretty hamlet of holiday cottages, was busy. We thought about stopping for our picnic at the next inlet, Pwllstrodur, but there was a solitary swimmer with a very agitated non-swimming dog barking loudly so on we went, up a very steep path then ascending more gently for another half mile or so before stopping for a late lunch, with lovely views both ways along the coast.

We trudged across the shingle banks at Aber Mawr and Aber Bach, and then the path climbed again heading north, with a couple of steep descents and ascents at Pwllcrochan. Now we were walking on rockier paths with heather, autumn gorse and bracken around us, up to the outcrop above the headland of Penbwchdy. This rocky ridge drops almost sheer down to the sea on the far side and the path has a real upland feel, with views to the south over farmland and the sea and cliffs to the north. Ian was flagging rather (weighed down by those old memories?) but I was feeling exhilarated. 11.5 miles and a fabulous day out.