A day of detours
Travel Location: Pembrokeshire,United-Kingdom
Since we had the car for a second day, we decided to drive west. Our original plan was to drive to St. David’s and we did, we just weren’t prepared for how amazing everything along the way would be.
Our first stop was Carreg Cennen Castle on the western edge of Brecon Beacons National Park. It was magnificent! This Castle is definitely one of my favorite places in the world. The drive from Cardiff was only about an hour and as we approached both of us were awe struck. The Castle is basically just ruins, but it is ruins on top of a 300 meter sheer rock cliff. Even the approach was fantastic. Once we arrived at the parking lot for Carreg Cennen we were both a bit speechless. We went to the teashop at the bottom of the hill to pay our entrance fee and rent a flashlight. We then hiked up the cliff to the castle. Our hike was made both interesting and sketchy because of sheep. The sheep were really cool to watch but we had to watch out for their droppings all over the place.
only 999 other misadventures await
The surrounding countryside was beautiful, rolling green hills for miles in every directions, with no occupants except the odd herd of sheep or llamas – incredible. I can honestly say that this was the best experience I could have imagined and I loved every second of it. The inside of the Castle was really just another Castle, with the exception of the cave. There was a cave that our tour book said to enter, as far as possible, turn off the flashlight and you find yourself in complete and utter darkness. Because we are both chickens, we didn’t go that far into the cave and it is surprising how quickly any form of natural light disappears. It was fun, but I was so scared that one of us would slip because the rock surface was like ice, that I made Patrick turn around. He admitted later that he was kind of scared too!
The best part of touring Wales, especially at this time of year, is that there are no crowds for anything. We were one of two families at Carreg Cennen, so for the first time in my traveling history, it was possible to get pictures of whatever you wanted without people in the way all the time.
After Carreg Cennen we went to St. David’s. I had only heard briefly about this town, but the guide book we had said that two trips to St. David’s is the religious equivalent to one to Rome – one down, one to go. The town in so quaint and peaceful, it is built around a huge Cathedral and an old palace called Bishop’s Palace. The Cathedral is operational and lovely, but it looked a lot like many of the other Cathedrals and Churches we’ve been to. Bishop’s Palace on the other hand is in complete ruin. The difference with this ruin is that the second story of the structure is still secure enough to walk through. Being able to walk around the Palace and see the second level definitely makes envisioning life there a lot easier than when everything is broken down right to the foundation.
St. David’s is on a peninsula, and although the town itself isn’t on the coast, we were very close to it, so Patrick decided that we would drive back to Cardiff along the coast. What fantastic scenery and views. We stopped in a number of places right along the ocean, and once, a wrong turn even nearly led us to being in the ocean. My favorite stop along the way was a town called Broad Haven. I felt like we had landed on a set of a movie. The beach was an inlet between two sheer rock cliffs, and there were boulders jutting out on the beach and in the ocean just offshore. The beach was covered with people – playing soccer, walking their dogs, arm in arm, running, flying kites – you name it and someone was there doing it. The sun was setting when we got there and the reflection of the sun off of the ocean and the wet sand was breathtaking. I really did feel like we were on the set of some romance movie with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant…it felt so peaceful and everyone around seemed so calm and happy. I would love to go back to that region in the summer when we could use the ocean. With the exception of a few crazy people surfing and wind surfing, everyone else stayed to dryish land.
Because the sun was setting and we experience the quick darkness the day before we decided to get on a highway and head home. This decision lasted for all of 10 or 15 minutes. Patrick decided that we would follow every sign we saw for Castles. I have to admit, seeing Castles in the dark is much less impressive than in the daylight. So after an hour or so of Castle hunting we got back on track and were headed home. And then it happened again…we saw a sign for a town called Wiseman’s Bridge, so we did what any adventurous traveler would do and we went to find it. This created another hour long detour and some hairy moments on the road so we got back on the highway. We were definitely making headway, we had been on the highway about a half hour and then it happened again. We saw a sign for Dylan Thomas’ Boathouse and I just happened to mention to Patrick that it is one of the 1000 things to do before you die, so he decided we should do it. I did, at this point, inform him that they were closed but he seemed to think that seeing the building and doing it were the same thing. He gets kind of carried away with these things. Anyhow, after driving about 15 minutes past it, we finally found it…completely dark and unrecognizable, but apparently he feels that we can now tick it off our list. Great, only 999 other misadventures await.
I joke, it was actually a really fun day. We both say the highlight was our first stop, but would both really love to come back to this area and do more exploring. What an amazing place.
