After a windy night, a few passes of rain, and an annoying lighthouse beacon shining in the tent on a 4, 2, 2 second cycle, we hiked the extra 1/2 mile into Trevino to have breakfast.
During breakfast, we discussed ways to shorten the day for George so he could have a little more recovery time. We decided that Pam and I would hike the 1/2 mile back to the trail to catch the trail and then walk the 3 miles of coast while Karen and George road walked 1 mile to catch the trail ahead of us.
By the time we made it along the coast to Abercastle, we saw them ahead of us on the other side of the harbor. We let them keep going while we headed in town to have a bathroom break and try to find a cup of coffee. We had luck on the porcelain and no luck on the coffee.
We caught up with George and Karen in less than a mile from there. They were already sitting on their butts having a long break after only 2 miles of hiking. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt that there was a church group around them with their token American hiker. We talked with them for about 15 minutes before they moved on.
This was the day that we found out how pathetic we were. As we are walking down the trail we hear people behind us approaching quickly. There was an organized run of 100 miles on the trail. About 50 people were doing the run in 3 days while another 50 chose to run 100 continuous miles. Several runners ran by us.
Dropping down to Abernathy Bach, we met a nice couple out walking the beach. The wife had a nice purple hat that we noticed as soon as we walked down. Geoff and Margaret provided a nice distraction for me for about 1/2 hour. Geoff had spent 10 days hiking with his son in Iceland and highly recommended we included it in our odyssey.
The goal for the day was Pwll Deri (pronounce Pull Dairy). The coast was amazing today. There was a lot of up and down, but the views were just amazing. We met several people out watching the runners. There were a few couples from Newport that told us to skip Fishguard and head straight there instead.
We passed one amazing beach where the only way down was by climbing down a rope. We also passed a rock formation that was definitely man made. I’m willing to bet it lines up with the Carns in the South and lines up on one of the solstices. I tried to explain Druids to Pam and got a headache for my effort.
The day ends with a massive climb up to a massive ridge where we had stupendous views to the south. I tried to get Pam to take a selfie with me, but she was too cold, but see a little lamb by the side of the trail and she stops and takes 20 pictures and gushes for 10 minutes.
We finally made it to Pwll Deri and their was nothing there other than a parking lot. There wasn’t a flat spot to even camp. I said we need to hike on a bit and find a level spot. George had a temper tantrum and said he was done hiking. He was going to call a cab and go to Fishguard. Karen had gone ahead and found an YHA Hostel in just 50 yards. She went in and found they had enough open spaces that we could all fit in for the night.
This Hostel sat right on the coast looking out at the ridge we just walked over. People had scopes set up to watch the runners coming in. Several of the runners were staying here for the night, but quite a few were also camping. We ran into Brandon here and ate supper with him. We gave him any leftovers we had which he gladly ate. I assumed it was his normal hikers appetite which can never be satisfied. After I shared the extra Oreos with him, I found out it was his birthday.
