Since we had pushed so hard to make it to Sandy Haven, we decide we could sleep in until 8 and still make both crossings. I got to talking to the family that was staying there in the campground and they told us there was actually a bridge across the inlet now so we had more time to cross.
This was a very nice family with 2 daughters. Surprisingly, I talked with them for quite a while (unusual for me since I’m so reserved). He was from Pembrokeshire and had moved to Manchester for work several years ago, where he met his English wife. They had decided to raise their daughters bilingually when they came along. For a while, they lived in London where there was a Welsh school, but, due to funding/costs, it closed. They are now living north of Cardiff and she was still commuting to London weekly for work so they can continue to raise their daughters bilingual. I think this is extremely admirable and a great thing to do for their daughters. I do believe I missed out by not learning a second language at an earlier age. We will definitely feel the impact next month in France. I apologize for forgetting everyone’s names and if you are reading this, please shoot me your names and I will update. We enjoyed talking with you.
Once we got across the inlet, we had a fairly nice and level walk to the Gann for our second crossing. When I say level, I mean less than 300′ elevation change at a time. We had a few dips in the trail. After one climb back up, we took a break on one of the channel marker beacons.
There was terrain again now that we were out of the industrial area. There were also some pretty massive WW II bunkers that consisted of several rooms above and below ground. I was all for exploring them until the bats flew at me (or possibly just shadows from my headlamp, but I’m going with the bat theory).
After we crossed the second low tide bridge, we were home free for the day. All we had to do was find a place to camp and eat. As with most villages, we passed a couple of lime kilns on the way into town. I’m not sure of all the functions of the lime kilns in the past, but the uses include additives for mortar and fertilizer for soil.
We stopped in Dale for a while for a pint to recover, more from yesterday than today. After our beers, we headed up to the camp to check out rates. They wanted 50 BP for us to camp for the night. I flat out refused to pay that kind of price.
We went back to the pub and had another pint to contemplate our options. Pam and I decided to wild camp further down the trail after we ate. George and Karen caved to the man and paid the 10 BP each for the campground after they couldn’t find a B & B. We ate dinner at the Griffin Inn right in front of the fire place.
Following our pub dinner and beers, Karen and George walked with us as far as the campground where they stayed. They have decided to pay to camp rather than take a chance on another wild site. Also, they’ve decided to take a one mile short-cut to skip the 6 miles around St. Ann’s Head. I’ve known George for over 40 years and he’s normally not a negative person. He has been pretty negative for the last few days and keeping to himself so I know he really is in pain. I hope the shortcut gives him enough of a break that he can start enjoying himself again or I may be forced to give him a bump near a cliff.
Pam and I hiked another mile and a half down to a little used beach in Watwick Bay. After a little convincing, I got Pam to agree to camp on the beach but she’s very afraid of the tide washing us away. We had a beautiful spot on an isolated beach with a starry sky and views of the distant refineries (actually quite a nice bit of mood lighting in the distance). Except for the locals fishing off the point about a mile away, we were all alone.
