Martin and Vickie took the night off last night since we were the only people around. They let us use the outlets in one of the caravans to charge all of our electronics. George and Karen like to keep wired up to the internet as much as possible. They had checked the weather report last night and told us to expect rain today.
I woke up, looked at how dark the shy was, and checked Pam’s watch. It was already past 8. It was very strange that George and Karen both chose today to sleep in. I got up and started packing up. I made as much noise as possible to get everyone going. We made pretty good time breaking down camp and getting packed up to leave. We stopped at a picnic table to make coffee and have a little bit of breakfast. When we got about 3 blocks from camp, we saw the PO was opening, so we decided to stop for a real cup of coffee. When we sat down, Karen said it was 8:05. I was confused. I woke everyone up after 8 and we were making good time today, but we still had to take over an hour to get out of camp. I guess the next time I read Pam’s watch on her pack, I should put my glasses on first. I woke everyone up at 6:10 (oops, I read the watch upside down).
The woman that let us in the shop is the daughter of the owners. She was very nice to us to let us in before they were officially open. She made us coffee and pastries (after getting instructions how to put the espresso machine together). Her 2 year old son came in a little later–he was one big boy. He could pass for 4. If he keeps this rate up, he’ll be able to get served by the time he’s 12!
It was 9 before we finished our second breakfast (I’ll make hobbits out of everyone before this hike is done). Unfortunately, the first half mile was a road walk back to the connector trail to the coastal path. This pretty much finished off George’s feet. He kept going through the pain, but it was wearing on him. The trail wasn’t that bad today. We a a few small climbs up, but we were hiking above the cliffs almost all the way to Little Haven. It was very windy and overcast. We had a few spits of mist on us along the way and it wasn’t overly warm.
We met a few people along the way. We ran into a couple who were staying at St Bride’s castle–it’s been converted into a high end holiday resort. We also ran into Chuck and Betsy at St Bride’s; I didn’t recognize Chuck with his hat and sunglasses on.
By the time we got into The Swan at Little Haven, it was already a little past 3. Including the mile we had to walk from Marloes back to the trail, we had already gone 8 miles. Just before we got to Little Haven, we met a man sitting on a bench at a memorial staring out at the sea. I was a bit ahead of the rest so I started talking to Brain. Brian is a sailor and is about to go back to Australia for work. I could tell he was missing being at sea. We talked history of the area in Wales and politics for a while until everyone caught up. He also recommended the Swan and said he’d meet us there in a bit.
Pubs, almost universally, serve lunch 12-3 and supper 6-9. We were in that sweet spot of no food, but we needed a break at the very least. We had a spot of tea and some crisps while we warmed up.
George decided to call it a day. He called around and found a room at the Mariner’s Inn in Broad Haven. It was less than a mile and he said he’d make it that far. The bad part was that it was all road, uphill, and in the rain. We’ve already decided to take another day off in St David’s to see the Cathederal. If George takes the rest of today and all of tomorrow off, the rest of us will hike on in to St David’s tomorrow evening. If George tries to keep hiking with his feet the way they are, it will take us an extra day to make it to St David’s. Brian came in just as we were leaving so we didn’t get to talk to him some more. I feel bad because I think he went to get his computer to show us some pictures. Like everyone we have met on this trip, he was fantastically helpful and friendly. The Welsh people are some of the nicest people we’ve ever met.
George got checked in to the Anchor Inn. Helen was very friendly and let us drop our packs in the common living area while we went out for supper. There was a cafe about a block back that opened for supper at 5 so we could eat and have a pint before we moved on.
Our goal after supper was to make it to Druidston; just another 2.5 miles. We’ll check out the hotel and if it’s reasonable, we might stay inside tonight since it’s turning cold. Worst case, we’ve heard they allow camping out back. The trial from Broad Haven to Druidston Haven has a lot of ups and downs with some big ups. Even with full stomachs (or especially with full stomachs) this got to us. By the time we got to Druidston, we looked down on the hotel and only saw one tent out back. There were lots of old caravans sitting around as well. We weren’t sure if we were in the hotel or an old farm. We went in to check it out. It has a beautiful setting and is supposed to be a great place for sunsets if it is sunny.
Several different people at Marloes and Little Haven have recommended the Druidston to us so we were really excited. When we went in, there were only 2 tables in the dining room and only 1 person in the bar so they weren’t too busy. The place is interesting, but they were not overly friendly or inviting to us. Even though the lower price rooms were available, they couldn’t let us have one because it “hadn’t been cleaned” and no offer to clean it. We tried to rent a cabin but they wouldn’t do that for one night even though the room descriptions don’t say that. All in all, we felt very unwelcome and just decided to go a little further and wild camp. This had only been the second time we have had close to a bad experience.
The trail out of Druidston can be described in many ways, but one way it can’t be described is “level”. There were absolutely no spots where we could set up a camp. We hiked for about 45 minutes and didn’t see a single spot to camp. It was started to get dark. We came upon another town, but everything was closed. There was one hotel, The Mariner’s Inn. I was giving up and didn’t even try the door. Pam tried it and it was open. She went into the bar and the bartender said he could let us have a room for 25 pounds each. He walked us up to let us see the room. We took it. We dropped our packs and went down for a pint and to pay. That’s when it started to rain!
Poor George. What’s wrong w his feet? The places are cool. Nice photos curtis