Day 3–Friday, April 14. Skrinkle Bay to Freshwater East (7 miles)

There seemed to be a road rally across the inlet from where we camped. There was screeching of tires and donuts (we observed spinnning tail lights). Other than that, we had a peaceful night’s rest.

We awoke to George’s quiet groans of exiting his tent. Sometimes I wonder if he’s not pulling the old trick my grandpa used to do, make as much noise as possible while feigning being quiet. We attempted breakfast on our alcohol stove. Normally, we use “Heet” gas additive, but we couldn’t find any in Bath, so we settled on purple camping alcohol sold here. This alcohol doesn’t light as easy or burn as hot. It took twice the amount of time and fuel to get the water hot enough to use (not boil). After a rocky start to the day, we finally pushed on around 9:30 (still not too bad for Bunny T and me).

While we were packing up, a local man walked through camp with his dog. We talked for quite a while with him. His only trip to the states was 30 years ago when he was a 29 year old rugby player. He said he had a wonderful time in the USA and wanted to return the favor. He offered to slack pack for us today (carry our packs down the trail so we could walk faster without the weight). We considered a bit, but decided against cause we never know where we’re going to be until after dark (at least it’s starting out that way). In the end, he gave us some bananas and protein bars. He was very generous to us (as all people have been except for the Lydstep Beach Village–DO NOT GO THERE!

We were feeling good enough to take a few side trips down to the beach after dropping our packs with the Pack Man George. (We can’t decide on a trail name for George, but have narrowed it down to Pack Man, Amazon, or AW for Amazon Withdrawal).

We got into Manorbier around lunch time where we wanted to tour the castle after grabbing a bite of lunch and doing a little grocery shopping.

After lunch, we decided to storm the castle from the rear since we passed it on the way into town. Unfortunately, George forgot the toilet paper so we got wiped out.

Monorbier Castle is the birthplace of Gerald of Wales who was a prodigious writer in the 12th century. The castle has complete walls and two towers still standing. The gentleman we met this morning in camp had reserved the castle last September for his daughter’s wedding.

Tour a nearly complete medieval castle and try not to pretend fighting battles in parapets. The castle had a moat, draw bridge, and retractable gate. While we were in the castle, it started raining, so we opted for another spot of tea to kill some time and allow the rain to pass.

The mist let up, but didn’t stop, so we donned a portion of our rain gear and headed on out with the intention of stopping in Freshwater East at a pub for another meal. Our hiker appetites haven’t kicked in yet, but how could you tell when our normal appetites have been huge ever since our cruise in early December.

Walking out of Manorbier, I had time to make a few observations about our hiking order and the correlation to our last meals. If someone ate curry (usually Karen or me), we would fight to be last in line to be able to guiltlessly fart. George usually ends up back there a lot because, apparently, consuming water gives him gas. Pam doesn’t fart. At least she doesn’t during the day around other people. She saves her gas for the tent as a sign of her trust in me of never telling anyone how much she farts or how bad they stink–oops!

By the time we stopped at another beach, climbed up and down several ridges, and covered the 4 miles into Freshwater East; we were hurting a bit (this is our 3rd day of hiking–tomorrow will be worse). We headed into the pub, ordered supper, took off our shoes to get more room around us, and seized up like 80 year old cast iron machinery. George thought he qualified to use the handicap restroom. In all fairness, he looked like he qualified to use the morgue dressing table.

George did meet a man in the restroom (on the way back actually, no sword crossings). Ian gave us his card and said we looked pretty pathetic. If we needed a comfortable place to stay, he’s fix us up. We went to the local campground after we got done and it was more of a caravan park. They generally don’t give discounts to backpacking tents. I voted to call Ian if we had to overpay. I’m (we all are) very glad we did.

Ian set us up in a 2 story flat with a shower, kitchen, and beds. It’s only been 2 nights out, but we can already appreciate the comforts of civilization and appreciate them even more. We got in, had some pack explosions, showered, and went to bed. No snoring was heard last night (we had bed rooms!).