I would have hated to be in the open last night because even in our protected depression in the dunes the wind was whipping our tents all night. I guess this might be why Freshwater West is considered one of the best surfing beaches in Europe.
Once again, we used Karen’s jet boil for breakfast to speed us on our way. It was still quite windy so we all wore our rain gear for wind protection. There was a lot of ascending and descending in the early miles of the trail. As always, amazing vistas of the coast ahead and behind (and below if you are daring enough to lean over the edge). Make no mistakes, this can be a challenging hike at times. Sometimes, it even lives up the amount of whining that George, Pam, and Karen are doing and today was one of those days.
We passed several ruins from different eras. A possible shepherds shelter collapsed, to some medieval towers, to some military pill boxes, to older military defenses to protect the 19th century ship building yards at Pembroke Dock. This was Lord Nelson’s favorite harbor whether its because it’s the second deepest harbor in the world or because he had a mistress here, we can’t know for certain.
As we rounded one point, I got very confused because there was an island that didn’t appear on my map. It turned out to be St Ann’s Point on the far side–we were at the mouth of the inlet to the harbor.
After a few more climbs down and up, we decided to drop chow. Maybe it would be better to say we dropped our packs for some chow.
It was very blustery from the open Atlantic. After eating, there wasn’t as much climbing, but we did manage to put enough food in two members of the party who shall remain nameless (but not Curtis or Karen). Generally speaking, the two nameless members of the party are generally full of %^it, but they decided they could go no further. They made tracks in the gorse and all I saw was cow’s running for air. Less than 1/2 mile later, we came to West Angle Bay which had a very nice, warm tea house with great home made food (and porcelain which sustained the rest of the party).
I’ve had some comments that notice that a lot of time in this blog is devoted to bathrooms and food. All I can say is that filling and emptying are of paramount importance on long distance hikes. Tastiness in, comfort out.
From West Angle Bay to Angle Village is a pleasant 3 mile stroll along the coast. The trail dips in and out of forest and there are some pretty interesting ruins along the way plus lots of signs of militarization of the coast. The harbor here has been critical to the country for over 1,000 years. We passed Chapel Bay Fort which had a nice tea house, but I couldn’t get any takers.
We were planning on stopping at the Old Point House on the way to the campground. Nick and Angie had told us about this pub a couple days ago. Last night, they passed us on the road to Freshwater West with their Kayaks on top of the car and told us they were on their way to eat (this was right after the aggressive cow incident). We emerged from the trail right into the beer garden at The Old Point House. We dropped our packs, ordered our pints and settled in for a relaxing remainder of the day. We met a wonderful couple, Paul and Sandy with whom we talked with for several hours.
Not too long after we got there and got our pints, a gentleman by the name of Simon came out and greeted us. He said he’d been expecting us all day. Nick and Angie had come here for dinner last night and told Simon to expect us. We spent some time talking with Simon as well, he has relatives in New Zealand which raises our interest with next winter’s attempt of the Te Araroa. Simon made a reservation for dinner for us so we could go set up camp.
We camped next to the remains of an old castle in Angle. The tower has been incorporated into a church. We set up camp and returned to The Old Point House for supper. We were a few minutes early so I called my dad with “WhatsApp”. When we went inside, we had a table with a hand written reservation for Curtis and Pam. I was impressed since this was our 3 month anniversary, but I guess Pam forgot, so I never let on that I remembered.
An interesting side note about The Old Point House is that is has the record for the longest continuos burning fire in all of Wales at over 250 years without going out. Also, some guy name of William that’s been stalking me for over 10 years had been there as well. William and I first crossed paths in St Andrews back in 2006. They think it’s a big deal that he drove a tank on the nearby military ranges.
We had 3 orders of fish-n-chips and one giant hamburger. Everyone agreed the fish was worth the walk. I’m working on getting over my food aversions–I will eat mushrooms (when forced to) and am beginning to tackle fish–eggs (aka chicken abortions) have a wait still ahead of them.
We got our picture with Simon and then headed back to camp. No one’s snoring kept me awake that night.
