Wales 5-6 June Fishguard, Cilgerran, St David's

On Sunday we explored the northern towns of Fishguard and Newport.  Fishguard, as the name suggests, is a fishing port and also a large truck/semi/car ferry terminal serving this region of often very narrow roads.  It was a sunny day and good weather for the small sailing boats which we watched from the ruins of an old fort. 

  In 1779 a privateer Black Prince captured a local ship and demanded ransom of £1000.  When the town refused to pay, the pirates bombarded the town, damaging the church and houses.  So a fort was completed by 1781, manned by 8 cannons, and it became the headquarters of the Fishguard Fencibles.  In February 1797 French ships appeared and alarm guns were fired, but the Fensibles (sensibles?) withdrew.  By the end of the Napoleonic Wars, 1815, the fort had fallen into disrepair.  
  It was a good place to eat lunch – wildflowers, history, coastal scenery, sailing boats.

We continued up the coastal road to Newport where we hoped to visit the National Park office but it closed at 1pm, 30 minutes earlier.  A park off Long Road led down to the Coastal Path, beside marsh and an estuary, and eventually to a beach.  A very pleasant walk – I watched seagulls, a swan, a grey heron, shelducks and many unidentified birds; David found a small amphibian resembling a baby cane toad, probably a toadlet.    He also noticed a construct of a man paddling a kayak made from plaited reeds, just sitting in a patch of wasteland adjoining Newport Boat Club (members only!). 

The Welsh Wildlife Centre, Cilgerran, is just outside Cardigan and FREE unless you use their parking area (a necessity if you have no pushbike), which costs £3 after 1pm or nothing after 6pm (I think it’s open 24 hours, as there’s no way of locking it up).  We had a nice walk for an hour and saw a few animals – water buffalo, birds.

Can you find the imported buffaloes - 4 cows and 4 calves?

   However, we did not see otters or badgers – not likely before dusk, which would be 9pm at this time of year.  The skies were threatening but rain held off until we drove home.

Monday 6 June

Tried a local walk which led through a denuded forest to a quarry so we gave up.  Walked up to the small village of Rosebush and found the sign to Pant Mawr cheese.  The farmer’s wife gave us 6 cheeses to taste – we bought Drewi-Sant, like a thick brie,  washed with mead.

After lunch we drove to St. David’s, some 44km west and the place where St David set forth for Ireland.  We visited St David’s Cathedral – no photos allowed.  It was a handsome building in grey stone, very plain but filled with many 12^th C tombs topped with full-sized prone statues of the person, mostly a knight or bishop.

Next door was the ruin of the Bishop’s Palace. 

The National Trust shop ladies were most enthusiastic about finding us an interesting walk, even escorting us out and walking 100 m to set us on the right track for St Non’s Chapel.  St Non was the mother of St David, c AD475.  We found the Passionist retreat next to the modern chapel, 1934, not the ancient ruin, apparently nearby.

However, the walk along a cliff and back through town was very enjoyable.

Wales 3-4 June Rosebush, Manorbier

We  left Rye at 8am and arrived at Rosebush 7 hours later.  David’s GPS took us to the village  and our cabin within 60m after many false twists because we had to use the ‘don’t follow road’ option (the GPS only knows major roads).  So many of the roads we travelled, apart from the motorways, were very narrow with high hedgerows, giving little warning of a signpost to the road we wanted.  Detours were common. 

Our hosts were very welcoming and the cabin is better than expected, once we got used to the tiny bedroom, just as wide as the bed, on to which you have to launch yourself.  David had problems moving the bed to retrieve a lost pencil.  The property is 6 acres of lovely garden and wild ‘bush’ which we are free to roam.  The cabin is totally private with views over wildflowers and shrubs down to a nearby reservoir.

We asked for ideas re a restaurant to celebrate our 50^th wedding anniversary that night and ended up at the only local hotel, Tafarn Sinc (=Tavern Zinc as built from corrugated iron).

 

This was an interesting choice as an introduction to Wales – the hotel was a popular place on a Friday night and half the people were speaking in Welsh.  We have since found that everyone in Pembrokeshire knows about Tafarn Sinc.  The original owner was quite a character and the place used to feature settees. The food was OK and we had a nice surprise when the publican said our hosts had

already paid for the wine we drank. 

  The pub floor was scattered with wood shavings, the walls were covered in old posters, paintings and photos; the ceiling was hung with memorabilia. 

  In the 1950s the local rail line adjacent to the hotel was closed but not forgotten.

Has sound effects too!

Saturday 4 June

Because we cannot get internet access here unless I sit outside our hosts' kitchen, we drove south to Haverfordwest to buy a SIM and to shop to stock our kitchen.  No luck re a SIM.  Decided to explore southern parts so drove to Tenby via Pembroke.  The most interesting part of this trip was Manorbier, a tiny village on the south coast which features a beach (pay to park), popular on the sunny day we arrived. 

 

It also has a castle, early 12th C, which looked quite impressive to a surveyor for Henry VIII, who described it as “the most perfect model of an old Norman baron’s residence.”

Rye 1-2 June Dungeness, Brede Wood

Wednesday is Farmers’ Market Day in Rye so we thought it a good time to finally explore the town itself.  The market consisted of 10 stalls selling fresh produce.  We passed up the wild boar, venison and elderberry wine but bought delicious strawberries and yummy Bakewell Pie slice. 

The town has many old half-timbered places and cobbled streets, including Mermaid Tavern.
 

 With stooped heads, we walked through it – very quaint, charming, expensive.  The restaurant menu was not special enough to justify the price so we decided against it for my birthday dinner that night.

Another famous place in Rye is Lamb House where Henry James lived for many years.  The back garden is supposed to be lovely but the place (and the Heritage Centre) was not open on Wednesdays.

My treat for the day was a trip to Dungeness Nature Reserve.  At first we wondered what all the fuss was about because it extends out to a nuclear power plant (1/2 retired, rest stops in a few years).  

The area where we had parked is part of the reserve but has 90 very odd homes scattered around, mostly ramshackle often with a bohemian air.  The ground is all shingle and the whole reserve represents the largest shingle area in the world.  The plants are a bit strange – sea kale, viper’s bugloss (look it up!) ... and the claims to fame sound wacky though true – “an internationally important site for medicinal leeches and great crested newts”.

You walk into the Visitor Centre and find yourself in a wonderful indoor bird hide. Through glass walls we could see swans, tufted ducks, lapwings, cormorants, shelducks and many more birds.  The entrance to the main walk is through the Centre.  There are 6 bird hides outside spread over a large area which was once a series of gravel pits, now ponds.

For dinner we went to the Royal Oak, one of 7 out of 1700 pubs in the region to receive an award for good food.  It was good, but our luck that Wednesday menu is always spit roast.

Our last day at Rye was spent doing 2 forest walks, one north of Rye and the other at Brede Wood.  I am told that bluebells are precious and that foxgloves grow in disturbed ground.

Rye 30-31 May Canterbury, Sissinghurst, Bodiam Castle

It’s school holidays this week and we were lucky to spot a Park n Ride for our Canterbury visit.  The city was packed.  It is pleasantly pedestrianised.  And now for some history (we had a guided tour in the cathedral).

Note the empty statue niches

We ate our sandwiches in the herb garden.

Head of Henry Yeveley, stone mason, Cloisters

Cloisters c 1400

In 597, St Augustine came to Canterbury and soon established the first cathedral, which was rebuilt around 1070 by Archbishop Lanfranc.  After Thomas Becket was murdered in 1170, the cathedral became a place of pilgrimage for those seeking a miracle.

Place where Beckett was murdered (1986 Altar)

Quire 

Corona Chapel

By 1184, the Quire was rebuilt, Trinity and Corona chapels added (all as seen today).

Most of the statues and much of the stained glass was destroyed by Henry VIII and, later, Cromwell who stabled 300 horses inside. 

Tuesday was a lovely sunny day for our planned trips to Sissinghurst and Bodiam Castle.  Alas, Sissinghurst was disappointing – very expensive (A$20 x 2) for the small area of garden (we’ve seen far more in Italy – eg Tivoli Gardens) and recent history.  I think you need to be a keen English gardener or a Bloomsbury group addict to enjoy it (sorry, Muriel!).  The roses in Portuguese village gardens were at least equal to those in Sissinghurst.

 However, Bodiam Castle  was much better value.  It was half term this week and the kids, very well-behaved, were out in force.  If you don’t need to park,  the grounds become a free play area (also at Sissinghurst where we saw 4 small kids), complete with WW 2  pillbox, where heaps of children were romping.   For about A$4, anyone could shoot either arrows, paintballs or cross bows at various targets.  To enter the castle cost A$10 for adults, well worth it.

 

A scale model of a trebuchet was used to hurl a 3kg water bomb over 100m.  Spectators were moved way back in case of misfire.  Some ducks had unfortunate experiences when melons were used and the ducks gathered for a feed.

 

Rye 28-29 May Battle Medieval Fair

 I forgot to mention that on Thursday night Bob organised a visit to taste port wine at Castelinho cellars in Regua.  White port wine was offered, an aperitif dry wine and much cheaper than the more aged tawny or ruby port wines.  We liked it enough to buy a bottle for E9.50, a waste of money as I failed to pack it in hold luggage and it was confiscated at Porto Airport.

Another omission – our week-long holidays in both Naxos and Regua were organised by Hf Holidays, a UK group using volunteer guides and one which we used in 2004 and 2006.  We like them because they offer a ‘nest’ in the one hotel for 7 days, plenty of countryside walking and like-minded companions, never Australian in our experience.  Also, we find it easy to deal with our own excursions in a country when we’ve already been there for 7 days.  Thank you, Hf!

We have no problems making our own way in UK, using the internet to book accommodation.  Humphries Cross just outside Rye has been a great base  for exploring East Sussex and Kent.  The apartment is well equipped and comfortable; the views from our windows are so peaceful and pretty.

 

 In early morning and dusk  4-6 adult rabbits with white cottontails browse unmolested outside or in the adjacent field.  Wood pigeons with white collars and white in wings feed on the ground.  Later we see sparrows, red robins, blackbirds, crows, magpies and a few other birds I have yet to identify.

Sunday 29 May

Checked out the big pile of tourist brochures and decided that a FREE Medieval Fair at Battle (1066 and all that) would be fun.  And it was!  All the stalls had attendants in costume, everyone was happy and we loved the British sense of humour displayed by a comedy act.  Stayed long enough to see Maypole dancers, not expert, led by a child and bear (who asked for donations).  We missed out on the Singing Plague Victims.

 

David wanted to look at Rye Harbour and the Nature Reserve there later in the afternoon, despite the cool, very windy conditions.  So we set forth.  The area was very barren, being revegetated (though it was hard to see where).  We sought refuge at a small hut manned by the local natural history group before retreating back to our car and going 'home'.