Manorbier to Bosherston

Saturday 30th August 2014

On the final day of my holiday on the Pembrokeshire Coast Path I was surprised to realise that I was disappointed to be leaving Pembrokeshire. I had become used to walking many miles along the coast and despite the often unchanging routine of the landscape I missed it when I moved away from the coast. The last section of the coastal path that I did on this holiday was twelve miles from the Manorbier Youth Hostel to village of Bosherston where I had to catch a bus to start my journey home. When I left the hostel the sun was shining, which I felt was a welcome change from the previous day and what had unfortunately been the norm for much of this holiday. The rocks on this section of the Pembrokeshire coast are red sandstone, which contrasted strikingly with the volcanic rocks that I had seen earlier in my holiday. There were none of the high, dramatic sea cliffs and instead the coast was more heavily eroded with gently descending slopes down to the sea.

Generally I prefer volcanic rocks, but I still thought the coastline was spectacular and I really enjoyed my walk once I passed Manorbier Range as I was able to get a lot closer to the sea than I had been able to earlier in the holiday. There were striking vertical stripes in the rocks on the coast as I rounded Priest’s Nose and passed around Manorbier Bay, but because I had a bus to catch I needed to ensure that I kept up a brisk pace and I’d set myself targets to reach at certain locations within a timeframe that would enable me to catch the bus. Despite needing to average three miles an hour I was easily able to maintain the required pace thanks to a lack of steep gradients as the trail lacked the steep ups and downs that I’d suffered earlier in the week. Swanlake Bay and Freshwater East came and went until I reached Stackpole where the rock changed from red sandstone to grey limestone.

The change in the rock was obvious and led to a clear change in the coastline with caves, blowholes and arches becoming common place. This section of Pembrokeshire has been described as typifying why the coast was worthy of National Park status, but unless I was in too much of a hurry I really couldn’t see the appeal. While the coastline was heavily eroded into a complex line of cliffs, the land above the cliffs was flat and uninteresting apart from the multitudinous wildflowers that covered the meadows wherever farming allowed. Unfortunately I prefer the more rugged, brutal landscape of the volcanic rocks to this more beautiful, soft landscape of limestone. After lingering far too briefly at the delectable Barafundle Bay I headed out onto Stackpole Head where limestone tried its utmost to change my mind.

Here limestone cliffs were at its best with deep inlets, enticing sea-level caves and steep cliff-faces that were proving too enticing for many people who were scaling their sheer faces. I wandered around this popular point in awe of the amazing rock formations and took many pictures. Fortunately I had maintained such a fast pace during the course of the morning that I was now able to spend quite a bit of time at Stackpole Head and look at the disintegrating rocks of the peninsula. Eventually I tore myself away and made my way along the coast to Broad Haven where the path, continuing to St Govan's Head, enters Castlemartin Range, which has restricted access. In order to ensure that I caught my bus I decided to leave the coast at Broad Haven, and so I didn't need to worry about access problems and headed straight towards the village of Bosherston.

However, I had an ulterior motive as I wanted to visit the famous Lily Ponds of Bosherston. Behind Broad Haven are three limestone valleys that have been dammed to create stunning lakes that are teeming with wildlife, and most notably lilies. The lilies are at their best in early summer and since I was now a couple of months late the display was not as good as they could be, but it was still an awesome sight and to see these ponds almost full of water lilies was incredible. I was astounded by these lakes and could have easily spent the rest of the day slowly walking around and exploring the whole delightful area. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to do that, so instead I followed the route of the coastal path (for when the range is closed) over Grassy Bridge to the central causeway where the lilies of the Lily Ponds could be seen in all their glory.

Although there were only a few white lilies in bloom there was still a stunning sight before me that only got better as I climbed to the top of a small limestone hill where I behold the incredible sight of these ponds full of lilies. To see these ponds in June or July must be an awesome sight and something that is going to be difficult to avoid. Beyond the second causeway a short climb brought me to the village of Bosherston where I caught a bus to start my journey home. The Lily Ponds were a fabulous end to a holiday that was considerably more enjoyable than I’d anticipated or hoped. I usually walk up mountains, so I wasn’t sure how I would enjoy coastal walking, but I loved the coastal paths and especially the challenge of walking twenty-four miles every day for several days. I was astonished by how much I’d enjoyed the Pembrokeshire coast, so much so that as I was leaving on the bus I was thinking about returning so I could walk the sections of the path that I’d missed this time.

Saundersfoot to Manorbier

Friday 29th August 2014

My original plan for this day was to continue my walk along the Pembrokeshire Coast Path from Broad Haven, where I had reached on the trail the previous day, along the coast around the Marloes Peninsula as far as the village of Dale. Unfortunately due to a lack of availability at the Poppit Sands Youth Hostel at the start of my holiday I had been forced to delay the start of my walk around the Pembrokeshire Coast by one day and that day had to be lost somewhere and this was where it was done. Beyond Dale the coastal path enters the vast estuary of Milford Haven, an area outside of the national park dominated by unsightly oil refineries and liquefied natural gas plants. Although the trail goes past these industries I had no intention of doing so. Instead, after spending several years trying to devise a way of circumventing the enormous natural harbour, I eventually came up with a plan that literally approached it from the other direction.

Instead of restarting the coastal path after Milford Haven I caught a bus to the seaside town of Saundersfoot, just four miles from the end of the Pembrokeshire Coast Path, or is that four miles from the start? From there I walked back along the coast towards Milford Haven on the last two days of my holiday. I didn’t like the seaside resort of Saundersfoot so I quickly set off along the coast path initially along a road due to the beach route being inaccessible at high tide. The weather for this walk was once again poor with high winds, low cloud and the ever-present threat of rain. This made the walk rather tricky underfoot with slippery paths as I made my way along an otherwise pleasant route through Rhode Wood, which I thought was a nice change as woodland had been rather lacking on the trail until this point. A lot of gradient changes on the path made this a particularly tiring walk and the slippery ground did not make it any easier.

On reaching Monkstone Point I took a narrow path off the trail that ventured towards the end of the promontory, but ended above high cliffs, so I headed quickly back onto the trail reaching it just as it started to rain heavily. With the rain falling I took a very steep and very slippery path down onto Monkstone Beach where I immediately realised I had gone the wrong way. A man on the beach told me that several people over the last couple of days who had been fooled into taking the steep path down onto this beach, but that was no consolation for me having to climb all the way back up the steep and slippery path to the top of the promontory. The proper path continued to undulate with many ups and downs until eventually I reached the delightful seaside town of Tenby, and I was so relieved to have finally reached Tenby that I stopped and had my lunch overlooking the North Beach.

I am told that I have been to Tenby before, but since I was a small child at the time I have no memory of it, and the sight of it now didn’t awaken any dormant memories. However, this is a shame as I really enjoyed Tenby and was not in a hurry to rush through the resort. Where Saundersfoot was filled with amusement arcades, Tenby had a lot of promenades that were a pleasure to walk along where one could survey the wonderful beach at the bottom of the cliffs. I suppose my preference in seaside resorts are for those that have more of a Victorian feel to them rather than those that have a more commercialised, twentieth century feel to them; I prefer Torquay to Blackpool. I didn’t have a lot of miles to cover this day, unlike on my previous three days, so I was able to spend time exploring Tenby and walk to the top of Castle Hill before starting a gentle stroll along the beach.

Tenby South Beach is very extensive and except for a brief climb up to the cliff-top promenade I walked along the sands all the way from St Catherine’s Island to Giltar Point. Despite very strong winds I scrambled all the way to the end of the promontory for the great views that could be seen through the mist over the sands back to Tenby. From there I resumed the coastal path through Penally Rifle Range, which fortunately wasn’t active and was carpeted with a lovely display of wildflowers. However, the weather deteriorated at this point, and it hadn’t been great all day. It started raining again so I wrapped myself up in waterproofs again, kept my head down and kept going along the path without paying much notice to my surroundings. The rain stopped as I approached Lydstep Haven, which enabled me to drop down onto the beach before climbing up to Lydstep Point.

The rocks at this point were very different to those I’d previously seen as limestone was now the dominant rock which created a terrain remarkably different to those that I had seen on other sections of the coastal path. The weather failed to improve during the last little section of the day that brought me from Lydstep to the Manorbier Youth Hostel. This walk was considerably shorter than on my previous days when I had walked about twenty-four miles each day, and had become used to it. I now almost missed the long distances and with this walk being no more than ten miles I was left feeling rather disappointed. I might actually prefer longer walks, but I think the difference with this walk is that the terrain was less dramatic than I’d previously seen and the weather was poorer than the day before.