It was another weekend without alot planned until Thursday night. Harry had had a busy week what with working one night, playing skittles another and going to "It's Complicated" one evening (the new Meryl Streep movie - good film - it managed to put a bit of humour into a story that would have been too realistic for many of us without the occasional laugh). By Thursday night I gave Harry the ultimatum - here is a list of things we could do - choose one!! So, the choices were a 30 mile bike ride around the Cotswolds Water Park, a visit to an old house up Gloucester way, a walk up the Brecon Mountains, a visit to an old castle or a walk around the coastline of St Govan's Head. They all looked really interesting (according to me) and all required a certain amount of energy and so he settled for the walk around St Govan's Head to Stack Rocks in South Pembrokeshire. So on with the walking boots...
The walk took us from St Govan's Head to Stack Rocks (oops already said that) and through some of the most spectacular seascapes we have seen (coming from two Kiwis who live on a small island with a magnificent extensive coastline that is saying something). There was the little St Govan's Chapel - for some reason built between two rocks and down a steep flight of steps. We walked down, through the chapel and down to the rocky beach. Here waves crashed onto the shore and with the sun shining on only the higher parts of the cliffs this would have been a very cold and lonely place to live. During medieval times this place was known for curing eye diseases and lameness. Not sure why only those two problems (but certainly the access would have made it difficult for those with seeing and walking difficulties - so I guess it was only the believers that made the trek). It was built in the sixth century and the healing waters were drawn from a little well in the chapel. No-one really knows who St Govan was but there are a few stories hanging around - but since I had heard nothing about any of the legends I won't bother repeating them.
Our walk took us along the line of a millitary firing range - no red flags flying and no sign that said 'Closed due to Firing' so we ventured forth past lots of signs that told us not to pick up any metal objects as they might explode and kill us. We saw some but given we like what we are doing at the moment we decided to obey orders. Along our walk we were in for a bunch of surprises - and we found ourselves constantly surprised with what appeared to be a flat plateau turning into a precipice - oops watch your footing and hang on to those dogs and children! There was the Stennis Ford which was a rock that split in two many years ago - a clean deep split from the top to the bottom (we thought about 100 metres) - too wide you can't jump over it, so we had to go around it. My book (a very good book on Coastal walks in England and Wales of which we have now done 18 out of the 54 walks) describes the ford as a "relatively narrow gap which has impressive precipitous walls descending to a small inaccessible beach and was probably formed by the sea eroding a bedding crack in the limestone to form a cave, and then the ford when the cave roof collapsed". We could see evidence of this happening all along the cliff tops - holes less than a foot wide sank deep down in the ground and with a thunderous noise the sea came crashing in and the wind blew the long grass as it escaped up the blow hole (good thing we were both wearing trousers). Deep down the sea would rattle away and then head out again for the next wave and wind chorus. Then there were the bigger holes many years older (which if you weren't looking you could easily fall the 100 metres to the rocks below - I was glad I had left my little bit of vertigo behind today) where you could not just hear but see the sea below. Then we stumbled across Huntsman's Leap. Stumbled really was the right word! I walked up the hill expected to walk along the flat to the cliff edge but the edge was quite a few metres closer than I expected. Oops step back, deep breath, take a photo and walk on! Huntsman's Leap is a split in the rock with a deep dive down to the sea below. We were really standing on a stone bridge as the sea tumbled into the caves below us. Many years ago a hunter tried to leap across from one side to the other. He achieved it but then when he looked back and saw the enormity (and stupidity) of his actions he was so shocked he fell over and died. My book describes it as a "130 feet deep gash in the ground with walls that touch at its seaward end". The area is known for its butterflies (didn't see any), bees (that came around as we picnicked on rock cakes and a cup of tea in the shelter of a hill - Harry had carried that thermos and the food all the way from the car and there was no way we were going to share it with a bunch of bees - rare or not rare). It was a lovely sunny sheltered spot that we shared with the bees and the sheep dropppings and we could have stayed there quite a lot longer than we did.
And it is a sign of the times that during our walk I said to Harry "Who would win the rugby?" and he said "It would be tough but probably England would have it over Wales" and I said "I was talking about the rugby 7's not the 6 nations". On the way back we decided to stop and have an early dinner. We managed to find a pub in Pentlepoir which didn't seem to have much going for it at this time of year - but in the summer is probably home to a hive of holiday makers with static caravan and tenting sites and a few bed and breakfasts along the way. The pub was crowded -we had unknowingly arrived 5 minutes into the Wales versus England game. Well there were a number of Welsh supporters in red shirts and we discovered as we stole two chairs from a restaurant and a little round table from the dog (the red setter after sniffing our bags and us went back to his pew like chair by the bar without the little round table), quite a number of English supporters who clapped and smiled alot as England raced away to their 30-17 victory, a lone Irishman wearing a bright green shirt who worked in the bar and us dressed appropriately in black.
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