We took the train to Fishguard, a small town towards the north part of the trail....but the first afternoon it was pouring so this was Plan B which worked out quite welll...
The next day proved to be nice and sunny...
The town is quite colourful...
The main industry is tourism with lots of people coming here for the hiking.
We stayed in a lovely BnB just minutes from the main square and overlooking the lower town...
The tide was very low...
There are little shuttle buses to take hikers to the trail heads so the first day we hopped on one which took us a little north of the town at the beginning of a high point called Dinas Head. It was a steep start to the trail...
The wild flowers which looked like heather covered a lot of the rocks, quite beautiful...
The views were stunning...
The trail went up and down the headlands...
As we went in further there were lots of fields of sheep...
Looking back we saw the ferry from Ireland coming into Fishguard Harbour...
In lots of places the path was very near the cliff edge...
There were times I just shielded my eyes so I wouldn't have to look over the edge...
We also hiked down to many small beaches where the locals were enjoying the sunny day...
By one of the beaches there was a very old cemetery and the remains of a 12th century church...
Another beautiful beach...
Down we go again...
We have to go around lots of headlands...
We also pass houses with beautiful gardens...
Always gorgeous views in front and behind us...
Newport Harbour where we left the trail and headed into town to catch the bus back to Fishguard...
The next day it was calling for rain but we decided to do our hike anyway as when we started it was still sunny. Our hike took us from Strumble Head back into Fishguard, about 15 Kms.
The beginning of our walk...
The first thing we noticed was the grounds that were covered in all shades of purple heather which were quite striking...
The coastline ahead was quite rocky...
We walked through a lot of private farmers fields which were marked by gates that needed to be shut to keep in the animals...
Not a lot of sheep this way but horses and cattle...
We passed one lonely house...
And heather everywhere...
The trails were well marked and in great condition...
We were even invited in for tea...
Lots of tasty treats...
Beautiful streams...
Seaviews...
But then the trail became more challenging...
And the rain came....
We had another 2-3 hours to go so the camera went away, no more photo stops and we finally made it back to Fishguard soaking wet. Though we still enjoyed the hike and wished we could have stayed longer.
One more night at the pub that happened to be folk night which we really enjoyed, lots of great musicians...
Some great fish and chips with mushy peas( not sure about those!)....
It was a wonderful visit and would be nice to be able to hike more of this trail which stretches around 300kms. In 2012 the Pembrokeshire Coast Path became part of the Wales Coast Path; the world's first uninterrupted route along a national coast, and the Wales Coast Path covers 870 miles. That would be a good walk!
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