Walk 375 -- Abercastle to Abereiddi

Ages:  Colin was 75 years and 36 days.  Rosemary was 72 years and 178 days.

Weather:  Mostly overcast.  Breezy and warm.

Location:  Abercastle, via Porthgain, to Abereiddi.

Distance:  6½ miles.

Total distance:  3865½ miles.

Terrain:  Undulating grassy cliff paths.  Some deep clefts to overcome.

Tide:  Out, coming in.

Rivers:  None.

Ferries:  None.

Piers:  None.

Kissing gates:  Nos.898 & 899 just outside Trefin.

Pubs:  The Sloop Inn at Porthgain where we drank ‘Warrior’ brewed by Evan Evans and ‘Farmhouse Scrumpy’ made by Cowynty Draig.

‘Cadw’ properties:  None.

Ferris wheels:  None.

Diversions:  None.

How we got there and back:  We were holidaying in our caravan near Whitesands Bay.  This morning we drove to Abereiddi and parked in the free car park on the beach.  We caught a bus to Abercastle.

At the end we came to the car.  We had some tea and chocolate biscuits, then drove back to our caravan. 

 

I'm  back !

Two years and two new knees later, I'm back walking the coastline of mainland Britain!

I was seriously depressed when I found I was unable to go for a simple walk in the countryside – when the pain was so bad I couldn’t even walk round a supermarket – when my knees gave way suddenly and I couldn’t take another step without falling – when I was told the pin in my left thigh would have to be removed, but that was so difficult it might destroy my leg and put me in a wheelchair – when they kept telling me that the pain in my knees wasn’t as bad as I said it was – when all they would do was prescribe painkillers and ‘happy’ pills – when appointments with surgeons were cancelled and I couldn’t get another despite hours on the phone – when my GP told me to come to terms with the fact that I would never be able to continue the Coastal Trek……… 

When I was at my lowest ebb a friend told me to go back to my GP and ask for a second opinion.  Wow! all of a sudden things started moving!  I saw a surgeon who was positive.  He looked at the X-rays and was appalled at the state of my knees.  He told me he could give me a new left knee without removing the pin.  And this was all at a private hospital, though funded by the NHS.  My left knee, the really troublesome one, is now ten months old.  My right knee, which was fast deteriorating in the same way, is now four and a half months old.  And I am good to go! 

We started today’s Walk at the exact spot on Abercastle Beach where we were forced to give up two years ago.  We followed the path along the clifftop on the west side of the inlet and rounded the point.  The path followed the clifftop

very closely — some of it was easy and some challenging.  The occasional cleft wasn’t nice, some of the steps were huge!  I found it more difficult going down than going up.  I couldn’t have done it without my poles, and without Colin helping me over the more difficult bits.

But it was well worth it.  The scenery was amazing, with lots of interesting geology, dramatic rock arches and caves.  The wild flowers were nice, and a wren was singing its heart out on the top of a foxglove.  I felt like doing the same!  I was so happy to be back. 

We began to meet other walkers — in particular we were passed by two men who had been on our bus this morning where we’d had a conversation about knees.  (It is surprising how many people suffer with bad knees as they get older.)  Colin opened a bag of crisps and ate them as he walked along, he said it was his elevenses.

We passed a ruined building, some sort of industrial past we assumed.  Next to it was the remains of a stile just the right height for a bench, and for the first time on this Walk I was able to have a sit-down rest.

At last we reached Trefin where we found a proper seat I could sit on.  (I can’t get up from the ground because the muscles in my legs are not strong enough, and I cannot kneel on my new knees.  So I have to look around for something that is the right height for a seat before I can sit down.) 

At Trefin we came across a ruined corn mill.  I sat on a slate seat and ate a banana (my elevenses) while Colin looked around.  There were some millstones inside a ruined building, but that was all really.  Apparently there had been a corn mill on this site for five hundred years, but this one closed in 1918 when it became economically unviable. 

We had to walk about a hundred yards on a quiet road before we turned off on to the clifftop path again past a stone circle.  Somehow this didn’t look particularly ancient, and it is not marked on the map.  Is it, perhaps, a folly?  Dead in the middle of it were nettles covering loads of sticks, and we wondered at the significance of this.  Further on there was a standing stone which looked equally unreal. 

We passed more fantastic scenery — I was so happy to be walking along the coast again I wanted to sing at the top of my voice!!  Life is wonderful! 

As we approached Porthgain we could see white marker posts on the cliff top each side of the harbour entrance so that it can be seen by ships at sea.  We didn’t bother to go right out to the cairn as it was only a few yards away and a dead end, so we thought, but followed what seemed to be the main path round so we could get a view of the harbour below.

The path down from there was very difficult — slippery, steep and narrow.  Colin had to help me down.  We were nearly at the bottom before we realised we were not on the proper path which swept round in a wider circle and was of a much better quality.  It wasn’t evident from the top, it must have been behind the cairn. 

We chatted with a couple from Bristol who were sitting on the harbour sketching the view.  Then we went to a fish’n’chip restaurant for our lunch — lovely fish’n’chips beautifully cooked, almost too much to eat.  We both felt better then.

We went across to the Sloop Inn and relaxed in their garden with drinks — Colin was pleased that the Round-Britain-Beer-Tasting Trek had resumed!  We spent a good long time resting in Porthgain. 

We also had a look round this amazing hidden harbour.  It was built in 1851 to export local slate.  In the early 1900s it was extended to allow in more and bigger ships.  Stone was quarried nearby and has been used to surface roads all over the country.  Bricks were also made from the waste at the slate quarry, and exported from here.

Nowadays it is mostly a tourist hotspot and contains a few small fishing boats and leisure craft.  As we were about to leave we met the two men again whom we had chatted to on the bus this morning.  They seemed surprised that I had got so far on my new knees!  They, too, had been fooled by that false path leading down to the harbour. 

The way out of the harbour was up a steep flight of steps straight up to the cliff top.  At the bottom was a weird plant the like of which we had never seen before.  At the top was a beautiful wild flower.

I took my time, and using the handrail my knees got me to the top!  There we met two Welsh ladies who were very chatty.  They asked if we were going to the Blue Lagoon, which they weren’t, and we told them we had heard it spoken of but weren’t sure exactly where it was.  They answered, “Over Abereiddi way!” pointing vaguely in the direction we were going.  It turned out they were retired teachers, as I am, and old college friends.  I told them about my B.Ed honorary degree which I gained last month, and they knew nothing about it.  They wondered how they could get hold of theirs. 

(When I qualified as a teacher in 1966 I was awarded the Teacher’s Certificate, and it was always emphasised to us students that it was not a degree because the standard wasn’t high enough.  A few months ago an old college friend rang me to say she had heard from a friend of a friend that, after 51 years, we were now entitled to an honorary B.Ed degree because our old college was now a University and had decided that the three years study we had put in all those years ago was of degree standard!  We could apply by post for our certificates, or take part in a ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall in London on the 15^th of May!!  So that is what I did, and I met up with ‘girls’ I hadn’t seen in over fifty years!  Over five thousand teachers, mostly retired, had applied to receive these certificates, and I and my friends were amongst the 2200 lucky ones to gain tickets to attend the ceremony.  The oldest teacher there was aged 96, and several teachers aged over a hundred had applied for their certificates to be sent by post — it meant so much to all of us.  I felt a bit sad that my sister, Veronica, was also entitled to the degree, but she died two years ago knowing nothing about it.  Otherwise it was a wonderful day, and I got my degree fifty-one years after I had passed the exams!) 

The two miles from Porthgain to Abereiddi is fairly flat and easy going, but I was extremely tired by the time we arrived.  I have tried to keep up my fitness since my operations, but it takes a long time to build up the strength.

At one point on the route we almost lumbered ourselves by following an old train track from slate mining days which went slightly inland.  Luckily I saw our mistake before we had gone too far, and we were able to rectify it.

We passed fantastic scenery and hidden beaches on our way.  One particularly beautiful beach we would love to have walked along, but it was too far to go down to it only to come up again. 

As we approached Abereiddi we came to the edge of the cliffs and there was the Blue Lagoon.  It is a large pond hued out of the cliffs where slate has been taken away.  It is very deep and very blue.

Later we visited Abereiddi on one of our ‘rest’ days, and watched youngsters on a ‘coasteering’ activity jump in from great heights — not for me that kind of thing!

A zigzag path led us down to Abereiddi Beach.  There we met those two men from the morning bus for the third time.  We stopped for another chat.  They were waiting for the bus to take them back to St David’s, but our car was in the car park right there. 

 

That ended Walk no.375, we shall pick up Walk no.376 next time in Abereiddi Beach car park.  It was quarter past five, so the Walk had taken us seven and a quarter hours, but that did include about two hours resting in Porthgain. We had some tea and chocolate biscuits, then drove back to our caravan.