Cyfarchion gan Cymru

Posted by stephen on Thursday, 15th September, 2005 @ 00:00

That's greetings from Wales, in case you don't speak Welsh. Or in case you can speak Welsh and I didn't successfully guess how you'd construct that phrase from looking up the words in an online dictionary.

I'm here in occasionally sunny Wales on holiday for the week with my brother, staying with my wonderful aunt and uncle at their home-cum-village shop in the small village of Penrhiwllan, in the county of Ceredigion.

Millions of pictures have been taken and some of the goodens will make their way to the website at the weekend. I tried to upload some last night, but 2Mb pics don't seem to fit well down a rather occasional GPRS link.

We arrived in glorious sunshine on Monday, having followed my of my Dad's route, going up the M1, along the M6, down the A46 and along the M50. Took us about 5h30m in all, with a couple of stops for refreshment.

Was lovely to see my aunt and uncle again, and the house is coming on tremendously, the kitchen especially has changed so much since I last visited. I really need to get off my arse and start sorting my house out! And I don't work 7 days a week like they do.

Yesterday we revisted a favourite place of ours, the village of Llanstefan. We stumbled upon it when we were down with Dad back in January. It's so wonderfully unspoilt, the beach was amazing and the castle is fantastic. And we went from some of the most dramatic dark clouds in the sky to some beautiful sunshine while we were there.

From there we journeyed further along the coast, through the seaside town of Tenby and on to a place called Manorbier, Pembrokeshire. This time we had to pay for the parking, which later became worth it, and for a wander around the castle. Despite being well maintained, it felt very inauthentic and was certainly more touristy than the free, and rather isolated Llanstefan Castle. But never mind!

The journey to Manorbier was then made worthwhile as we wandered up from the beach along the edge of the cliffs. It was a long and occasionally wearing walk, but absolutely worthwhile for the views, and the surprise just around the next cliff face.

For there we found a glorious, secluded beach, contained by two cliffs and only accessible by sea or footpaths that go on for a couple of miles in any direction. Just this small section of golden sand miles away from civilisation.

Then there was today, but more about that soon...