The Hiscocks family have been holidaying in far west Pembrokeshire for 50 years. Regular readers of this blog will have seen previous posts of our times down here. It's a spot that holds a special place in our families heart, with both my parents ashes scattered on one of the beaches here.
Normally, of course despite usually coming down in August, the weather can be mixed, and packing raincoats and warm clothes is pretty mandatory. Although we needn't have bothered.
For the first time I can remember, we had a week of wall to wall sunshine, and more amazingly, the heat to go with it and virtually no wind. With the UK basking in the second heatwave of the year, and the driest first half of the year since 1976 it was as warm as the Mediterranean normally is - although large parts of the Med were experiencing even hotter weather this year.
As always, we had a fantastic time. The local campsite owners where the rest of my family stay, say it's been very quiet all year, but I thought the area was heaving - certainly during the week we were there.
We stayed in a town house slap bang in the middle of St Davids. Very handy for shops, pubs (if you could fight your way to the bar) and restaurants (if you could find/book a table). What was very evident was that nearly all hospitality places, from cafes to restaurants and pubs, were hiring and short staffed. The problem is that there's nowhere, or nowhere affordable, for potential short term staff to stay for the summer. Holiday lets are far too expensive, and temporary, affordable accommodation is in very short supply.
However, on to the holiday!
We started by calling in at Solva on the way as we usually do, and climbing the Gribyn hill on the side of Solva harbour, one of my favourite places anywhere. The views over St Brides Bay are gorgeous. We then called at the campsite to catch up with those of my family who were around, before a bunch of us drove to Strumble head for a short 30 minute coast path walk round to a secluded rocky bay called Porthsychan. Secluded that is apart from the seals. There were several bobbing around in the bay watching as we swam, picnicked and generally lazed about for a few hours.
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| Glorious Solfa/Solfach from the Gribyn. |
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| Stumble Head light |
Saturday was a lazy day, catching up with family on the campsite before popping to Caerfai Bay in the evening for those that wanted to swim or paddle board.
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| Caerfai |
Sunday saw a trip to Scolton Manor, just outside Haverfordwest. Somewhere I'd never been in all our years of holidaying in Pembrokeshire. It was OK, although to be honest there wasn't that much to see or do. Still a nice walk in the woods, an ice cream made for a pleasant couple of hours.
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| There be dragons at Scolton |
On Monday a few us us climbed one of the local rocky hills, Penberry/Penberi, a 175m lump of rock not far from the campsite. Not an overly strenuous climb, but required some wading through bracken and gorse, but the views were worth it across to Ramsey Island , Stumble Head and as far as Skomer and towards Milford across St Brides Bay. We also saw a smoke form a wild fire on a small island just off the coast.
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| On Penberry/Penberi |
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| View towards Ramsey Island from Penberry/Penberi |
In the afternoon we had a pre-booked power boat trip around Ramsey with Falcon Boats - fabulous as always, and despite having done these trips before, learned some new stuff from the experienced and knowledgable crew. We saw seals, oystercatchers, peregrines, kittiwakes, guillemots, jellyfish, shags, petrels, fulmars and more.
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| Exploring a sea cave on Ramsey Island |
That evening the "kids" (anyone under the age of 27) went to a local (just outside the gate) pizza place, whilst the oldies had a great catch up meal in our holiday home.
Tuesday saw us do a long beach day on our favourite beach - Abereiddy, home of the famous Blue Lagoon, an old slate quarry. Parking's a nightmare, and managed by the coasteering groups so an early start saw us get there for 8.30am whereupon there was a slight altercation between my elder brother and a car park attendant (a "you can't park there" altercation, but eventually resolved amicably(ish). The altercation was interrupted (and probably resolved) by the sight of a dolphin pod swimming in the bay - a rare treat here indeed. After that it was seven hours of lazing, kayaking, swimming, jumping of rocks (not me) and more picnics.
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| Blue Pool, Abereiddy |
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| Abereiddy Bay |
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| Intrepid explorers |
Wednesday saw our two (grown up) kids have a lie in, whilst Anne and I went for a four mile circular walk on the stunning coast path alongside Ramsey Sound. It was a fairly gently stroll, before the sun got too hot. Again, wildlife was spotted regularly - oystercatchers, choughs, shags, but the highlight was spotting a seal, and then realising that it was adjacent to a rocky cove where a mother seal was feeding a newborn seal pup. In the evening we had a decent meal at the Bishop's pub/restauarant in St David's.
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| Mother seal and pup |
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| Ramsey and Ramsey Sound |
Our last day on Thursday (we had to be out of our house by 9am on Friday!) a gang of us went to Picton Castle & Gardens just outside Haverfordwest. It was the hottest day of the week, uncomfortably hot to do too much, so a wander around the gardens hunting for shade, a picnic and an ice cream was all we were good for! The highlight of the day was the owl Gardens and zoo - we watched Freddie the otter being fed, alongside an excellent and knowledgeable patter by his keeper, and then a similarly engrossing talk from the owl keeper as he flew four of five of the 25 odd owl species they have there, including a glorious eagle owl.
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| Freddie the otter |
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| Eagle owl |
The day was topped off as I took some pictures of the rising Sturgeon Supermoon over St Brides Bay, a great bookend to the fabulous sunsets we saw all week.
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| Sturgeon Supermoon over St Brides Bay |
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| One of the glorious sunsets |
We were, as always sad to leave and come home, but happy in the knowledge that we will, of course be back, whether it's next years family break or maybe just a day or two to pop down the M4 - after all, it's barely a couple of hours away.
Just don't tell anyone about this place........
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