We left London on the 19th August 2013 on a road trip to explore the lands of Wales, which the Welsh call Cymru. We hired a Toyota Aygo from our local car hire place (Kendall Cars Wandsworth), overloaded our car with far too much camping stuff and hit the road. We borrowed a map book as well as a GPS from my brother, Shaun. We ended up turning off the GPS and exploring the countryside with my, not so good, navigation skills.
Our first stop was a campsite in the South of Wales, called Oxwich. My brother had camped in that area a few weeks before us and recommended the area. We quickly set up camp and eagerly headed out to go exploring.
On our first day there we decided to go exploring. We followed a path leading past Oxwich castle and along some cliffs with a great lookout point. Unfortunately Oxwich Castle was not open for the duration of our stay, so only got to see it from the other side of the fence. The farm walls along the path were all dry stacked rocks and the views were extraordinary.
On the way back, we collected some dry logs and sticks to use for our campfire…..BUT to our horror, we arrived back at our campsite and saw a big sign saying ‘No Campfires allowed’. Now, our idea of camping is sitting around a campfire in the evening, so we were both not very happy about this. However, we kept our coals lit for longer than necessary and Bud found some twigs which we used to make a few flames and bit of smoke. Cooked some burger patties on the fire and retired into our tent soon after sunset.
The next morning we got up nice and early, made a delicious egg and bacon breakfast and headed off to the beach. To our amazement, the tide was so low that we had to walk about 300m to get to the water. One thing that we couldn't quite fathom was how crowded the stony/ rocky beach was on Oxwich castle side and a mere 15 minute walk down the beach you practically have your own private sandy beach. Seems like people are quite happy having their 4x4 SUV's parked only 15 metres away…We walked all along the waters edge to a nearby place called 3 cliffs. Here we found some incredible caves and rock pools as well as a spatula shaped stick which we still use today for cooking.
The water in the rock pools was an emerald blue colour and looked so inviting. We both had a quick dip as the water was very cold and explored a few caves which went far into the cliff. Further up the beach, past the high tide mark and half way up the cliff, we found an emerald blue rock pool filled with millions of tiny fish. The fish were all jumping out the pond in a desperate attempt to escape a death of drowning in an evaporated pond and baking in the Welsh sunlight. The few rays of sun would catch the silver skin of the fish creating a spectacular display. I have no idea how those fish got all the way up there.
Back at our campsite, we spoilt ourselves with a piece of steak and a mielie braaied to perfection, along with some potato and rice salad bought from the shop around the corner which we washed down with some sherry that we warmed up on the fire (recipe compliments of Brendon ‘uncle rinkhals’ Lee.
The next morning, we packed up all our stuff and started heading west. We stopped along the way for breakfast at a spot with a view and ate half a hollowed out melon filled with muesli and yoghurt (delicious). We decided to take a detour onto some farm roads to escape all forms of motorway traffic and stumbled across Pembertons chocolate farm. Here we stayed for a factory tour and got to taste some good chocolate as well as make our very own truffles. From here, we continued on some farm roads following my navigation, until we reached out next destination…..Fishguard.
Our campsite at Fishguard had a spectacular view which we appreciated at sunset that evening with some classy Morrisons Brandy and coke whilst overlooking the ocean. Later the local Fish and Chips van arrived at the campsite, which is said to be the best fish and chips in the area. It was ….nice. The next morning, we packed up and went for a long walk along the coast. After walking for about 5 min’s, we bumped into a couple who had been walking for 2 hours along the coast and told us that we were the first forms of human life which they had seen the whole morning. Subsequently, they were the last forms of human life which we saw during our walk. We walked for about 40 min’s taking in the scenery and animals and eventually came across a beautiful pebble beach in a bay, sheltered by cliffs on either side. Of course, we had a quick skinny dip, took in the beauty and continued on our way.
Our next stop was Beddgelert situated in the Snowdonia National Park. We stayed in a campsite and pitched our tent a few metres from a fresh water stream. That evening we went exploring Beddgelert, a town named after a dog named ‘Gelert’, a faithful hound of the medieval Welsh Prince Llewelyn the Great (see sad story about the faithful hound in the pictures below).
The next day, we headed for the base of Mount Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales (1067 m above sea level). We took the Snowdon Ranger path as the friendly lady at the information office suggested that is was fairly easy and quiet. It was really warm at the base of the mountain, however, as we got higher and higher, the cold welsh wind and rain came. At the top, we celebrated our climb with a cold Snowdon Beer before making our way back to camp.
The next morning we packed up camp and slowly drove along the coast in the direction of Liverpool......
"It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves" Sir Edmund Hillary