My B&B was run by a bustling elderly lady who had limited vision, but she wasn't going to let that impede her. I think she had been running the place (and the attached hostel) for years, and she knew where everything was, so not being able to see it was only a minor problem. As she was feeling her way around the table, looking for a pen to write me a receipt, I asked her how hilly it was on the way to Fishguard. "Oh, not too bad" she said, not very convincingly.
They were right, but wrong if you went on the small lanes, which I did. The sunshine of the last few days has been replaced by a thin mist engulfing everything, so there were very few views to note on the journey south west towards Cardigan. I am definitely heading out west again in my journey round the semicircular coastline of west Wales. It seems a bit less populated too.
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| View back towards Aberystwyth |
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| Aberaeron beach |
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| Aberaeron harbour |
The first potential coffee stop was Aberaeron, after twenty miles. A seaside town with a rubbish seaside but nice harbour surrounded by multi-coloured houses, and interesting shops. My favourites were Elephants And Bananas, and The Famous £1.20+ Shop. Everything for £1.20 or more. It's possibly a re-branding idea for Harrods.
A succession of little valleys with little to show for it except tired legs led eventually to New Quay, a lovely seaside town built onto the side of a very steep hill.
Another unpromising brake-clenching and buttock-clenching descent (with hairpin bends) took me to Cwmtydu, altitude 3 metres, which looked like an empty valley but had a few houses, a car park and a very nice cafe. And a climb to 165metres afterwards. The sun had come out by now and it was hot and humid on the way up, and cold on the way down the hills.
This was the first of a succession of similar seaside experiences, including the hills: Llangrannog, Penbryn, Tresaith (a small village) and Aberporth (bigger town). The hill-ometer was whizzing round and I was wondering how much more I could manage - and I was only half way to Fishguard. All the beaches were lovely, and empty save a few people. It would all be so different if it was, say, a bank holiday.
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| Cwmtydu |
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| Llangranog |
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| St Grannog, the founder of Llangrannog |
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| Penbryn |
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| Tresaith |
Then I realised. It is a bank holiday weekend tomorrow. I wonder if there will be anywhere to stay? I stopped at the only cafe, a chip shop, to ponder my options Tea was, er, tea and the last one of this morning's croissants.
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| Aberporth |
I decided to ride off into the sunset and let the rest sort itself out later. As I left town, I was confronted by an Eiger lookalike hill, which took me so high that the MOD had built a radar station on it.
You're going to have tree-mendous leg muscles after this Simon. Good piccies- looks like the weather picked up as the day went on.
ReplyDeleteGood to see this part of the coast, Simon. My mother's family comes from here, and in the 1950s I spent several summer holidays in Aberporth with my Aunt Esther. Her house was called the North Pole, and, even in summer, it was easy to understand why ...
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