Carmarthenshire

The youth hostel was a great success.  Except for the army firing range, next door on the cliff.  Throughout the evening there were a few super-loud bangs as they fired something at something.  I felt feeling recharged, literally and metaphorically. 

After complaining about the lack of traditional Welsh hospitality in the wildest bits of Pembrokeshire  national park yesterday, Wales has laid it on thick today.  At the YH they opened the restaurant  and laid on the full breakfast  offering just for me  with a full range of foods.  It would have been rude not to try everything. 

Tenby harbour 

Round the corner was Tenby, stunning in the sunshine with everything a tourist could want, including blue plaques for several famous people.  Over a hill to Saundersfoot, where family Lambourn learned to sail (sort of) fifty years ago.  My memories of it are fading but I think we were all extremely  good at it, probably the best students that have ever had.  On our final day my brother and I even competed in a race, by mistake.

Saundersfoot

On the way to Saundersfoot I bumped into a couple of cyclists I'd seen yesterday in Pembroke Tesco's, Susan and Andrew.  They are riding NCN route 4 in stages.  It turns out they live in Nailsea, near Bristol and near where my sister lives, and Andrew's sister lives in Twickenham.  We are almost like family, so I decided to share my Welsh cakes with them.

Cycle path

Saundersfoot still has a sailing school, probably still trading on our reputation,  and what's more it has a completely  flat cycle route round the coast, including a few tunnels through cliffs, for a couple of miles.  Several nice seaside villages led to Pendine Sands - another one.  This one had a museum of speed and a military firing range, so it was probably the more famous one. 

A few more miles led me to pretty Laugharne, pronounced Larne, aka Talacharn, which caused much confusion in a discussion with my new family members Susan and Andrew.  Laugharne, on the river Taf estuary, is famous for Dylan Thomas and has a very impressive castle.  Plenty of cafes and pubs too.  A great morning.

Laugharne Castle

Talacharn 

Dylan Thomas' writing hut overlooking the Taf at Larne

The afternoon  was less exciting but still had drama.  My general direction was north to Carmarthen, about 20 miles and seemingly packed with hilly lanes.  My lunch was not up to the challenge of powering me so it was hard going.

At one point I came down a particularly  steep  winding and scary hill to find a car crash had just happened  at the bottom..   A car came down to find a Tesco van stopped at the bottom to let an oncoming car pass.  The elderly car driver's foot slipped off the brake to the accelerator, and he just missed the Tesco van by driving into the verge, obliterating a direction sign and stopping against a tree.  Luckily he wasn't  badly injured, but must have been very shocked.  The Tesco driver  called 999 and waited, but there was nothing I could do to help so I left them to it.

Another lane, another hill later, and the Tesco van passed me.  The driver said all three emergency services attended  which is hard to imagine in that tiny lane.  I hope the gentleman  is OK.

It's forecast to rain early evening so I developed a cunning plan.  Eat in Carmarthen and find somewhere  to stay tonight.  A nice pub called Yr Hen Dderwen (The Priory Oak), a Wetherspoons,  fit the bill, and I'm hopeful that a campsite 10 miles further on will do the same.  Not much to say about Carmarthen except that it has a fiendish one-way system.