Pembrokeshire Coastal Path

The Pembrokeshire Coast Path runs for 186 miles along the coast and part of it goes from Abeireddy on to Porthgain, this is the only part of it we walked. It's said that you could walk it in one go taking about 10-15 days but the rate we walk it would take us at least double this!!

Walking along from the Blue Lagoon there is a hidden away beach, Traeth Llyfn, which has rock pools, sand and beautiful sea............and a lot of steps to get down to it!

The cliff tops were covered in butterflies - Painted Ladies, Wall, Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown, Blues.......

I think these are all Common Blue

A rather worn out Painted Lady

A less worn out Painted Lady!

Meadow Brown

Small Copper

Gatekeeper

Peacock

Meadow Brown

......and birds - Linnets, Meadow Pipits, Wheatear, Stonechats, Gulls, Raven, Crows, Sparrows and Oystercatchers, though we heard those long before we managed to spot them.

Oystercatchers

Linnet

Meadow Pipit

Wheatear

House Sparrows

Plenty of other insects buzzed around, lots of Bees, Crickets/Grasshoppers, Shield Bugs and Beetles

Pied Hover Fly?

Meadow Grasshopper?

Field Grasshopper

Sawfly?

Hairy Shieldbug

We walked on to Porthgain - lots more steps down to it and they were having a local 5 a side tournament so it was quite busy. The lady we rented the cottage from had recommended The Shed - the local Fish and Chip shop here but in the end we weren't really in the mood for fish so decided on lunch in The Sloop Inn instead, lovely big plates of food and a nice cold drink! We got ice creams for the walk back and had to eat them quickly as it was so warm. 

I've got to say the walking is fine, I can walk for hours usually but throwing in all the steps today was painful, my poor calves!! It was all worth it though. 

The view looking away from the sea

and towards it

So our little bit of the Coastal Walk took us a good few hours and it was just beautiful. I'd love to go back to walk other parts of it some day.

Pembrokeshire Holiday

We spent a few days away last week in Wales, we stayed in a cottage on a cliff top with a sea view pretty much in the middle of nowhere...........and it was lovely!

Within the first 10 minutes of exploring the garden I saw a new butterfly for me with two Walls in the grass - the first of many.

Speckled Wood

Common Blue

Small White

Small Tortoiseshell

Magpie Moth, I saw this in the same part of the garden every morning

Being an early riser (even on holiday) I was up by 6.30 most mornings and sat in the garden watching Gulls, Ravens, Crows, Swallows, Jackdaws overhead and in the garden itself a pair of Robins, Magpies, Chiffchaff, Dunnock Blue and Great Tits, Goldfinch, Blackcap, Linnets and a Pied Wagtail that spent a lot of time filling its beak with bugs off the lawn. It was the perfect way to start the day.

Pied Wagtail

Robin

Chiffchaff

Linnet

Jackdaw

Gulls

Goldfinch

Blackcap

Linnet

Magpie

Great Tit

We were about a five minute walk from Abereiddy beach, which was a really pebbly beach and very popular with coasteering and there were lots of (organised) groups doing this during the day.

A little further on from the beach was the Blue Lagoon, a former slate quarry, which during the day was very busy with the coasteering and cliff jumping! The first time we walked here it was early evening and deserted apart from a young Wheatear at the bottom of the cliffs.

I'll do a separate post for the coastal path itself.

In the reeds behind Abereiddy beach we saw more Linnets and a small group of birds together which I finally confirmed as Common Whitethroat, an adult and possibly three or four young ones but they didn't stay out in the open for long.

We also saw this Beetle on it's back on a path nearby, it couldn't seem to turn over so I helped it get right side up again, i'm not sure what it is though, a Dor Beetle maybe? It looked like it had little shoes on!

Though you can't tell from the photo this mushroom was almost a foot high

Elsewhere we saw quite a few Red Kites, Kestrels and Buzzard including this young one that regularly sat on a telegraph pole near where we were staying. Excuse the wonky photo it was taken from the car window!

Swallows were everywhere

We checked out Newgale beach along the coast, it was busy with people but so long there was enough space for everyone. 

Oystercatchers

This clam kept opening and closing and with a wave ended up clinging to a piece of seaweed

Mermaids Purse

The views from the garden were stunning, this was the sunset on our last evening

I've got a couple more posts to do including our day on Ramsey Island.