Pembrokeshire Holiday 7-14 September 2008

This year we spent a week in a house in Marloes on the Welsh Pembrokeshire coast with our family, and also El, Tim and little Charlie. Here is a picture of the lovely house we stayed in with the Moore and Clapp families out front, plus a photo of the Moore family close up also in front of the house. This was when we'd just arrived to a lovely sunny Autumn evening after a fairly long day of driving. The garden was full of apple trees (and windfalls) and had great views over the countryside, and you could just see the Murco refinery on the horizon! The house had plenty of room to play and places to explore, including a large lounge that opened into the garden, and a smaller snug lounge.

The first day we went on a hearty cliff top walk together around the Marloes peninsula with the tots in rucksacks, and had a picnic close to Musselwick Sands. We  caught our first views of the stunning coastline round these parts and, got home just before the rain came. Rosie fell asleep on the walk back to the house - aww cute. Before dinner we all headed out for Marloes sands, the local rocky beach. On the way down Phil caught sight of these two choughs (very rare coastal crow relatives which can be seen round here) and was very excited about it. Lucky I had the camera to hand.

Tuesday was a cloudy and rainy day so we went to Pembroke Castle (without the Clapps). We enjoyed doing some good exploring of the castle and town, and had lunch at a toddler-friendly place that Phil had stumbled upon when in these parts a week or so ago to visit refineries. Today Phil also treated the family to some views of the Pembroke and Milford Haven refineries from strategic spots around the Haven, before we warmed up with coffee and cake on the Milford Haven harbour front. The best view of the Milford Haven refinery seems to be from our house though.

In the middle of the week Phil went off for a windy but impressive day bird watching on her own on Skomer Island (not really suitable for tots) while Andrew and Rosie recce'd local beaches. Arriving at Skomer I saw several seals on the rock in the sheltered bay. Further into the island there were ravens on the exposed rocks and cliffs, which made me think about Odin and the Vikings. Lovely birds. The whole island is covered with burrows in which some puffins and thousands of shearwaters nest each year. Too late in the season to see puffins, and the shearwaters are nocturnal, so you get a sense of lots of birds that aren't visible! The final picture of Skomer below is one Tim took on our last evening as he watched the sunset from Martin's Haven.

Another rainy day took both families off to Folly Farm, which combines a children's farm, a small zoo, indoor and outdoor adventure play and a covered funfair in one place. Both tots had a great time, and in fact we were so busy having fun that we forgot to take any photos! Luckily El snapped us having our picnic lunch. The next day we were back outdoors enjoying the coastline and some sunshine later in the day to make sandcastles on Broadhaven beach and Rosie had great fun splashing in the waves in the sea. In her wellies and all-in-one (borrowed from Charlie) she kept warm enough, even when completely drenched. She seems to share Andrew's love of the sea.

The next day was our last full day of holiday, but the sun shone strong and warm all day and so we all ended up back at Broadhaven. Rosie again was having plenty of fun running all over the wide stretches of flat sand, splashing in the streams running out to sea and crashing through the waves. Her little face says it all in these pictures.

That evening Andrew returned to Broadhaven to watch the sunset over the sea and took this stunning photo.

Before we headed home in the morning we went for one last rucksack walk down to Martin's Haven (the launch spot for the boat to Skomer) which is just down the road from Marloes. We were lucky to spot three seals in the water in the small harbour, and when we climbed up the cliff the get a better view from above, we saw one seal haul itself onto the sheltered part of the beach and then a baby seal came out to greet its mother and have some milk. A very special moment, but the camera had run out of power by then so you'll have to imagine it. More pictures of Pembrokeshire can be seen on El's Pembroke holiday webpage.