New Year 2014/2015

 

 



Hello pawb,

 

Well the Christmas and New Year period has come and gone again. I hope that Santa brought you everything you wanted and that you all had a great (sober and reflective!) time seeing in the New Year (Muha!). As for the Tawe Trekkers we saw 2016 in in the beautiful surroundings of the Pembrokeshire coastal path from our base at Upper Neeston Lodges, Milford Haven. I'm happy to say that the trip was a resounding success and has been a fruitful learning experience for me.

 

We arrived on Tuesday in fits and starts so we didn't get the chance to go on our planned short walk up to Blackbridge. This came in handy for later though so no worries. Once enough of us had arrived we headed down to the newly developed Marina area of Milford Haven and shared some drinks in the very cosy Harbourmaster Restaurant/bar. The food here was pretty damn sweet and I seem to recall having to eventually return to the bunkhouse in order to release my belt buckle.

 

We arose on New Years Eve and after some discussion I decided to make some changes to the planned walk in order to keep our lives simple. We convoyed 20 minutes west down the coast to Dale, and it was at this time that Mr Paul Shadrach and Ms Caroline Williams' walk-leading virginity was stolen. I'm not sure that they really volunteered for it but I can promise that everyone enjoyed this stunning (and windy!) walk around the peninsula. Some of the highlights of this walk included, the random art provided by a local artisan, the beautiful views and the final drinkie-poos in the beautiful Griffin Inn. I would personally like to take this opportunity to thank both Paul and Caroline for their help on this day. I was gutted when I heard that they both had to leave the next night and they were both much missed.

 

 

 





Annette of the West Country Ramblers and her friend Elina from Finland.

 

After some swift arrangements we returned back to the bunkhouse, tarted ourselves up, and we all met at the Lord Nelson Hotel for a beautiful meal to start our New Year celebrations. It was at this point that The Tawe Trekker's resident 'life of the party', David Horton, finally made his appearance. Due to the evil machinations of Y Swydda'r Post Dave could only join us for one night and one walk this year. It was a great night though and I hope he enjoyed. It wasn't long before he was entertaining us with one of his now legendary anecdotes and we ventured into the town for our New Year celebrations...and here is when we met the fly in the ointment. It would appear, ladies and gentlemen, that Milford Haven is a bit of ghost town. We ventured to several local watering holes and found that they were quite literally empty. As you can imagine this was quite disconcerting and after some persistence on our part we ended up in Martha's Vineyard in the Marina. It was here that some of us saw in the New Year dancing along to a local jazz band and drinking copious amounts of alcohol with the locals. On the other side of town some of the less capable drinkers had chosen to return to the bunkhouse and danced the New Year in together. Check out the 'jibs' on Diane and Janet here. Clearly they had a great time!

 

 

 

As you can imagine we all slowly arose to the New Year with some pounding headaches. Nevermind that though as by 10am we were walking out of the bunkhouse and west up the road to the beautiful bay of Sandy Haven. Joining the Wales Coastal Path we then turned east and enjoyed a simply stunning walk all the way back to Milford Haven, where some of us had cunningly left our cars. We're an intelligent bunch at the Tawe Trekkers. It was during this walk that I'm afraid I joined the increasing number of Tawe Trekker walk leaders to commit the cardinal sin of allowing a coffee break (queue some Facebook abuse). Please refer to the evidence below which I willingly offer to prove my guilt. I can only apologise and offer the petty excuse that I think Janet Thomas and Tracy Hatherill may have chundered all over me if I hadn't agreed to it. We then continued and after arriving in Milford some of us ventured on to walk a planned extra 4 mile circular walk to Blackbridge. Unfortunately we found our path blocked by poor maintenance and as it was rapidly starting to pour down we took the opportunity to return to the bunkhouse, dry off and clear our heads.

 



We decided to spend this final night relaxing with some drinks in the bunkhouse but first we returned to the Lord Nelson Hotel to fill our bellies and after a pointless search to find a single open store in Milford Haven to buy extra booze we returned to bunkhouse, and after a comical ten minutes trying to cut the wood with a kitchen knife we were rescued by Diane Price's organisational skills...we finally had tinder and fire lighters for our wood burner. This was a fantastic night and I offer you just a few of the pictures below as evidence. Check out Anwen Cale platting my hair. Clearly this lovely lady needs a daughter...and to drink less gin! The picture of the card is the extremely kind gift that I received from everyone on the trip to wish me a happy birthday and to thank me for arranging the trip. I'm personally so glad everyone enjoyed their time in Milford Haven and we spent a good while this night considering future New year trips. It was during this time that I spoke about some of the challenges I had met and the New Year resolution I have made not to allow myself to put too much pressure on myself next year. With this in mind Mr Andrew Bevan has kindly agreed to arrange next year's Christmas meal. I know for a fact that he's done a great job in the past so I'm certain a great night will be had whatever he decides to do. With regards to next year I am currently finalising plans. I don't want to give too much away about next year yet but I have decided that there will be less availability and I'm afraid that it will be more expensive as there are no independent hostels in the area and the closest YHA is 6 miles away, which is a bit too far to be realistic at this time of year I'm afraid.

 

We did actually enjoy ourselves!



 

On the final day the number unfortunately depleted as for various reasons could not join me for my final walk at Angle. It was a great shame to say goodbye to everyone especially as what was to follow for those who stayed was an extraordinary walk around the peninsula of Angle. I was so impressed I have spent some time considering leading this walk for the Tawe Trekkers later in the year. We will have to wait and see. Sadly the local pubs were closed for us to enjoy a final lunch and drink. Instead we journeyed down to Pembroke and after enjoying a surprisingly good meal at the local chip shop/restaurant we said our goodbyes over a drink in the Kings Arms Hotel.

 

 

Tracy Hatherill takes in the view at Freshwater West

Photo of the Year Competition 2014

 

 

I have decided to conduct a little photo of the year competition in order to celebrate some of the excellent photos of the last year. Please see 4 photos that have at one time or another during 2014 spent time as our cover photo on Facebook. If you would like to vote for your favourite picture please respond to this email with the number either 1,2,3, or 4. Alternatively you can vote for your favourite picture on Facebook. The photo competition will return next year in a new quarterly guise.

 

 

1) Tawe Trekkers at the peak of Skirrid March 2014

2) Rhossili Down, Glamorgan area walk. June 2014.

 

3) Heol-Y-Cyw, November 2014

 

4) Above Ystalyfera, November 2014

Happy New Year everyone!

 

Dylan