Solva and Newgale Beach

 

Thursday 14th November 2024

Abereiddy beach was a fantastic place to spend the night with a great sunset to enjoy and just the sounds of the waves lapping on the shore.

It was also incredibly mild, I think it only got down to 15c overnight.

I kept checking to see if I'd left the heating on, lol.

It's a very popular beach, there were swimmers taking a dip until dusk and the dog walkers started arriving at 7.00 am.

After breakfast I set off for Solva, a small harbour village about 20 minutes away.

It's on an estuary to a river of the same name.

The tides out at Solva

. . . . . the suns out aswell though - sometimes

We walked a stretch of the coastal path and there were some lovely views of the Pembrokeshire countryside.

After lunch I headed over to Newgale Beach, which looks a lovely sandy beach where Louis had lots of space for a run as the tide was out.

Newgale Beach is vast

plenty of room for Louis to have a good run

We later set off north, towards home, arrived for an overnight stay in Builth Wells to break up the journey home.

It's quite a nice little town who kindly allow motorhome overnight stays on the town carpark overlooking the river and a stone bridge we'll need to use tomorrow.

Sunset and the moon rising over Builth Wells

It's a little noisy, there are some playing fields nearby with training happening, but I'm sure it'll quieten down later.

Poppit Sands and seal watching at The Blue Lagoon

Wednesday 13th November 2024

It was very welcome to have electric hook up last night and not worry about keeping warm with the batteries failing.

It wasn't nearly as cold as Monday night though, so I expect that also made a big difference.

It was a great little campsite but only me there, and a couple of Alpacas in the field next to us.

The farmer who owns the site was very friendly and helpful, he recommended visiting Poppit Sands near Cardigan.

I'd never heard of it before but decided to give it a try after filling the fresh water and dumping the waste water.

It was a great beach with lots of space for Louis to have a good run around.

After morning coffee, we set off for The Blue Lagoon at Abereiddy.

I've heard a lot about this place and been meaning to visit for a while.

But it's only a small beach with very narrow access and limited parking so I'd put it off when I've been near here in the summer.

November it should be much quieter, easier parking for a motorhome and I'm hoping no problem meeting other traffic on the narrow lane down to the beach.

And so it turned out.

It's a great place, parking on the beach, and a walk along the Pembrokeshire coast path takes you to the famous Blue Lagoon.

It's geology is interesting, the lagoon has very different slate rock formations to the surrounding area even just 20 meters away. The beach has a completely different type of rock.

The slate was quarried until 1910 when the mine closed down and the opening to the sea was blasted through the remaining rock to allow the quarry to flood.

I've no idea what the slate was used for but it's very different to the Blue slate that was used for roofing and quarried in Llanberis and the Snowdonia area.

Maybe it was suitable for roofing, who knows ?

Sitting watching the tide coming in, all of a sudden seals appeared in the lagoon, and entertained me and Louis for ten minutes before disappearing as quickly as they arrived.

It was quite busy on the beach all afternoon and at dusk a group of hardy swimmers turned up for a dip.

Squeals of laughter and pain first alerted me to their presence lol.

Swimmers, not seals !

They didn't stay long, but we enjoyed a nice sunset fo conclude a great day .

So I'm here on my own tonight and it feels like quite a special place.

A memory to treasure for sure, staying so close to nature in such a beautiful setting.

New Quay and Aberporth

Tuesday 12th November 2024

Blimey it went cold last night, down to about 2c brrr.

To make things worse the leisure battery had a wobble and decided it wasn't for this world and 12 volts was beyond what it was capable of lol.

It didn't actually give up altogether, but I had to nurse it a little and reduce the demand on it.

I kept the heating on (which is done with gas, just uses electric for the blower fan, so only a small amount of amps) but I reduced lighting and TV use.

It was cold in the morning but the battery had enough ooomph to run the heating and get Ed warmed up again.

So I'm going on a campsite tonight to charge the batteries and not worry about death from hyperthermia.

First stop today was the little fishing village of New Quay.

The advantage of touring at this time of year is most of the carparks are free and there is usually plenty of space available and far fewer people.

It was a lovely walk on the golden sandy beach before lunch and coffee in Ed watching the sea birds and goings on in the village.

Aberporth was next in line for a visit, again an attractive little village with brightly painted colourful cottages and another great beach.

An awful lot of campsites close around here at the end of October, but I managed to find one near Aberporth which will do me nicely.

There are only five pitchers and I'm the only one here so I could take my pick.

Most importantly it has electric to get the batteries charged up.

It's also all tarmac and gravel roadways on the campsite so no risk of getting stuck in the mud if it rains.

The weather has actually been lovely, no rain and plenty of sunshine and blue skies, so for November that's quite a result and I'm happy with that.

Alpacas are my neighbours on the campsite tonight

. . . . . and a few sheep