We spent New Year in Pembrokeshire with friends in a cottage near Saundersfoot on top of a cliff, but a short walk down a steep lane to get to the beach at Wisemans Bridge - and I had a fantastic time.
On New Years Eve, went for a mostly on-road pedal with Husband and Goldfish to Pembroke, following Sustrans Celtic Way. 4 hours to do 53km - with some challenging hills. I loved the stretches along the coast - and some pretty villages inland. Chips scoffed by Pembroke Castle & then back. Husband & I both had to walk up quite a bit of Slippery Back near Tenby, accompanied by a drunk but friendly bloke!
Short walk at midnight to the beach to let off fireworks - to cheers from the pub nearby!
On New Years Day, S & I participated in the New Years Day Swim at Saundersfoot - surrounded by hardier souls in fancy dress. The Simpsons group impressed me - although Lisa's hairy chest was a revelation! There were some mankinis too... a bloke wearing normal swimwear took the p*** out of our wetsuits, but boy I was glad of mine! "Swim" was more of a brief dip with a couple of strokes, but it was a great event to take part in - and I now have a wetsuit.
Husband & I then went west to Solva for a short walk - and as we drove back, the snow started. The lane to the cottage was transformed into a "treacherous" (word of the week on weather forecasts) snow/ice slope. So later in the evening, we played with our sledge on the driveway & had a snowball fight.
S, X, Husband and E joined me for a walk the next day - ostensibly to hunt for razor clams using a technique with a bottle of salt. Not successful - a beautiful location though and a fun fruitless task!
A new activitity on Sunday: land yachting at Pendine which is where various land speed record attempts have been made. A land yacht is a plastic tub on wheels with a mast & dinghy sail - we sat back & let the wid blow us along the beach as we jibed (is that spelt right??). Couldn't get the hang of tacking. It was very much like dinghy sailing - and I think the skills I picked up will be useful next time I try sailing. X looked really nervous at the start, but got the hang of it well. S and Husband picked up the skills quickly.
Ran with X later on - I'd been feeling jealous of every beach jogger we'd seen and I was so glad to get the chance to run myself. We teetered cautiously down the lane from the cottage, but once on the coast path, the route was mostly ice free. 5K and loved it - although X was having some hip pain which was not good.
We planned to go mountain biking at Brechfa on Monday but as it was higher up, too much snow and ice stopped play and we walked instead. -7oC at 2pm! And the walk was ended prematurely by seeing a buzzard caught up on barbed wire - we couldn't work out how to release it without injuring it - or us - so got the Forestry Commission involved. We did get a short walk later on - with Kitty & Golfish to a seafood restaurant in Saundersfoot.
More snow today and forecast to get worse so we headed home a day early. I have decided that I will sub 2 activities from my Top 40 list for the NYD swim and the land yachting - hope this is acceptable to any readers of my blog!
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