Fantastic Start to 2010

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!

Lefaks - Friday (Last Day)

Had our final sail in the morning - Husband & I took a funboat out - wider and more stable than the dinghies but not exactly moueverable! Husband did tiller, I did the sail. I think if we do more sailing, we're both happier sharing a boat than being solo. R was hoping to come out but she hurt her back at Yoga in the morning (Iyenga - she normally does Hatha) so just had a brief sail with Husband later on.

Final bike ride in the afternoon - just a gentle road ride to a church on the headland opposite Nidri. We did get a tiny bit of off road on the path down to the church at the end. Good views from the church across to Nidri and also of Skorpos and Skorpini. It was about 25K.

Final swim on the beach - for longer than expected as our flight was delayed. Very grateful that Crystal chose to let us stay on the beach for longer rather than sending us to the airport for a long wait!

Good holiday!

Lefkas - Monday

Having not really sussed this sail thing on Saturday, Husband and I both signed up for Dinghy 1 for a second time this morning. So much better! No spillages & we both felt we were tacking better and had more control of our respective dinghies.

Went out with Mum-ish and Dad-ish on the kayaks - didn't go as far as on Sunday as we stuck to what R & T felt confident doing. They were really good - very co-ordinated - but R got a blister on her hand.

Lazy afternoon with some snorkelling from the little beach.

I had 2 classes at 5 - Abs and Stretching - both areas I tend to neglect so it was good to get some new ideas. Both were in the very picturesque Yoga Hut with views of the bay.

Then did a very very slow run- just 20 mins on the main road.

Lefkas Holiday Saturday

Mad dash to book up activities for the week after breakfast then immeadiately into our first sailing lesson on little Pico dinghies. I didn't really get into it - not helped by getting thwacked on the head before we started - not by the boom but by somebody else's dinghy's mast as it capsized! Felt a bit woozy but carried on. And capsized twice! At least I was able to practise getting the right way up again - nowhere near as scary as I thought it would be.

Husband also capsized twice.

Onto more familiar ground in the afternoon - gentle road ride to see the waterfalls near Nidri. Very pretty gorge walk at the end, but it looked as if the waterfall had dried up. Back via the harbout at Nidri. There seems to be high demand for the bikes - we had hybrids this afternoon.