Wednesday 22nd May 2002

Places: Newport (in Preseli Hills), Abereidy
Weather: Heavy rain with occasional dry patches

Simon and I were determined to go for a walk and so we parked by the sea in Newport, planning to walk up to Carn Ffoi and across to Carn Ingli and back down to Newport. The walk started quite promisingly with some spectacular views across Newport, the headlands and the sea but once we got out onto the exposed hills the rain came. Within a few minutes our legs were wet through so you could see our skin through the trousers. We persisted and saw the sleeping giant of Carn Ffoi, led on his side resting, but the views had almost totally been replaced with grey shifting waves of rain moving through the valley and over the hill. We decided to cut the walk short and make our way back down the hill, but as we did Carn Ingli, the sleeping goddess, came into view. She looked magnificent, led on her back, we had planned to walk from her head to her feet. We carried on down through a green lane that was so overgrown with gorse we were bent double just to push our way through.

Luckily, we'd brought a change of clothes with us except I had to dry my socks out on the car heaters. The rest of the day was a mixture between dry, cloudy skies, heavy bursts of rain and very occassionally for short periods of time, sunshine.

After eating our lunch in the car overlooking the sea we drove east to Abereidy. We watched the sea come crashing in and then wandered round to the Blue Lagoon, a flooded slate quarry. There are the ruins of a whole industry and community here.

After tea, which consisted of chicken pie and crinckly chips and gravy, all four of us drove to Newgale and messed about for an hour on the beach looking in caves and at waterfalls. Simon took some photographs of the sunset which was bright and golden.