robjh goes west - Cambridgeshire to West Wales

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robjh

robjh

Legendary Member
Daft graffito of the day (Thursday)
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robjh

robjh

Legendary Member
On day 7, Wednesday, I followed the small coastal road from Poppit Sands to Newport. The coast here falls away in dramatic cliffs, and some of the gradients on the roads are almost as great. It felt like large parts of today were ridden at 3mph and I lost count of the 20% climbs.
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It was a warm, sunny day. After Newport I headed inland to the Preseli hills, the last true uplands I'll cross on this trip.
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I reached the coast again at Abercastle, which is one of a number of tiny harbours on this rocky coast. Another is Porthgain where I stopped for coffee. Its harbour is dominated by industrial ruins
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I reached Whitesands Bay, at the end of the St Davids peninsula, about 7. I climbed a nearby hill to watch sunset over the sea, and could see for miles around.
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robjh

robjh

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On day 8, Thursday, the weather changed and I set out under grey skies. First stop was St Davids, a tiny place with a large cathedral.
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I followed the coast round to Broad Haven, passing a succession of sandy beaches below steep cliffs, that I remember from childhood holidays here in the 1970s.
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The rain started after this, and had turned heavy by the time I crossed the bridge towards Pembroke.
I had imagined seeing more of the south coast, but in view of the weather I went more or less directly to Manorbier and its youth hostel. It is located above more rugged coastline, and in gaps between showers it looked like this
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robjh

robjh

Legendary Member
Day 9, Friday was the end of my short tour.
I rode just a few miles in the morning from Manorbier YHA to Tenby. It is a very picturesque place where brightly coloured houses line a cliff above a small harbour, and has a large stretch of intact town walls. Its two sandy beaches were occupied today only by dog walkers, and the cafés largely by holidaying OAPs.
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I caught the 11.43 train to Swansea. Luckily mine was the only bike, as it only just fitted in the one-coach train with all the luggage that people boarded with at Tenby. I stopped for a couple of hours between trains in Swansea to look round, and was fairly underwhelmed by the town centre until I came across the wonderful food market, with its huge choice of meats, fish and other foods. The redeveloped docks and marina also held some appeal, but were short of cafés and places to linger.
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The train to London broke down at Swindon, but another one was along straight behind and I was at Paddington in plenty of time for a brisk ride with the late rush-hour traffic to Liverpool Street, and my last train home. I got in at 9pm.

I did 528 miles in all on this trip, mostly in 7 days out of the 9 I was away. I was spoilt by the weather - great tailwinds then bright sunshine, and only a little rain at the end. A very good few days.
 

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Cracking a solo.
Very nice @robjh it's always nice to see someone enjoying your own neck of the woods, glad you had a good time and the weather was kindish to you :smile:
 
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GrumpyGregry

Here for rides.
great narrative and excellent pictures of one of the part of Wales that got under my skin a long long time ago.
 
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robjh

robjh

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great narrative and excellent picture of one of the part of Wales that got under my skin a long long time ago.
Thanks, it was a very simple little journal, with the short blocks of text largely a result of typing it on a phone, on which I also took a few photos every day just in order to illustrate my posts (my main photos were taken on a camera but I had neither the means nor the time to transfer them while I was away).
 
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