Fishguard lower town harbour (backblip)

Busy day! It was aThursday, the day on which we could visit Tregwynt Mill and the beaches of Aber bach and Aber Mawr. The Strumble Shuttle bus, which is fantastic, took us around the coast, passing Strumble head lighthouse and even pausing to let us get a good shot, to Tregwynt, where there is a working textile mill.

We were able to go into the mill and see it in operation, there's no tour guide, but it's fairly obvious what is going on, and there is also a posh gift shop (I love a good gift shop!) and a restaurant, at which we we were able to get an outside table. The weather was perfect for sitting out. Unfortunately, GG insisted on having coffee after lunch, which left us only seventy minutes to get to the beach and back. Otherwise, we'd have had to wait a further three or four hours for the next bus back to Goodwick. 

Equally unfortunately, I took us the wrong way, through a wooded area that eventually turned into a full blown bog. In scenes not witnessed since 2009, on the Isle of Mull, I plunged my left leg into the bog and went in THIGH DEEP! Goodness, how the bog water stank! Luckily GG was behind me and avoided the same trap. Eventually we came to a road, and walked up for a while. GG said she'd wait a while, and I went on to explore. Eventually I came to a distinctive church, and realised we were in the next village, Tremarchog, where the bus would also stop. I rang GG four times. She did not answer. So I walked back to get her, and we went up to Tremarchog to await the bus. It was a sleepy place. Everything was shut. The phone box had a defibrillator in it. I think GG was about to have a heart attack when I took off my trousers in the middle of the village, but I had cycling shorts underneath. Shame that I had to take off my bogstinky sock, too.

The bus came, and took us back to Goodwick. GG got off. I stayed on, and went to Fishguard. The bus to Cardigan had already left, so I walked (and it was really hot now) out of town, past the picturesque lower town harbour, on to the Newport road, to the house where blipper Ceridwen lives with her partner.  Unbelievably, when booking my holiday in deepest locked-down February, I had forgotten that Ceridwen actually has a place to rent near Fishguard. It is, as it transpired, much more rural and characterful than our B and B, although having a car would be an advantage during the CoVid transitional bus timetable period.

It was all very lovely, with  Russian Caravan tea in the conservatory, and chickens scratching around, and Tregwynt mill blankets on the bed in the cottage, and talking about Transition Towns and what to do on our last full day. I mentioned that we'd been to the market that morning, and Ceridwen told me that there was a different market on Saturdays. She also gave me a pair of socks, because my ankle was chafed from walking in my boots without the stinky sock on. At this stage, I was still wearing cycling shorts, a striped hat, and sunglasses, but at least I had two socks on. 

I got a lift back to the big Tesco's at the Parrog, and walked up the hill to Goodwick. GG was ringing me to tell me she was starting on the sherry already (I don't even drink anyway, so I'm not sure why it mattered) and by the time I got back with some picnic supplies, she'd had two, so I made her a kind of supper in bed, with a table packed with goodies and spread with my  sea birds of Pembrokeshire tea towel. We know how to live! I'd bought some tonic, so I was on the fake gin too. I don't normally bother. 

Afterwards, I went out into the garden to sit on the swing seat. The thing I'd never realised about West Pembs in June (and maybe the clue is in the West) is that there are midges. Just like in the West Highlands of Scotland,  they followed me around. When my eyelids were half eaten, I went back inside again. I still had to make a plan A and a Plan B for the morrow, but I kept losing the various leaflets and timetables. Fortunately, I had
also bought a very good walking guide in the shop at Tregwynt Mill. 

We never did get to the beaches of Aber bach and mawr (little and big) but it gives us something to come back to, apart from, of course, Ceridwen's cottage!