The Long Walk

The Long Walk...

So we eventually get on the T5 Bus to Cardigan, some of the team have a bit of a doze. The weather is quite hot, around 26 Deg C. and I must admit that during the first part of the walk to New Quay, Ray's Chilli oil from last night was having a detrimental affect in the nether region, add to that every Gentleman walker's nightmare, chafed inner thighs - commonly referred to as Betty Swollox in the Officer's Mess, so that said, I wasnt particularly looking forward to the next leg. We get off the bus in the town centre and the first thing we do is try to find a shop to stock up on "provisions" for the evening ahead. Ray & Ian went for the sensible route of buying 2 cans of cider each. Grant goes for the 8 cans of Redstripe and I went for 4 cans of Redstripe & a bottle of Vino Collapso. This in retrospect was a big mistake on mine & Grant's behalf as it just added to the weight of the already heavy rucksacks. I was then in need of Sudocrem for the above mentioned ailments and managed to find them at the local chemist. Once again it was then decided to find a pub.

We found a boozer by the Quay and to be honest, right where I thought the Coastal Path began. So a few more beers were consumed in the afternoon heat. A quick look at the map and it was decided that there was probably a short cut through the town to join the path later on - So what do we do, we ask the fattest bloke in the beer garden with ten empty pint glasses in front of him, for advice on the quickest way to Gwbert (pronounced Goobert)...of course the fat bloke probably thought that the quickest way was in his Land Rover up the road. We foolishly took his advice and went up through the town and never even got on to the Coastal Path. We ended up walking to Gwbert on the pavement of a B Road. Divisions in the camp came quite swiftly - as bickering broke out regarding our lack of direction. It was horrible, a long upward slog in baking heat and not something I'd want to do again - so not an ideal start to this leg of the trip. The 4 of us went off at different paces - and again this wasnt good for morale. I think the walk was about 4 miles long and just when we thought we'd got there, there was another very long hill to climb... this would become a theme on this walk. Grant had gone on ahead and when Ray, Ian and myself got to the top of that horrible hill we stopped off at a viewing point, which somehow made that tortuous walk worth it. Fantastic views of the Cardigan Estuary looking over the bay to St. Dogmaels. It was about 6.30pm by this time and we spoke to a few locals who were up at the vantage point, they told us finding a spot to pitch the tents would be easy later on, again I'm guessing that the locals hadnt even done this walk. Then the phone goes and Grant tells us he's found us another watering hole overlooking the sea - it was a place called The Cliff Hotel Spa - so onwards we went, at least this part was down hill. I have to say that The Cliff Hotel Spa was really something else - someone has thrown a lot of money at this place and I was actually surprised that they even let us in - but of course, everywhere's been closed over the last few months and what this place needed was customers. It's a fantastic place with a great balcony to view the sea.

After another hour or so, we would now head up another B road and finally get on to the Coastal Path. Ray checked his map - it's not far, about a mile up the road. This bit is actually a pain as there's a land owner who wont consent to opening his land for walkers to the Coastal Path and you have to go inland to walk around his land. Hey, it's his land and I can understand his concerns - so walk around it we do. Well not so much walk around but walk up it - yes it was another nightmare climb . Ian and Grant had gone ahead of Ray and myself - and they actually had missed the turn off to the path and had gone on about another quarter of mile - so we whistled up at them and told them to come back - despite being so far ahead of us, I could clearly hear the effing & jeffing as it was hurled down towards us. Finally we were on the path and walked over fields for another mile or so, we had just passed Cardigan Island and then finally decided to set up camp - here came the next problem - finding a place to pitch. Ray made an executive decision which proved to be the correct thing to do - even though I walked around for another 45 minutes seeing if there was anywhere better - there wasnt and Ray had made a good choice. It was about 9.30 by the time we had set up camp and the dew was coming down heavily on the grass and tents. Food of sorts was administered and I shared the processed stuff that Grant had bought - Garage food I believe it's called....and had a gentlemanly cup of Aussie Cab Sav to see the evening off. Everyone hit the hay quite early...well by my standards anyway. I was pleased to hear that everyone else was snoring merrilly away whilst I lay with my head out of the tent once again watching the remarkably clear night skies. Tomorrow we would head to Mwnt, if we'd been on schedule, we would have been pitching the tents there tonight.