Aberporth to New Quay..the easy way.

Looks like I left us with a bit of cliff hanger on the last blog - I didnt mean to, I just hit the Publish button by mistake - So I'll continue where I left off, with us all feeling a little fagged and shagged overlooking the beach at Aberporth. We would now have to walk across the north beach and then walk up a pile of steps to get onto the road which led to the road to the town square. What joy. So we did and that took about 10 minutes once more heading uphill, it was feeling hopeless. Then Grant who was ahead of us started waving to come on up. Salvation came in the form of the Morlan Pub - there was a cheerful beer garden right in front of us with friendly waitresses and beer aplenty. We threw the rucksacks on the floor and at last sat down - beers were ordered and we could now at last talk to each other. Beers arrived and the sun was still blazing away.

A major rethink was now called for - Did we want to continue with the walk? I think you can guess the answer to that one. No one wanted to go through any more of that and if we wanted to pitch the tents we would have had to walk back down to the beach and then walk up yet another hill to get back on to the coastal path. So, yes we bailed. Other little things persuaded us to take this option, like the fact we were right by the bus stop and The T5 Bus to Aberwristslit would be along in about three quarters of an hour - so that was that then, we would head back to New Quay and work out a place to stay - worst case scenario, we could set up camp on the beach. We now had 40 minutes to consume as much as possible, which we did. We had all cheered up a bit now.

The Bus showed up on time and we got off in New Quay and straight into the Seahorse Pub Beer Garden. I got on the phone to see if we could get rooms at the Llanina Arms - it took a while as phones dont really work that well in West Wales - but we got it sorted. Later that evening we headed into Aberaeron and guess what - the weather turned cold and there was even a bit of rain. We visited Uncle Jim at The Black Lion and luckily we didnt let Uncle Jim know that we had bailed on the walk...otherwise we could have had some verbal - so it was a quiet night where we licked our wounds. Well, nurtured our sunburn I should say. Ian's sunburnt lip was a cause of mirth as he now resembled Parker from Thunderbirds. Should have used the Sudocrem mate.

If anyone had said to me that evening, that we'd be walking another 6 mile hike tomorrow, I would never have believed them - but that's exactly what we did. After another visit to The Moody Cow Campsite for breakfast, we dropped our gear off at Penlanymor as Brother Dill and Adele had let us stay in their caravan. We then had a very pleasant walk to Aberaeron. This part of the Coastal Path was what I thought it would all be like - It's quite gentle with only 4 parts likely to cause a seizure. The weather was colder, we were minus overstuffed rucksacks and it was actually enjoyable. Once we got to Aberaeron, there were a few more holidaymakers in town and we went to see our mate Paul who manages The Celtic Bar & Restaurant. In the beer garden part, they had set up a portable Bar and furnished the area with wooden benches - Just what the Doctor ordered - so despite the sci-fi weirdness of the ongoing covid situation, we could at least get some beers and enjoy the late afternoon sun which had now made an appearance. We told Paul about what happened on the walk and he told us something which sort of justified us bailing on the Llangranog part of the walk. Paul is a keen runner and runs over 30 miles a night, just for fun. Paul told us about a walk he did last year, it took him 4 days to walk to Snowdon from Aberaeron. Paul was running a charity event and had a number of walkers with him, so as Paul said, they took it easy. Paul reckons he could have done the walk in two days. When we mentioned the walk we'd done. Paul told us that he'd done it and found it more difficult than the walk to Snowdon!

During our get together that evening we spotted a lone walker, complete with Rucksack - so we called him over and had a chat. This young fella had just completed the part we bailed on - Aled Jones, for that was his name, had been walking for the last week or so and had started off from Pontypool, over the Brecon Beacons and on to the Cardigan Coastal Path. Aled is walking to Hadrian's Wall and has given himself a few months to complete the Task......Ray is in touch with Aled and will be joining him for a walk through the lake district later on. If you're reading this Aled, let us know how you're getting on.

So it was an early night for us - if such a thing is possible and we enjoyed the luxury of a bed for the night.