Off to the land of Dragons, 5th-10th November

We had been thinking about visiting West Wales for some time, so a browse of CL's in the Saundersfoot area turned up Crofty Nurseries for a cost of £10.00 a night including Electric hookup.
On the Monday morning Lizzie had a blood test at the doctors, so we duly hitched the caravan up and drove down to the surgery. We decided that parking the outfit in the surgery carpark would be rather interesting, so we opted for the road outside instead.
Blood test over and we were off, down to Hambrook, up on to the M4.  We opted for the Old Severn Bridge.  Unusually the M4 was remakably empty, which made the journey much more pleasant than it usually is.
Crofty Nurseries was soon found so we parked in the car park and headed to the tea room for a mug of tea!      Talking to the owner it transpired that the previous day there had been a lot of snow followed by flooding. Anyway we drove on to the site and stopped on the access road to assess the situation. The hard standings were set away from the road, so to reach them you would have to cross about 10 feet of mud and flood water.   The owner came out and suggeseted that as we were the only people booked on site we could use the far end of the access road where the caravan and awning could easily be errected. So I reversed out, turned round and then reversed about 100 yds down the track. We were soon set up and Lizzie got dinner on! This is another 10amp site, so we decided to operate on 1000w heating, use the gas to heat the hot water, and to use the gas kettle.

Over night it certainly rained hard, and the awning floor was a bit wet in the morning, so a few buckets of stone were moved from around the site into the awning and we had dry feet again.

Tuesday morning was bright so breakfast was cooked on the Cadac.

We then set off for Saundersfoot, and along the coast to Tenby, just to sus out the area as I do not think I have ever been to this area before.

Whilst in Saundersfoot we had a quick look at the hotel that Coral was talking about buying!

When we drove round the coast we came across a village called Manorbeer!  Aparently the people of that village fought in the Same Great War as our home town of Chipping Sodbury as their War Memorial say the Great War 1914-1919.

On Wednesday as we were exploring the area, we went to Carmarthen.  Realised we had been there before, so we set of South towards Laughorne.  This villages claim to fame is that was the home of Dylan Thomas.   There is a superb cafe and next door an excellent gift shop, both worth visiting if you are in the area.

Then on to Pendine Sands.   I have never seen so many caravan sites!  Pendine sands was where many world speed record attempts were made. Parry Thomas was killed there in 1927 during once such attempt.

We tried to move on to Amroth, but all the coastal roads were blocked by landslides.

Thursday dawned bright and sunny so we decided on a day in Tenby.  A very pleasant town, with lots of interseting and varied shops.

  We visited the harbour and watched a fishing boat being winched from the water.  I was hoping the crane doing the lifting would topple into the water.

Then on around to the Life boat station and also saw the old life boat station that has been converted to an impressive home on Grand Designs.

I have to say I really liked Tenby.

Friday was very wet, so we headed for Amroth, where we sat in a sea front cafe watching the sea breaking over the front.  As it was so wet we drove around the coast and discovered a place called Stackpole Quay, where, convieniently, the National Trust cafe was open..

On the way back to camp it was still raining.  Dinner was put on and then the gas ran out!  Typical, blowing a gale, dark and raining.  Fortunately I had the spanners ready and a new bottle  in place.

We cleared up on Saturday morning and then had breakfast in the cafe, before setting off for home, a journey of 128 miles that took 2and a half hours.  Fuel averaged out at 27.6 mpg.

We thoroughly enjoyed our week,  and will definitely be back to the area, but probably on a different site.

Although it is winter now we have at least one more week away planned!