Pembrokeshire May 2014 - Marloes Sands

Monty the Motorhome is checking his roof panels for sunburn as it has been a sunny day at West Hook Farm.

Our intended walking route today was from the site to Marloes Sands , then Marloes village (to buy milk as we had run out ) before returning to the van. We got to the beach to find it was almost deserted, just two other people, which is hardly surprising as it is a good 20 minutes walking distance from the nearest car park. However ten minutes or so after walking along the sands there was a sudden appearance of a little six wheeled all terrain truck (a 6x6?) zooming along the beach and dodging the rocks. Following it up were a group of half a dozen people with rubbish bags and litter picking grabby sticks. These were National Trust volunteers doing a beach clean. Half an hour later the truck was full of netting, plastic and even a buoy that had been washed up on the beach.

Two photos of Marloes Sands - another stunning beach

Soon it was lunch time, and out came some Ruth sandwich creations - Lamphey bakery bread, tuna pate, grated carrot and baby spinach leaves - she does Masterclass sessions on sandwich making if anyone is interested!

We wandered along the beach looking for an alternative exit to that of our our entry. It was all very tentative as our navigation aid was the HMSO guide to the Pembrokeshire Coast path dating back to 1979 - bought new in 1984 when we first came to the region. Obviously the general features have not changed much since then, but footpath marking was a little indistinct. Consequently we ended up walking back along our original route in order to do a dog leg to get to Marloes village. It became a bit of a frogmarch because we were aiming to get the 2.10pm Puffin Cruiser bus from Marloes back to the site and missing it would mean a long hot walk or waiting 4 hours for the next bus. In the end we made it with plenty of time to spare. Moral of this story - buy local maps that are not years old.

On returning the rest of the afternoon was spent lounging in the sunshine watching the world go by. Not a bad way to end a day.