An early Easter long weekend this year found 12 members of the Club heading west by car to the Welsh coast of Pembrokeshire – our aim to try to complete the entire local coastal walk in the three days available, at about 10 miles a day. Basing ourselves in Marloes Sands, four of the group opted to stay in the Clock House B&B, whilst a mile away the hardy rest of the group were booked into the Marloes Sands Youth Hostel. Only opened the night before after the winter, it was comfortable enough, although a bit lacking in heating! The ladies were housed in the “Henhouse”, the gentlemen in the “Cowshed”, food was eaten (naturally?!) in the “Piggery” and a charming volunteer warden, Barbara, was found in the “Hayloft”. Having no idea what weather to expect, we were all pretty well prepared for any wet days but also for colder temperatures. What none of us had really expected were the howling gales that accompanied the glorious sunshine each day!

Day one (Good Friday) on a walk led by Neil, the B&B’ers walked up to the Hostel and we headed off the short distance to the coast at Marloes Sands and walked south around the coastal path of Westdale Bay and St Anns Head, headed for Dale. Fortunately the strong wind was blowing inland – a relief not to be gusted off the cliff edge but instead into the soft primrose strewn bank! The scenery was magnificent – views out over Skokholm island, blue skies, silver flecked ocean waves framed by stark black cliffs covered in bright golden gorse. The “twitchers” amongst us had many an excited binocular moment with the botanists amazed at how many wild spring flowers were already in evidence. Everyone had brought along a packed lunch and our well earned break found us sheltered from the wind, on a pebble beach enjoying the warmth of the sunshine and taking in the scenery. That evening, the YH’ers walked the mile down the lane past fields of seemingly hundreds of mother sheep and noisy baby lambs gambolling around (a true sign of Spring!) to the warm and friendly local pub the “Lobster Pot”- quite a variety of good grub on offer.

Day two, on a walk led by Graham along the northern coast path around Wooltrack Point with views to Broad Sound and Skomer Island – we were warned at the start: “Wind is blowing at 54mph but gusting much higher – take care and walk at your own risk”! A cheery beginning and rounding the point at Martins Haven, the full force of the wind hit us and it became almost one step forward, two back and three sideways. After a few miles, it was quite tiring for many of us. We soldiered on for a little over 7 miles, then some decided to head back to the Hostel around 3pm leaving the valiant few to continue on. But a very invigorating day and sensational contrast to be back in the Piggery with a hot drink, Niki’s biscuits and out of the howling wind.

Day three (Easter Sunday), Jim led us again to the coast at the pretty village of St Brides (the local congregation just heading into the little church there and Easter Eggs “hidden” amongst the pebbles on the beach for the children). The coastal path, although still windy, was nowhere near as exposed as Sunday and of course we were nearly used to it by now! Again, apart from one or two showers to show us a spectacular rainbow, the sun shone as we enjoyed a particularly scenic walk east along the coast covering around 10 miles to arrive at Little Haven, and the glorious finale of heading into the nearest pub with huge open fire and hot chocolate and drinks. The tide was out and many of us walked along the broad beach between Little Haven and Broad Haven before being spoiled with a car ride back to Marloes Sands.

Definitely not a single “cobweb” left for any of us after this very special weekend – many thanks to Margaret for organising and to our walk leaders and car drivers who contributed so much to its success.