This month's caravanner
Matt Clark and Megan Smith
Outfit used
2007 Swift Charisma 620
2007 Mitsubishi Shogun 3.2 DI-DC Elegance
The first time I met Megan she talked at length about Pembrokeshire.
It sounded like a magical, almost mystical place. She described sheltered coves, long sandy beaches, and quaint fishing villages. I was smitten; well with Pembrokeshire at least.
We resolved to go there. She would show me the part her family comes from and I would show her how much fun caravanning is. Being keen on the outdoors, we decided to explore the Pembrokeshire coast by land and sea.
The trip to Wales was easy. We took the M4 through Cardiff and Swansea, then things got
a little slower. We wound our way along the A478 to Tenby with Megan navigating.
She explained that Tenby in Welsh was Dynbych-y-pysgod, pronounced 'Dinby-a-pissgod'. It sounded rude, even blasphemous, but that's apparently how it's pronounced.
As we approached Tenby and its pastel-coloured Georgian houses, Megan told me to turn down a street that had a dead-end sign.
I jammed on the brakes of the Shogun and, like a stubborn mule, refused to move. I was not taking the twin-axle Charisma down a road
that led to a dead end. But Megan insisted she knew the way to Meadow Farm Campsite at Northcliff, so I did as I was told. The lane was very narrow and got still narrower as we approached the top of the hill. But at the top
of the lane we turned into the campsite.
It was worth the hair-raising drive. The Meadow Farm's hill-top perch overlooked Tenby and the sea to Caldey Island. Being on a hill it took some time for us to get the van level. Using the breeze blocks on site I managed to get it more or less on an even keel, and we were ready to sit back and enjoy the view.
As it was a pleasant evening, we thought we would have a barbecue. After some good food and a few beers it was an early night because the following day was going to be energetic. We had booked a day of sea kayaking with
TYF Adventure.
The next day looked unsettled. There were clouds the colour of gunmetal looming over the green sea. Shafts of sunlight shone down on the water making the sea sparkle like crushed glass. Would bad weather impact on our day's activity? I hoped not.
Megan and I headed towards Britain's smallest city, St David's (population: almost 1600), in the Shogun. TYF is based there and that's where we were to begin exploring the coast from the water. After being fitted with wet suits and buoyancy aids, we went to nearby Porth Clais; our kayaks on a trailer behind the minibus in which we were travelling.
The water in the harbour was calm and it enabled us to get used to the kayak and how it handled. Leah, our instructor, was paddling circles around us. She had the irrepressible enthusiasm that only Canadians and Americans seem to have. She leaned the kayak over so far that we thought she was going to tip over, but with a quick flick of the hips she righted the craft again. She did this to show us how stable the kayak actually was.
When we had learned how to paddle efficiently, we headed into the open sea. I had kayaked a lot when I was at school, but it was a long time since I had been in one. You sit very close to
the water in a sea kayak, so the waves look enormous. They seemed to tower over us. It was very disconcerting. You could feel the power of the currents trying to turn the vessel.
All of us were battling the waves. Then one of our team, John, capsized. Leah got him upright again, but thoughts of paddling round the coast to see the wildlife were beginning to fade. Leah had
a better idea. We returned to
dry land and swapped our sea kayaks for general-purpose versions. These were easier
to manoeuvre and would allow us to have some fun with the waves.
Leah led us back out into the open sea. We paddled towards a rocky inlet. I could hear the waves making strange booming sounds as they smashed into the inlet. To my horror Leah led us straight into the inlet. I thought we would be smashed against the rocks, but there was
a small sheltered bay where we congregated as Leah told us what we were going to do next.
She was confident in our abilities, and our courage. We would paddle through the narrow passage between the two rocks before us and out to the open sea again, she said. We were to do it one by one as the pass was only big enough to fit one craft at a time.
Leah set off with a whoop and battled through the raging surf between the rocks.
We lost sight of her as she was momentarily engulfed by the surf. She beckoned me to follow her. I set off, thinking if I paddled with convinction I would get out of danger quicker. The surf boiled beneath the kayak and the waves threw me from one side to the other, each time I nearly came to grief on the rocks. After a breathtaking few minutes, which seemed like an eternity, I made it out to Leah and the open sea.
(Extract from Feb 08 issue)
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