Carn Llidi

OK, same book used from the last walk , but this time it was walk no. 11:  St David’s Head and Carn Llidi. You start off at Whitesands near St David which is convenient as there is lots of parking available - you will be charged parking if you come during the tourist season.

The Carn Lidi hill is a prominent feature in southern Pembrokeshire and you can see it from miles away. In fact I could clearly see it from the Preseli mountains from the a trek I did a couple of weeks ago to Foel Eryr. The walk is straightforward enough but by the time I got to the north-western part of the walk the wind was really really strong. In fact I was a bit tempted to do some skydiving practice by performing some RW (relative work) positions.

As I turned inland and looked towards the summit of Carl Llidi the slovene genes in me were starting to kick-in again and the unexplainable urge to climb on top of stuff was getting the better of me. As I got about mid way to the top I was met by these small thick and very thorny bushes for which I know somebody somewehere knows the latin name of. In my book they are probably something like Frutex dolens vulgaris (the common painful bush). There were some very narrow paths through this bushy thorniness and as I was scrambling up I surprised a few horses that were grazing below the summit. I tried to ignore them but the relation was not reciprocated. The presence of so many horses explained the huge ammount of poo that I was forced to walk around on my way to the top.

The poo tredding and thorny bush evasion was immediately forgotten as I came to the top - the views were just stunning, you could see for miles all around you 360°. I was a bit worried about lightning as there was a storm approaching from the north and as I was standing on the top of the hill I was really sticking-out towards the sky as a sticky thing on a stick on a sticky day.

Getting down the hill, however, proved to be even trickier than the trip up as I nearly got blown over by the gale force winds. I took a different route to avoid the above mentioned Frutex dolens vulgaris only to be met by more of the also above mentioned horse poo and your general bog-standard mud. It seemed like you were walking a path and came to a part where it was so muddy you had to take a detour only to find out the detour is covered in sh*t. So the choice was: wet and muddy shoes or dry and crappy shoes.

Just as I was approaching the Whitesands car-park I was met by these beautiful scenes of a sunset above the ocean facing east south-east. Sorry for the poor quality as I took it with my Nokia N95 phone cam. Not happy with it, plan on getting an iPhone anyway soon :-)