Day 3 - Manorbier - Bosherston

Time Departed: 8.40am

Time Arrived: 2.30pm

Distance: 18.6kms 

Cumulative Distance: 44.4kms

Percentage Completed: 14.8%

Ascents and Descents: 535m

Cumulative Ascents and Descents: 1255m

Weather: Sunny, max 14

Accommodation: Cornerstones B&B

Feelings: Neil - Excited,  Henk - Good, John - Good, Di - Good

We organised an earlier breakfast at seven thirty at our B&Bs to get an earlier start. We woke to a beautiful sunny morning with lovely views over Manorbier Castle, the church and bay. Before leaving, Catherine our B&B host, gave us quite a number of tips for eating and sightseeing further up the path and took our photo. 

We arranged to meet up with John and Neil outside the castle and we were soon back on the beach making our way to our first cliff. 

The walk to Freshwater East a distance of about six kilometres had spectacular scenery and it took us about an hour and a half as there were a number of steep ascents and descents. It is giving us a small taste of what to expect nearer the end of the walk. 

There were many day walkers with their dogs making the most of the lovely weather. 

The first place we came across was Freshwater East which seemed to be made up of a small number little holiday houses dotted among the cliffs and one cafe, The Longhouse. As it was morning tea time we thought we deserved a coffee and we sat outside on a picnic table taking in the sun to keep warm. An older man from Tenby relished in telling us how steep the paths are further on! 

The walk from Freshwater East had many more ups and downs and we soon were walking on wide green stretches alongside farmland with cows and sheep and huge paddocks of rape seed. On our left were dramatic drops to the sea. 

The scenery is so spectacular that it's hard not to take so many photos. The photos don't seem to capture the scenes that we are seeing nor the great drops to the bottom of the cliffs. 

We reached the National Trust's Boathouse Cafe at twelve thirty which was perfect timing for lunch. From here we had about seven kilometres to our B&B so we could afford to take our time. 

We passed a number of large sandy beaches which seemed to be popular. Our guide book described Barafundle Bay as one of the finest beaches along the walk. It's a large sandy beach sheltered on both sides by large cliffs. 

From here the path took us high onto flat grass-covered cliffs and it was very pleasant walking.

We took an alternate Pembrokeshire route into Bosherston to get to our accommodation. It took us onto a heavily wooded path alongside the Bosherston Lily Ponds which is a series of large lakes. It was a good contrast to the cliff and beach scenes we had seen all day.

At our accommodation we were warmly greeted by our mother and daughter hosts. We made a pot of tea and sat in their garden in the sunshine. The B&B is very old and John has an exquisite doll house in his room which was made by our host. 

We were keen to walk a further two kms to St Govans Chapel which dates back to the 13th century and is located in an extraordinary area wedged at the bottom of a cliff on the sea. The chapel is located on Military of Defence land but they allow a narrow area for those wishing to visit the chapel. St Govan is said to have been escaping from pirates when a cleft in a rock opened and hid him until he was safe. He taught in the area until 586. 

Our B&B hosts booked us into St Govan's Inn which is the only place for dinner in the small village. We had a pleasant evening in the inn with a warm fire going. Tomorrow there are no places where we can purchase lunch so we have ordered lunch supplies from our B&B.