Pembrokeshire September 2016

Another year, another visit to Lyndon ... and this time the weather was kind to us and we got out on a boat trip!
jc

We arrived on the Wednesday. While tea was cooking we headed down to St. Justinian's to see the new lifeboat and its new house. We had a stroll along the coastal path, took a few photos and got some fresh air.

coastal flowers

rnli huts

lifeboat
jc & l

harbour

 

Thursday dawned bright and sunny and, more importantly, not too windy so an early start to get to Neyland to join Nick (our skipper) on his boat (Celtic Wildcat) and off we went with other members and guests of the South Wales Wildlife Trust.

Riley, the whippet, didn't come with us on the trip but made good friends with Jonathon before we left.

riley

Celtic Wildcat
harbour

Nick

Nick, our skipper.

Jo
jc
Lyndon and Jo

There were 14 of us in total (includng Nick) so plenty of room to walk around the boat and take photos or just relax.

We saw a lot of different types of ships on the way.

 

JC

ship
ship
ship
ship
ship
ship
ship
ship
ship

wake

The sun made lovely patterns on the sea and the wake from our boat lovely watery patterns.

sparkly sea
gannet

gannet

First "stop" was Grassholm, a well known Northern Gannet colony so plenty of opportunity to photograph one of my favourite marine birds.

Grassholm
gannets
gannet
gannet
gannet

From there we travelled towards The Smalls Lighthouse and enjoyed seeing Guillemot on the way (and, of course, the occasional gull).

guillemot
guillemot
gull

seabirds

We wondered if there might be dolphin near these birds (or even a shark) but we didn't see anything close enough to photograph. That said, we did come across several pods of Common Dolphin whilst on the trip. I'm sure they Common Dolphin here are the largest I've seen and Lyndon said that the largest ones were not around that day.
dolphin
dolphin
dolphin
dolphin
dolphin
dolphin
dolphin

dolphin

As you can see, plenty of activity. Jonathon's been trying for ages to get a photo of a dolphin coming straight at him and finally managed it this holiday.

dolphin
seal

We saw one or two seals as well but they were few and far between.

We stopped for fish and chips on the way home and enjoyed them while we watched the sun go down over Newgale beach.

newgale
sunset
sunset

Friday dawned bright and clear but too windy to venture out to sea so land based activities were the order of the day. First stop Picton to see what we could see.

picton

picton

There was an osprey in the distance but too far away to photograph but not too much else so on we went to Colby Woodland Gardens.

Cosmos

First stop (after the coffee shop) was the walled garden.

Colby
rose
hydra
whiteflower
Colby

flowers

clematis
fuchsia
fuchsia

flowers

Lots of colour and the slugs are kept under control by the resident ducks.

Colby
colby
colby
colby
Colby
white flower

tortoiseshell

There were quite a few insects around. This lovely Tortoiseshell posed long enough for me to take its photo.

l&jc
colby

buzzard

Jonathon and I then went off for a walk through the woods while Lyndon stayed below. He was the one lucky enough to see the buzzards close enough to photograph them though!

buzzard

Needless to say that all the buzard photos are courtesy of Lyndon.

colby
colby
buzzard
buzzard
colby
colby

jc&l

Back to the cafe for lunch before heading off to Tenby.

Our main purpose for visiting Tenby was to have a look at the Tudor Merchant's House but as we'd not been to Tenby before we had a stroll along the beach as well.

Tenby

Tenby

TMH

The Tudor Merchant's House was about 500 years old and interesting to see.

Tenby
Tenby

TMH

Lovely tapestries on the wall.

tmh
Tenby
tmh
tmh
tenby
JC
tenby
tenby
A quick trip back home to have ice cream from Gianni's and pack up some sandwiches / salad before we headed off to Strumblehead to watch a spectacular sunset behind the lighthouse.
Strumblehead

Saturday dawned bright and clear but it was time to drive home so off we went after a leisurely breakfast.

The end of another great break.

Thanks Lyndon for a wonderful few days!

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