Stackpole and Barafundle

Day 2 of our visit to Pembrokeshire, saw Mr S and daughter leave early with their sea kayaks,
My instructions were to wait for the boys to get up and meet up for lunch. I finally gave up waiting and woke boys up!
Our arrival at Stackpole Quay coincided with the return of Mr S and daughter from their morning paddle.

As our cakes from the cafe at Stackpole the day before had been so nice we decided to buy our sandwiches from there for our lunch- what a huge disappointment they were; dry bread and really tough beef!  We struggled through our sandwiches while watching brave young folk jump off the quay. They were having great fun, although it looked to me as though sometimes they were only missing the wall with centimetres to spare. One young girl spent a good hour running up to the end of the quay but not managing to pluck up the courage to jump, even with the encouragement of her Mum from the beach and her Dad went up and dived (not too gracefully) off, to show her how it could be done. By the time we left the beach she had quite a few people standing watching and willing her to jump, but we had to make a move and head towards Barafundle Bay.

As we were waving Mr S and daughter off Mr S informed me that there were cattle on the cliff walk but the other side of the electric fence so I will be fine. The reason he told me this is because I am not great in a field of cows, having had a couple of bad experiences with them in the past including a time on a cliff on the Isle of Skye when we had to climb down cliff to take evasive action from a very protective Mummy cow!

So sons, dog and I set off to coast path to Barafundle while Mr S and daughter got back into their kayaks.
walking up to the top of the path  we past another group of people watching the young girl on the harbour wall and then a couple of minutes later a loud cheer came from the direction of the harbour, the girl had managed it hurray!
Our enjoyment of the moment was very short lived as within seconds, a couple of cows were running straight at us, we were in a procession of people all walking towards Barafundle, including lots of young families, arms were being waved around to encourage the cows to change direction, the a couple more cows ran towards us followed by what seemed like a hundred, the cows were desperately trying to change direction, One of my sons was holding onto dog lead tight but as my dog has been known to wriggle out of collar when it all gets to exciting for her I grabbed hold of her collar to try and keep her calm, other son who was on crutches with a badly sprained heel also had hold of dogs collar and as the cows kept coming and pushing us further back, people were still frantically waving arms, the cows were followed by the farmer on his quad bike who was herding all the cows towards the farm, then it happened, son who had hold of lead backed into the electric fence, the shock went through him down lead through dog and through both me and my other son who still had hold of dogs collar, then another gentleman who had helped keep cows away from us also touched wire, all in all a very shocking time. By the time I had gained my composure the cattle and farmer were back at farm, so no photo's I'm afraid!

With feet and trousers covered in cow muck we continued along the path to Barafundle.

It really is a beautiful beach and we have been visiting it every year for well over twenty years, we have never had such a traumatic walk to get there before and hopefully we won't have again.

I was still traumatised by the cows when we met up with Mr S and daughter at Barafundle, so I decided to continue walking along the coastal path for a while instead of just sitting on the beach.

Sea Holly,

A lovely walk up through the wood to the cliff tops.

Lords and ladies or cuckoo pint

Carline thistle.

Scabious

Birdsfoot-trefoil  or bacon and eggs

I watched as Mr S and son kayaked back to Stackpole to collect sons swim wear which had been left in car and was now needed as he was covered in muck.

Then I continued my walk along the cliffs, the Pembrokeshire coastline is really quite spectacular!

OK! ponies, I think I have had enough of animals today,

Time to return to my family at Barafundle now I have calmed down,

 relax on the sand  and enjoy the views.

Caldy island

before our much more relaxed walk back to the car!
What a day!