Monday, March 23, 2009

Weekend Trips - St Govans, Bosherston Lily Ponds, Tenby & Saundersfoot

Bang up to date with photos, with some here only shot this weekend! Woot, the excitement. Anyway, this Saturday past we took a trip down the coast to see St Govan's Chapel, the famous hermitage set into the side of the cliffs near Bosherston. I've wanted to go see since I was a little boy, I've always loved the legend of the uncountable steps which my dad used to tell me about. Needless to say I enjoyed telling Elis about it and he counted the steps all the way down!

I remember seeing it in a film years ago, Gawain And The Green Knight (which also used Castle Coch and Cardiff Castle as sets) and seen it on things like Coast and other TV shows. In truth there's not a lot there, and the inside of the chapel is dank and uninteresting, but the actual bay it's in is lovely. I would love to do some more exploring along that coast, as it's pretty amazing. It's strange going through the firing range to get there as well, but worth the trip.

Going down to St Govan's Chapel

Looking up at St Govan's Chapel

One side of the bay at St Govan's Chapel

This bit of rock is amazingly rich for those of us who like to see the patterns of faces in things. The very top of this out crop looks almost transformer like, can you see a face there. Pointy nose, mouth, triangular eyes. Lovely.

Face in the rocks above St Govan's Chapel

Another view of the cliffs at St Govan's Chapel

The bay at St Govan's Chapel

Inside St Govan's Chapel

The Chapel is only really worth about 30 minutes of a visit, but just up the road from there is Bosherston Lily Ponds. We took a nice walk along the one lake, but didn't have time to get all the way to Broad Haven (the other one.) Next time we go I think it will be for the day and we will get all the way to the beach. There's a couple of views from the hill overlooking one side of the lake. The gorse smelt amazing, like coconuts. I kept getting good wafts of it on the breeze.

Bosherston Lily Ponds

Last weekend my folks came up with Elis' cousins and we went for a walk on Iron Bar Sands and Castle Beach at Tenby. I was amazed to see hundreds of large starfish (bigger than my hand) all along the rock pools on the beach. I've not spotted big ones like these before. There's a photo of a few below and another shot I liked of one of the houses on the cliffs. Following that are various shots from around Saundersfoot, including some snow on the hills and long winter shadows. It's been a lovely week the last week or so, looks like it's turning cold again now though. Hope to be out again soon taking more.

Large starfish in Tenby

View form Iron Bar Sands

Sunken boat in Saundersfoot Harbour

On the cliff above Saundersfoot Harbour

Shadows across the Coppet Hall Car Park

Shadows on Coppet Hall Beach

Posted by Dio Bach at 15:57

1 Comments:

Holly said...: I'm always so envious of your various outings. I love the shot of the starfish-- it's so "seaside." That shot of Elis by the lamp post-- that's a STEEP street! Wow!; 3:13 PM