It was after 8am before anyone made moves to get out of bed this morning. Vania came out of the closet and the rest of us dragged ourselves out to meet some beautiful morning sun. Vania’s adventures continued after Maddy accidently dropped her torch down the loo (not sure why she needed it in the morning but then I am not 6 years old!) Vania at first tried to just flush it away but, when the loo started glowing (naturally, the torch was turned on!), she had to stick her hand down to retrieve it. You will be pleased to here that even after being submerged in a Tardis toilet, a mag-light will still work a treat! With the morning sitcom over, we set a steady pace getting ready for a day at the beach.
Now I am not the most reliable navigator at the best of times, a fact that Vania is quite aware. She, on the other hand is old fashioned (like most of the English) and refuses to use a GPS, a fact that I find quite amusing. I thus left it to her to consult with Farmer Martin as to the best beach to head to and simply nodded in agreement as she pointed out to me the map route we would be taking. In such spirits we drove off towards New Quay only to discover that, while the town beach looked lovely, it was quite crowded and chav orientated. We next attempted to find Ceibach Beach and I don’t think either her map or my GPS would have done us much good. Despite following signs to the beach that led us down extremely tunnel like (Cornwall reminiscent) roads, we reached a cliff top, some campgrounds, but no clear way to get to the beach. Not good. After consulting the map (scarily held by yours truly) we tried our luck further down the coast. All was going well until we happened upon a parked van, stopped due to a trailer across the road, on a single-track country lane. We could see two gentlemen standing conversing on the road ahead so waited patiently as they had clearly seen us arrive. After at least 5 minutes I bravely got out of the car to see what was going on. I think gentleman number one informed me they were waiting for cows (or could he have said cars?), gentleman two nodded sagely, then they both simply continued to chat. After what felt like an eternity gentlemen number one simply pushed the trailer off the road and gentlemen number two got back in his van and drove off. Neither so much as looked in our direction acting like this was the most natural thing in the world for them to be doing. I kept waiting for one of them to look up and enquire “you’re not from around here are you?” and to hear the far off sound of banjos.
We finally arrived at the pretty seaside village of Llangrannog, which lies on the coast of Ceredigion, in a narrow valley through which the river Hawen makes its rapid way into Cardigan Bay. The village was established around the church during the 6th Century, although there is evidence of an early Celtic settlement at nearby Lochtyn. The village developed rapidly with the increase in fishing and associated trade. 24 ships were built near the beach and until 1914 almost all of the male inhabitants were seafarers. Today, tourism is the main industry with the sheltered beach ideal for young children.
We arrived in Llangrannog around 1130am parking at the top of the village before making our way on foot down the hill to the beach. It was only a small bay but perfect for our needs. The kids had an absolute ball playing in the sand and freezing in the sea. (note: neither Vania or I braved the chilly conditions) We ate our picnic lunch at the beach then, when hypothermia was about to kick in, packed up to go. It was ice creams all around before we made the uphill trek back to the car.
The drive back to camp was a lot easier as we stuck to the main roads. We arrived back in plenty of time for some preliminary packing, a rest and a few more ‘friendly’ games of dominoes before it was time to head up to the ‘shop’ for home made pizzas. Farmers Martin and Anne had arranged it so everyone could decorate their own pizza base before Martin cooked them in the pizza oven (which had apparently been delivered from Feather Down Farm’s HQ as a standard feature of their glamping package) It was a glorious evening weather wise and also gave us the opportunity to mingle more with some of the other glampers.
After pizzas the kids ran wild around the farm until Anne brought out Lou Lou shaped cookies for all and some fantastic chocolate and fruit kebabs. Martin also helped them toasting marshmallows until they were all well and truly high on sugar. For the grown ups there was a selection of Welsh Cheeses and a fantastic cheese fondue (made simply by putting a block of brie in the middle of a lump of pizza dough and cooking the lot) It was rather late by the time we got everyone settled in bed tonight. Isy was feeling a bit unwell so would share the double bed with Vania, Zac did not last long with Maddy in the cupboard and returned to the top bunk leaving Maddy to sleep alone. Abbey graciously decided she wanted to sleep with me and so we were to be rather cosy in the single lower bunk bed together. With the bedding arrangements finalized, Vania and I settled down for a nightcap and some more dominos before heading to bed ourselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment