Pembrokeshire

A few of us van dwellers decided on a multi-activity long weekend in Pembrokeshire. The trip was instigated when I saw a trip report online for Ogof Gofan. This is a sea cliff cave within the Castle Martin firing range which understandably requires a permit. After we successfully applied for a permit we decided to stick around Pembroke for a few days doing some walking and climbing.

Les and Henry were going to join us for the day’s caving before heading home. It was a lovely sunny day which was good as we could only have 4 in the cave at a time. The rest of us basked in the sunshine watching the climbers on the cliffs whilst we waited.

The cave is quite unusual and what some would call a collector's piece (but in a good way). To get to the entrance we had to source some hangers (metal plates to attach to bolts in the rock) and nuts. This proved quite challenging as they seemed to be a different size to those used in most cave rigging. However armed with different sizes borrowed from numerous cavers (just in case) we followed the description to the entrance.

We had heard that the cave had a reputation for being difficult to find. But following the instructions which said things like: "walk 100m then bear left to the cliff edge, you should descend the sloping rib of rock, not the sheer cliff". We found the bolts and Olly rigged the rope.

After a short pitch which was actually mostly free climbable you could swing onto a slope and crawl into the cave.

I descended with group one and after a small section of tight crawling we emerged at “the window”. This is a hole in the cliff face which gives a great view out to sea. 

We then continued through tight small squeeze and crawled some more before we came to a beautifully decorated chamber with many formations and an amazing green lake. 

There was one more chamber to explore which was also very pretty. Group 1 headed out but I remained in the cave to act as tour guide for Oli and Les. Les abseiled in first and after watching Oli land we headed for the window. Oli seemed to be a very long time taking her SRT kit off and eventually I went back to the entrance to find her. Alarmingly there was an abandoned SRT kit but no Oli. However I could here some rustling, it turns out Oli has ignored the obvious crawl and had inserted herself into a much smaller hole which was so tight she had had to remove her helmet. 

Oli retrieved we headed in the correct crawl admired the window then set off for the squeeze. This was actually quite tight and I wasn’t too sure if Les was going to fit. I thought he must as a larger friend of ours had fitted through the first squeeze but not the second. I encouraged Les and after two failed attempts he let Oli go through (which I wasn’t super keen on as if he got stuck both Oli and I would be trapped). Luckily on attempt three he popped through. It was then that it occurred to me that this was actually the second squeeze and not the first and so our larger friend had not actually fitted... But I put this to the back of my mind and we went and admired the formations and the lake.

Luckily with some clothing removed and gravity on his side Les popped back through the squeeze much easier on the way back. 

We de-rigged the cave and headed to the pub for a well earned pint. Les and Henry left us and the van dwellers picked a convenient lay-by for the night. 

After a morning toilet stop at a National Trust car park we managed to faff until midday to start our walk. Conveniently with two vans we left one at the start and the finish and walked from Whitesands to Solva.  

The Welsh Coast Path is very pretty in this area and we have been inspired to at some point walk the whole thing. We passed a pretty and well hidden, shiny, new lifeboat station built right next to the older one. A little later as we were passing Ramsey Island we suddenly spotted some porpoises in the channel, this was well timed for a lunch stop and we spent a great hour eating sandwiches and watching the porpoises.

After they left us we continued around the coast eventually hitting our half way mark at Porth Clais. Here we stopped for ice-cream, except Oli who refused to buy any ice-cream as they didn't have pistachio flavour. The cafe owner asked if we had seen the porpoises, he said there are there at the same state of the tide every day and that porpoises are basically smaller, stupider dolphins. There are some cool sea cliffs here and we decided to head back the following day to climb them.

It clouded over a little in the afternoon but the scenery was still pretty. We passed St Non's well, the spring here is meant to cure all ailments. Oli and Olly decided to test this, Rich and I were sceptical. Neither of them got ill but Oli has also drunk water from the Nile so she's probably not a good test subject.

A few miles later we walked into Solva which has a beautiful harbour. The guys retrieved the vans and we headed to another lay-by for the night. Oli's mum left her the most middle-class care package but we enjoyed grating Parmesan on our tortellini and sauce. 

We set of early the following morning back to Porth Clais. This was my first experience climbing sea cliffs and at first I was a little nervous about the belay options. You have to place your own nuts/cams/slings as there are no fixed anchor points. The site is tidal and we did some top roping first to avoid getting wet feet.

Olly then led the diagonal crack (S 4a) and Dreamboat Annie (HVS 5a). The second was a little nerve-racking to watch as there was a large section of corner climbing where he couldn’t place any gear. Luckily Olly reached the top without falling and crushing me, we then headed to the Red Wall, which is the little outcrop next door, and did some more top-roping; as the tide had risen again. This was an awesome area with some great climbs and we would definitely return. We even managed to finish just before the cafe closed and get another ice-cream! This time Oli caved and bought a vanilla ice cream, adding her own pistachios from her mum's care package.

We then headed to lay-by number 3 for night with van number 3 as Chris had arrived. The weather was a little unsettled for our final day so we chose to walk the another section of the coast path from Porth Gain to Whitesands Bay. 

This was another pretty section and we had time to look around the blue lagoon at Abereiddi. This is a former slate quarry which was flooded when a channel connecting it to the sea was blasted. The quarry is pretty deep and Red Bull have hosted their cliff diving world series there a number of times.

We eventually made it to White Sands and Oli and I explored some cool sea arches whilst the van shuttling ensued. Pembrokeshire is an awesome place and we will definitely be back.