Wales - Day 22 - 25 - St David's to Llanelli

Wednesday 12th - Saturday 15th June 2019
Mileage 80 from Lleithyr Farm Campsite near St David's to The Gateway Resort near Llanelli
Parking Co-ordinates 51.66367, -4.10436

Wednesday 12th   🌧️🌧️☁☁☁

For once I haven't really got much to say about today's activities, so instead maybe I'll just moan about the bloody inclement weather that it looks like we're going to get over the next few days😠😠😠.  The weather man says we'll have rain most days, and on some days it may well be for all day!  So now we're wondering what on earth we're going to do with ourselves because our initial plans included mostly cycling and a bit of walking.

The campsite is situated part way along the River Loughor and right on the Millennium Coastal Trail (a shared cycle trail) which runs for about 13 miles along the coastline on the Burry Estuary.  Additionally the Llanelli Wetland Centre (which has all sorts birds and creatures within it's lagoons) is only a short walk away.  So we've decided that rather than relying on the fairy tales that the weather man often tells we'll just open our blinds each morning, see what the sky looks like and then plan the days activities accordingly - and whatever that is we'll just make sure we take our raincoats with us😂😂😂


Thursday 13th   🌧️🌧️☁☁☁⛅⛅

Well, today didn't turn out to be as bad as predicted!!  The rain had hammered on our roof for most of the night but by the time we got up it'd turned to gentle drizzle and by the time we were ready to go out (after a late brunch) it had stopped altogether.  But everywhere was still fairly wet so we decided that the Llanelli WWT Wetland Centre might be our best bet for the day's entertainment - and what a treat that turned out to be!

There were 5 babies but I only managed to catch 4

We poddled for a mile down the millennium trail, paid our £8.81 entrance fee, and then a very pleasant elderly gentleman explained our best route around the site which covers 450 acres and has about a dozen bird hides.  He told us that the centre is divided into two halves, one large area being dedicated to wetland birds from 'around the world', and in this part of the park we would also find huge salt marshes where wild birds come to feed and hatch their young.  He then went on to say that in the other part of the park - The Millennium Wetlands - (which only has fresh water areas) we would find a mosaic of lagoons reed beds, paths, board walks and more hides for viewing creatures that might just be passing through.

The bit on the left is the lagoon area and the bit on the right is the more populated area

So as advised we started our tour in the 'round the world' area which turned out to be a very busy  metropolis with wetland birds from exotic places such as South America, Australia and Asia to name but a few, and we saw loads of ducks, swans and geese of all colours and varieties many of which we've never met before, and quite a few with chicks.

An American Wood Duck - the boy of course - the female isn't half as pretty!!! 
Apparently it often steels woodpecker nests to breed and it eats acorns!

A red breasted goose who apparently often features in 6000 year old Egyptian friezes
and who when eaten may taste of garlic!

A black necked swan with her cygnets.  In the 18th and 19th centuries thousands of these were
killed to make two tone belts, powder puffs and to adorn garments.

A black headed duck with a bright blue beak - apparently it's beak becomes bluer in the breeding
season but this is a endangered species. 

A beautiful Sheld duck - Sheld is a northern dialect word for variegated colouring.  Also one might think
this one has French origins because one of the main stays of it's diet is snails
and it can eat up to 12,000 in one sitting!

A big tortoise - I hope he wasn't going in there to nick eggs😱!

A Red Crowned Crane - one of the largest of the crane species - he stands over 5 feet tall and can weigh up to
25 lbs.  However it seems there are only about 3,000 birds left now because of destruction of their habitat.
Happily this chap was behind a big fence because the info informed us that they can pack a nasty peck!

A Magpie Goose - I don't know if he's a thief but he'd got a ring on his leg!

And these two - because we hadn't got any food for them they were quite happy to make do with John's fingers😲

After we'd finished touring the first part of the park we nipped back to the Visitor's Centre with the intention of having a snack in the cafe, but whoops!  They stopped serving food at 2.30 and by then it was 2.45, therefore it was a good job that our trusty flask + 2 jammy scones were secreted away in my bag😂😂.

After scoffing them our tour continued in The Millennium Wetlands but there really wasn't quite so much to see there, but if you look carefully there was a Wally hiding near one of the hides!!!

We also passed by 2 beautiful but slightly threatening swans with octuplets (there were 2 more hiding behind mum)!

A huge sculpture of a crane.

And 4 spoonbills feeding in one of the lagoons

But I could only catch one of them!

Then just before we left we realised we'd missed the flamingos😲, but we soon remedied that by nipping back into the first area!  And that part of our visit was very well timed because we arrived just at feeding time and what a row that  caused!!  The flamingos and dozens of black headed gulls were all scrabbling to get the best pickings which resulted in one or two fisty cuffs 'set toos' and lots of screeched warnings - but it was an amazing show to watch!

The Flamingos here were Caribbean ones - the largest and brightest of the six different types of flamingo
However, it seems they are quite endangered because their breeding sites have been reduced from 40 to just 4 now!
The info boards told us that an adult bird eats about 50,000 brine fly larvae per day plus other invertebrates
And they live in saline lagoons with twice as much saltiness as sea water and because of this they have developed
a salt excreting gland just above their eyes!

Once the feeding frenzy was done outside the birds wondered inside for a much more well mannered second helping!
And in this area there was an observation platform for us to stand and watch.

While there we also learnt that flamingos always breed in large flocks that can sometimes number over a million birds.  Apparently they lay a single egg in a mud nest and both parents share it's incubation which lasts for about 28 days.  After hatching the chick remains in the nest for about 7 days and both parents feed it by secreting a substance called 'crop milk' and it seems that this is so high in protein that during the first 20 days of it's life the baby's legs can grow by as much as 5 mm EVERY DAY!  It's a good job they don't need school trousers😂😂

In the end we spent nearly 5 hours in the park but just before we left John made a point of becoming quite friendly with this last duck!!!


Friday 14th ☁☁☁☁☁☁⛅⛅
28 🚴🚴 miles

😁😁😁Mr weatherman was wrong again 😁😁😁 - No rain today and the end of the day was really quite sunny.  So today we decided to cycle to the Mumbles and then along the sea front around Swansea Bay.  To get there we mostly used dedicated cycle paths, first a short section of the Millennium trail, then later The Clyne Valley Cycle Way and lastly a sea front track all the way into Swansea, but in-between we had to negotiate several very busy roads. 

And really, I think we both agreed in the end that this wasn't one of our best rides, and that was for several reasons really.  As I mentioned above the heavy traffic blighted it somewhat, but even when we got to the traffic free section in the Clyne Valley Park we found it to be dank dark and a bit neglected, and almost like riding through a tunnel formed by overhead tangled trees.  But maybe that's not suprising because in a former life the trail used to be The Heart of Wales Railway Line!

However, things did get better when the trail ended at Blackpill on Swansea Bay.  From there we turned right and  rode along the prom into the Mumbles which is a headland situated on the western edge of Swansea Bay, and it was also here that we feasted on our picnic accompanied by a huge portion of chips.  From where we sat munching we could view the Mumbles lifeboat station which has operated there from 1866 and who's history includes 'The Mumbles Lifeboat Disaster' - an incident that resulted in an entire crew being lost while attempting to rescue the crew of the SS Samtampa.

Once lunch was finished we turned in the other direction and peddled our way across Swansea Bay's 5 mile promenade which is lined with dozens of what seemed to be mostly empty sea front apartments.

Bloomin Heck - Wally's popped up again😂😂

And once that was done all that was left was for us to retrace our tracks all the way back to T4rdis2  - but that meant going through the dank dark gloomy woods again👻👻.


Saturday 15th ⛅⛅☁☁☁⛅⛅  Ha Ha, Mr Weatherman was wrong again!!
24 🚴🚴 miles

Today we decided to go in the opposite direction to yesterday and head along the Millennium Trail to Pembery Park, and that just so happened to be where the finishing post for this years Ladies Tour of Britain was going to be.

The Millennium trail is described 'A superb mostly flat, well surfaced and easily accessible coastal traffic free route that follows the stunning Carmarthenshire coast ...for a distance of approximately 13 miles from Bynea in the East to Pembery Country Park in the West.  But I think whoever wrote that ought to come and ride along the first 3 miles of it because it's muddy and pitted with loads of deep puddle filled pot holes that rather detract from the pleasure of riding along it.  But having said that the other 9 or so miles to the Park were much better so it did redeem itself! The trail mostly follows the estuary edge and as we went we had fine views of the Gower Peninsula coastline, and when we finally got to Pembery Park we could see the very tip of the Gower which terminates at Worm's Head - we've been there before and it's a fantastic place to explore.

We arrived in the 500 acre park about half an hour ahead of the race so we nipped to the top of a grassy bank that overlooked part of the road that the 96 ladies would have to race along, and as there was a convenient picnic bench up there we settled down for lunch before they arrived.

The race has covered nearly 500 miles over the last 6 days and it seemed that the finish would be a tight one because only 1 second separated the leaders.  But to be honest it was impossible to identify any specific person as the closely packed front runners shot by us, but we did learn later that an English lady called Lizzie Deignan won, and apparently she's the first lady cyclist to ever win the event twice and she only had her baby 9 months ago!

Then after all that excitement we turned our wheels homewards and enjoyed the different views as we travelled in the opposite direction.

Tomorrow we'll be on the move again, and our time in Wales will be complete because we'll be spending the last 3 nights of this tour at Malvern.

Bye for now 😗😗

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