We were able to take a break recently to visit the National Botanic Garden of Wales, about 45 minutes drive away near to Carmarthen. This is offers an amazing day trip for all, not only is there the focal point of the ‘Dome’ with its collection of mediterranean plants and personally I prefer it to the one in Cornwall by the way as less pretentious.
But also parklands with some great walks around the grounds, lakes and over bridges, not forgetting a waterfall and lake overflows, best take a map though as a lot of routes/paths.
After having lunch we had a look around the main thoroughfare up to the cafe/shop and the walled gardens which I can imagine get very busy in the main holiday periods.
We recently knocked down the ramshackle old crinkle tin garage and whilst sorting through the wood pile for good stuff that we could still use, the corner of of my eye picked up something. Upon taking a closer look it was a little bit of history, probably to signify when the ‘garage’ was built and by.
Since finding it, a bit of further investigation has revealed what it says as…
Flight Sergeant Ivor Bowen
RWP Jones
27th March 1944
Mrs Ivor Bowen (supervisor)
Apparently he flew Spitfires during the war, with honours and passed away in 2003.
I still have it tucked away, so any relatives/descendants can lay claim to it.
These are the scores on the doors, from our platform partners, so pretty pleased and many thanks to all our guests for your support.
We have tried a few companies of this type over recent years, but these three are the ones which work for us… Booking.Com have a good extranet system and bring in a lot of customers. PitchUp are great for the Glamping Hay Loft and a perfect match. AirBnB work well with the B&B side of the business offering us flexibility. Yes they all take a commission, but currently worth it.
Of the other ones that we have tried, but for various reasons just didn’t work out… Expedia are okay in themselves but the extranet system is terrible and nowhere near enough bookings to make up for it, Sykes lets just not go there. We found the next two, Vrbo and Home Away pretty pointless actually, I can’t think of a single booking from them.
Just added some new signage that I created and recycling bins for the Hay Loft Glamping accommodation to help our guests identify what goes where, particularly as our general waste is only collected every three weeks, so a fair bit can accumulate in the busier months.
Thought about another sign on behalf of the chickens, asking for food scraps they can eat, but thought this might be pushing it 🙂
Penbryn is another local beach that is well worth a visit offering a loads of lovely sand, rocks to climb and a cave to explore. For those seeking to explore there are some great walks either along the sea front down to Tresaith, keeping an eye on the tide times of course, or on the coastal paths along the cliff tops, our favourite was up the coast to Llangrannog.
Parking is available either at the national Trust car park that also benefits from a small Cafe called the ‘Plwmp Tart’ in the middle of it, or up on the hill by the church. From the NT car par park you can either walk down to the beach via a restricted access road, or off the beaten track a bit by taking the footpath from the car park down to the stream coming out on the beach via a wooden boardwalk.
Beach route to Tresaith
It is possible to scramble over the rocks and walk down to Tresaith when the tides out, or if feeling up to something slightly more strenuous, a coastal cliff top walk to Llangrannog which passes a secluded beach that is accessible for the brave, via a steep ‘path’ apparently 🙂
Or just keep it simple and stack pebbles on the beach.
We had a bit of spare time the other day, plus we had to take some bath mats back to Dunelm as the ‘non slip’ element was anything but. Anyhow it was a nice day so we drove a bit further south from Carmarthen to Llansteffan and parked on the sea front, at the north end as a bit quieter and found a really good catering truck, for a tea, coffee and hot sausage rolls, yummee.
There are also two pubs in the village, plus village store and a beach cafe, so enough to eat and drink. Oh yes and toilets 🙂
The walk isn’t long only about 2 miles or so as we turned inland at Saint Anthony’s cottage, but it is possible to easily extend an additional two miles by following the ‘Wales Coast Path’ for another mile or so and coming back inland. I haven’t included all my photos here, but feel free to view them on my Flickr Page just follow the link.
The walk is a mixture of beach and coastal path, with the return journey inland to the castle, plus some stunning views of Carmarthen Bay and the Tywi estuary, plus obviously a Castle to explore (Free).
