Residential visit to Cardigan

12 – 16 Sept 2011

Leaders: Alison Broadbridge and Tilley Smith

All eleven of us knew our holiday had started when we met together for a cream tea picnic, home baked and supplied by Alison, at Cenarth. Cenarth has a salmon leap – and a salmon was seen leaping! The Coracle Centre is also there and contains a unique collection of coracles from all over the world including one in which a Vietnamese family escaped from hostilities hundreds of miles across the sea. The collector is an enthusiastic and knowledgeable guide who had also restored the water mill.

Tuesday day 2, we walked along the River Teifi through ancient woodland with interesting flora and some steep paths, had coffee and welsh cakes in the Wildlife centre, visited the ruins of the magnificent Cilgaron castle and stopped at the bird hides. We missed the kingfishers but saw herons and various wildfowl. On our way home through the marshes huge buffalo were grazing – quite a sight in the September sunshine.

On Wednesday our walk was along an eleven mile section of the Cardigan coastal path with an option of stopping off half way at Mwnd. Mwnd is a scenic spot with a beach, a car park and a busy little kiosk well patronised by us. The sea was quite rough but this did not deter one of us from donning her swimsuit for a dip.

There is also a tiny white pilgrim chapel surrounded by a grave yard and set away from the cove which is still used for services and had great atmosphere. The ascents in the afternoon were quite challenging but very rewarding in terms of magnificent views and a few sightings of a seal.

A sizable MoD site meant we had to divert inland to reach the village where we were very glad to see our minibus waiting for us. We revived enough to enjoy an evening of Welsh hospitality in the Eagle hostelry.

Day 3, Thursday, saw us travelling to the starting point in the minibus – a section of coast path recently engineered and created by local Ramblers. The views were magnificent, the weather perfect – blue skies and autumn sunshine- the ascents were challenging and sometimes the path dropped away steeply. We saw the odd seal and when we stopped at a beach, once again with a little coffee kiosk, we were told the seals' breeding place was in the next cove.

Indeed a walk to remember for the physical challenge as well as the scenery. We reached Newquay to watch dolphins – an exciting first sighting for some of us – and to have our ice cream or cream tea. After a quick shower we set off that evening to visit Dogmaels Abbey and the working water mill. The miller had 5 minutes worth of water to turn the wheel and in that time we saw the mill wheel start up and the grain ground to flour.

In the twilight, with bats emerging above us, we had a tour of the ruined abbey with a guide who described things in a way that made the monks' working days come to life. We left at 11pm after a beautifully presented delicious meal of local lamb, salmon and cheese, many of us bearing purchases of milled flour, cheeses, and craft gifts. Another wonderful day.

Friday, the weather changed – we explored Cardigan castle then set off in a tiny open boat for a trip on the estuary. The heavens duly opened and within minutes we were sitting in a puddle of water with our feet in another. This caused much hilarity but all was quickly rectified in the hotel before we set off home.

Cardigan is a lovely town with little independent shops. A huge cardigan, a patchwork of knitting of local scenes and the town's history has pride of place in the craft gallery. Tilley and Alison contributed some knitting when they did the recce for our visit. The planning of our visit was immaculate – everything we needed – the loos, the coffee kiosks, the good eateries, the minibus trips were organised to perfection – even the dolphins and the weather were to order. Thank you Tilley and Alison – a trip to remember for us all.

Ann Partridge