# Jonesy55's holiday in a yurt in Wales



## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

Hi, I've just returned from a wonderful relaxing holiday in a yurt in South West Wales, UK. Here are some photos of the region, hope you enjoy. 

The site we stayed at was in a rural inland location but we visited several places on the coast too. This region is only a couple of hours drive from where I live but I hadn't been here for over 20 years so it was good to see this part of the country again.










Our yurt and the campsite base. It was a lovely small (8 hectare) farm on a hillside location with just two yurts in woodland, three tipis and lots of chickens. The farm isn't connected to the electricity grid so all power comes from wind and solar generators.

View over surrounding countryside










Our home for the week




























There were tipis to stay in too but the yurts were more luxurious, ha!





































We had a campfire each evening as we watched the sun set.










The hills and coastline in this region have many wind farms like this one, this turbine was huge.


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## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

Having arrived and spent our first night in camp, we set off to explore the far south west coast of Wales, St Brides bay.










First we went to Marloes, we arrived at high tide so almost no beach, :doh:










So after a short walk, onto lunch in the village of Little Haven.










and then another beach at Newgale, this time plenty of sand and surf.




























Then around the bay to St David's, the smallest city in Britain, it's really not much more than a large village with a couple of thousand inhabitants but because of the cathedral, it has city status. Didn't stop for long so no pictures of the town sorry, 



















The ruined Bishop's Palace


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## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

Today we took a trip to the elegant coastal resort of Tenby and nearby Caldey Island, home to a community of Benedictine Monks. Tenby is one of my favourite British coastal towns, medieval walls, a nice historic Georgian centre (sorry no photos again :doh, several great beaches and harbour, good restaurants etc.










On the beach





































We took a boat trip over to Caldey Island.










and saw a school of 20-30 porpoises on the way :banana:



















The island beach viewed from the boat










Looking back to the mainland




























The monastery


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## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

To the National Botanic Gardens of Wales today, home to the world's largest single span glasshouse containing plants from the the mediterranean climate zones of the world as well as large outdoor gardens of native plants.









































































Afterwards, we took a quick trip to the pretty town of Llandeilo which has some nice shops and cafes to while away the afternoon in.


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## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

Day 5

A quick visit to a ruined castle at Cilgerran, this is the view over the adjacent river gorge.










Then onto the coast at Tresaith, the beach here has a waterfall too which is cool.


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## jlshyang (May 22, 2005)

Thank you so much for sharing, Jonesy55. 

One of my flatmates of my final year in uni was from St. David's! Her parents operate a hotel down there. It's a shame I didn't get to visit them at St. David's back then. Oh, you have no idea how much I miss Wales, Aberystwyth in particular


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## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

^^ Yeah, it's a nice little place, you'll have to come back on holiday sometime 

As you know Wales well, you'll no doubt have noticed the unusually nice weather in these photos, the whole week was bright sunshine and 24-25C, much better than average for early June. :banana:


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## Fusionist (Jul 7, 2004)

looks nice to me 

like the cute little waterfall and yes always want to visit Wales, especialyl cos I like the countryside !


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## Paddington (Mar 30, 2006)

:cheers:


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## nomarandlee (Sep 24, 2005)

Awesome pics Jonesy!! Makes me want to go out and stay in my own yurt for a few days. It actually looks like a real cozy little place. Also had no idea how scenic the Wales coastline was.:cheers:


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## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

^^ Thanks, glad you liked them. It was a very nice little break. Sometimes it's good to explore the things right on your doorstep just as much as stuff the other side of the world.


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## goschio (Dec 2, 2002)

British coast looks so beautiful. :shocked:

Very underrated IMO.


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## Fox-Tale (Apr 15, 2007)

Wow, surprisingly beautiful photos in such a good weather!
I wish I could go there someday.
Thank you for the photos!


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## Bruton (Jan 31, 2009)

Wonderful. How's the food?


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## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

Bruton said:


> Wonderful. How's the food?


Pretty good. Most of the time we just ate various simple light lunches in cafes and ate around the campfire in the evening, I made some welsh specialities like oatcakes with laverbread (seaweed), bacon and cockles and there were fresh free range eggs available from the chickens at the site for breakfast.

One night we did go to a very nice pub/restaurant though called Y Polyn, I had duck rillettes, poached Towy Sewin (Sea trout from the local river) with buerre blanc and homemade honey and almond ice cream

Carmarthen produces a good dry cured ham (like Parma, Serrano, Bayonne etc) which is unusual in the UK, I sampled some from the market in Carmarthen and it was excellent.

Tenby has a good range of restaurants and I saw several very nice looking fish restaurants in various villages around the coast as you'd expect.


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## Bruton (Jan 31, 2009)

Do you guys up there eat river trout? It's certainly not for everybody and very bony!


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## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

Bruton said:


> Do you guys up there eat river trout? It's certainly not for everybody and very bony!


Yes, trout is popular and quite highly regarded, is it not wherever you are?? It has a nice flavour and texture imo, it's from the same family as the salmon.

The bones are only a problem if you hack at it, you're supposed to gently separate the flesh from the ribcage and the bones get left behind, then when you've finished one side, just lift the skeleton away by the tail and the underside flesh is revealed, sans bones. 

It's healthy too.


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## Bruton (Jan 31, 2009)

It has kind of a 'earthy' taste. In France it is not too highly regarded, at least compared to the likes of Monk Fish and other white sea fishes.


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## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

^^ It's certainly more highly regarded than white fish such as cod or haddock here as well as cheap oily sea fish like mackerel, herring or sardine. It's not though as regarded as wild salmon, sea bass, John Dory, Dover Sole etc. 

Monkfish has become fashionable over the past decade but I think it's over-rated myself, it's nice but not amazing. The more earthy taste of river trout is probably because it's a freshwater fish, without the distinctive saltiness or metallic iodine flavour that is present in most sea fish. I like it myself.










You can also have smoked trout as an alternative to smoked salmon and it makes a good mousse for eating with toasted bread, pickles and salad.


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