Day 26
Angle to Freshwater West: 8 miles
Favorite new food of the day: Kelpchup
Reason: Because, unlike ketchup, I like kelpchup - otherwise known as seaweed dressing for hamburgers
Angle - do you mean fish or degrees?
Ah, word play and math jokes, you know I'm tired when.
Anyway, the hike from Angle to West Angle Bay was lovely - and there were very helpful informative signs about the history of the area. My favorite one was about the RNLI (Coast Guard) station - or rather what preceded the station. It was something called a 'Rocket Cart House' and I realized on a later bus ride that P and I had seen it earlier - it's a small white crenellated building relatively inland - and we hadn't known what to make of the name.
What's great about it is that it did exactly what it's name said it did - it served as a rocket cart house. Which before the RNLI station, apparently meant that if a boat was in distress, people would pull a cart to the nearest point on the shore. From this cart they would then fire a rocket with a line attached to it towards the sailors - assumedly to drag them in. There was no discussion of whether this ever actually worked.
Anyway, I made my way around the area - past the Old Point House, an old inn that used to be frequented by pirates, and apparently had a fire in the grate that was kept burning for 300 years. Straight. Which is also something, really.
I made it to West Angle Bay relatively quickly - where I learned from yet another sign that the cliff I'd just walked over apparently hid a 1000 year old graveyard, that had only been discovered following recent cliff erosion. From the photos on the explanation board, it looked like the skeletons were still very much intact - yikes.
Freshwater West, the beachy love of my life
So after a quick stop for coffee and cake, I continued along toward Freshwater West. The path here reminded me more of earlier parts of the Pembrokeshire Path like Cardigan to Moylgrove or even Borth to Aberystwyth in that it continuously bobbed up and down from the tops of hills back down to sea level. The views were great - but it was a little exhausting.
Luckily I had an incentive - getting to Freshwater West before 4pm before Cafe Mor closed. I can't remember where I'd first heard about the Cafe (food truck) that specializes in innovative seaweed dishes, but when I heard 'Winner of Best of Britain' Award and 'lobster roll' in the same sentence, I knew I had to get there. So, actually, I'd already dragged P there once before I even made it to Freshwater West, and I gorged myself on a lobster roll on the beach.
Now, if you're an American Maine lobster-roll purist (and there are many) - you wouldn't call this a lobster roll. First it was on a hamburger type bun rather than a hot dog type bun. Second, it had dressing on it that was distinctly un-Maine like, in that it had chopped green seaweed all over it. That said, it was really, really good. And it's still a lobster roll - because no one is pretending we're in Maine here.
Call me a lobster snob (look, I'll accept it given last summer I hand painted my own buoys for my lobster traps), but the lobster meat was Pembrokeshire lobster meat, not Maine lobster meat (half a lobster to be specific). The difference between the two to look at them is that the Pembrokeshire lobster has smaller claws but a bigger body. In taste, they are close, but obviously there are differences - and one is that to me there seems to be less sweetness to a Pembrokeshire lobster - not a bad thing, just a different thing. And that's why the added dressing went well - it needed a tiny bit more livening up than a Maine lobster would have needed (though I'm sure I'd eat a Pembrokeshire lobster with just drawn butter and be thrilled.) Anyway, don't let anything I've said lead you to believe it wasn't wonderful - if you're from New England and in Wales and craving a summer lobster roll, this will certainly fit the bill. But today, though I wasn't going to splurge on a lobster roll again, I wanted to go back and get a burger with kelpchup.
So hurrying along in my hunger, nonetheless, when the scenery opened up to Freshwater West - you could tell that this is definitely where Shell Cottage is. Hmmm, what was that? If you didn't get that last line, I have two words for you: Harry. Potter.
Even though I was an adult when the Harry Potter series started, after I'd discovered them I always read the books as soon as they came out. I remember when I was working as a corporate lawyer I would mysteriously disappear for a two hour lunch so I could walk to a far enough away Chinese restaurant that no one from work would see me skiving off reading a children's book. Since I always worked well past midnight I figured they owed me.
Anyway, when in the last books JKRowling describes Shell Cottage - Fleur and Ron's brother Bill's newlywed home - high on a windswept seaside cliff, my immediate first thought was 'I want to live there. Diagon Alley and all its distractions and toy shops be damned - get me a Shell Cottage now.'
Why do I mention this? Well, not only does Freshwater West evoke the same general feeling of wanting to live high above a beautiful seaside scene - it actually is where those scenes in Harry Potter were filmed. So yes, somewhere around here is buried Dobby the house elf. If you don't believe me read the BBC article. Shell Cottage is at beautiful, beautiful Freshwater West - where the hamburgers are as delicious as the lobster rolls, and where the sunset shines on struggling surfers and sea mist rolling swiftly up the massive dunes.
In particular when I was here pretty much by myself at night, this beach seemed like perfection to me - quiet, windswept sunsets, with the grass blowing through the dunes. Perfect, besides the cows inexplicably chasing me all the way back to the campsite at Gupton Farm. But more on that tomorrow.
