Solva and Beyond -  29th February 2020

At 10:30 am nine hardy members assembled in a very windy car park at Solva ready to brave storm ‘Jorge’. The walk started with a climb up onto the Gribin ridge to get the views, then inland across the main road and down the steps in Prendergast woods to the new footbridge across the Solva river. This is not far above the last house and now links paths on both sides of the river without needing to go down to the road bridge. Up the hill opposite and turning left along the top you get fine views across the village and harbour. With all the up and down and the photo shoot at the bridge it was time for elevenses on the relatively sheltered benches above the harbour before heading out along the cliffs into the gale. With the forecast for worsening conditions in the afternoon it seemed best to get this bit over early in spite of it not being ideal to head into the wind, rather than the originally planned downwind return direction. It was blustery and bumpy and, after a couple of stops to check wellbeing we went down and up past Porth y Rhaw and reached the line of the Foss y Mynach ditch and bank boundary. The plan had been to continue to Trelerw but a fast-approaching black cloud made a turn inland here a popular decision. Across the main A487 lunch was taken in a sheltered spot before following the lane to St Davids airfield. There are several routes along the airfield, much used by dog walkers, and we took the perimeter track and also a section outside the current boundary (on access land), before turning south on a tarmac track towards Llanungar and the coast. Crossing the A487 again we were battered by stinging hailstones before reaching the end of the wartime concrete roadway, beyond which a left turn leads by a permissive path back to Solva. Sadly, the path had been recently scraped to bare earth over a width of about 20 feet, pushing us onto the field, so was less pleasant than normal. Down the hill to Fort cottage and around the harbour had us back at the car park. Overall it was nine miles, just one short on the plan but enough for a stormy day.