Tuesday 3 June 2014

Skomer Island and St David's Cathedral

Another day, another drive. Today it was the Island of Skomer that attracted our interest. The little bay of Martin's Haven is near Marloes on the West coast of Wales. This is the place where we stepped aboard the Dale Princess, and steamed for Skomer Island. The birds were all around us as we passed along the North coast of Skomer. Puffins and Kittywakes, Razorbills and Black Backed Gulls, Guillemots and Gannets - we saw them all swimming on the sea and in flight. Sometimes they rose in flocks as the boat approached. Sometimes they dived and disappeared. The nesting pairs on the rocks just looked at us.

For our part, all 50 people crammed onto the boat tried to see and photograph these birds before they flew out of camera range. Unfortunately, half the passengers were facing the sea at any one time. These people (Robyn included) stood up and tried valiantly to hold their cameras steady as the boat rolled through the swell of the sea. I'm sure those with good cameras took home some usable images. We have many pictures of black dots against a blue sky, or on cobalt coloured water.

Birds in the air. We paid 12 pounds each to be with 48 other passengers, and this.  We also have 39 pictures of  an empty sky (Send a stamped self-addressed envelope if you want to see what welsh cloud looks like).

Puffins on the water. Robyn managed this picture after about 20 attempts. Don't be fooled; there were hundreds of birds about. They just took off when a boat with 50 people hanging over the gunwales approached.

 

 

The trip included highlights such as a three year-old being sick over the side, his brother screaming for attention, the captain pointing out things that nobody could see, and several people getting sunburned ! After an uncomfortable hour of being treated like sardines, we escaped the confines of the Dale Princess and Captain Ahab (or whatever his name was).

 

 

On through the country lanes we went, headed for St David's. This is a town which shares its name with the cathedral. At the refectory of the cathedral, the staff told Robyn that lunch had finished three minutes ago - at 3 PM. She sold us the soup of the day anyway; it came with a stale bun. In England and Wales, the soup of the day is always vegetable of some kind. Never meat. Today's effort was cream of roast vegetables, and it was OK. I didn't care what it was actually.

 

From lunch at the "refec" we progressed to the cathedral itself. This is unusual in style - it looks like it is going to fall down ! The pillars in the church are as wide as a car (huge) and they lean outwards by several degrees. They also lean towards the back of the cathedral.

 

It really does look like this.

 



Also, the floor slopes away from the altar, at a rate that is quite noticeable. Then there is the "screen" that divides the nave from the chancel. In other churches it is a thin wooden screen which you can easily see through. Here it is made of stone, contains the coffin of a bishop, and houses the organ.

Rather difficult to see the altar isn't it ? The top of the organ has been chopped off in this picture, but it is huge. The bishop is buried on the right, behind that open arch. On the right, in the cloister lies Edmund Tudor - the father of King Henry V11.

 

 

One of the church stewards started telling us about the place, and barely scratched the surface in 40 minutes. The place was built in the 1100s, and is the fourth church on the site. The best part about the whole show though, is that it is built from purple stone (you might call it mulberry, I call it purple).

 

 

 

The house of God - in the Royal colour.

 

 

There is much more to say about this place, but I will stop here. If you are ever in Wales though, it really is worth a day of your time.

 

But wait, there's more. There is the ruin of the (enormous) Bishop's Palace just down the hill from the cathedral. A lack of time did not allow us to explore it.

 

After a full day out, we headed homeward. The usual mix of highways, country roads, lanes, U-turns and curses (at the smartphone navigator) led us to our little flat in Saundersfoot.

 

I left Robyn home and went for a walk - straight to the pub. The Woodridge Inn serves cold beer, and I had some. It was really a pleasure in just sitting still for half an hour and having a beer. It was something of an antidote after being on the move all day.

 

I sauntered back home in time for dinner, which Robyn had dutifully cooked for me. We may be having an early night tonight, I think.

 

Bye for now

 

Lex and Robyn.