Pembrokeshire Adventure, Part 3 -- Finally!

We arrived at 9 a.m. for our Coastal Explorer adventure, which was going to be a full day of kayaking, Coasteering© (TYF's signature activity: scrambling, climbing, swimming, and jumping off cliffs), snorkeling, etc. We were fitted with soaking wet wetsuits, life jackets, and wind breakers...and helmets...and shorts to put over everything so the barnacles wouldn't tear the wetsuits. We looked like we were going to a put-on-everything-you-own-in-random-order-and-don't-forget-the- helmets costume party. Eliot was not thrilled about the helmets and kept asking our adventure leader, Emma, if he had to wear it.

Our co-Explorers were two girls about our age from Oxford, a 30-something(?) couple, and a mother and her 9-year-old(?) daughter. The two girls both had kayaking experience, but the others didn't, so I started feeling less nervous (I had only been kayaking once before this endeavor).

Well, it turns out that "nervous" was not what I should have been feeling. The mother/daughter team chose a 2-in-1 kayak and not three minutes later, Emma had to switch with the mom. Not a big deal; it made sense -- the 2-in-1 was a tad unwieldy. However, there were three people that seemed to be having a hard time getting in motion, specifically forward motion, and those three people were not me, Eliot, or the two girls. An hour later, we were only one cliff away from the harbor where we started. At this point it wasn't only the helmet that was bothering Eliot.

We wound through some channels, which was fun, and stopped to Coasteer. It was scary, but I did it! I didn't jump off the highest cliff ledge, which Eliot, one of the girls, and Emma did -- I was just fine with the medium one. Another group of Coasteerers arrived, so we struggled back into our kayaks and headed toward some nearby caves for our lunch break. Somewhere along this stretch, the husband announced that he was having some back problems (or was it a headache?) and Emma had to tie his kayak to the back of hers and pull him. Mind you, she is now paddling for herself, the little girl, and the grown man. Then, to make matters worse, the man capsized in the kayak he wasn't controlling. Instead of getting back in, he asked Emma if it would be okay if he "swam" instead because it was easier for him. She obliged, but later during lunch had to tell him it was very hard for her to pull him [when he was lying like a corpse inducing massive amounts of unneeded drag] in the water.

Suffice it to say, we didn't end up covering a lot of ground/water. We did a bit of snorkeling around the caves. (It turns out the Pembrokeshire Coast is not known for its clear water or it's wide array of wildlife -- we did see lots of kelp though!) We returned to the cliffs to do a few more jumps and, en route, the wife somehow managed to get her kayak stuck on some rocks that were about two meters above the water line. Granted, it was getting a little choppy, but seriously, she couldn't have managed this if she tried. Emma was paddling up ahead and turned around to see what Eliot and I were cracking up about. Eliot yelled, "We've had a beaching!" The woman's husband turned his kayak (which he was back in) around and feebly tried to offer his help. I think she ended up getting out of the kayak and pushing it back into the water. I'm not really sure -- I was trying too hard not to laugh. It was pretty remarkable actually -- the couple and the mom had absolutely no control over their kayaks. Every instinct was wrong and without fail one of them would get stuck completely horizontally in each channel we went through. I had great sympathy for Emma.

Miraculously we all made it back to the harbor.

Rest of the weekend:
We showered at the Eco Hotel (thank you, Andy!) and then learned that the hotel restaurant where we had reservations was closed for the night. This helpful older man (possibly one of the chefs?) called a nearby restaurant and attempted to squeeze us in. By the time we got there, he was actually there as well, and the only option (despite it being 6 p.m. and the restaurant having 50% of its tables open) was to eat with him. So we did. History will remember this meal as being one of the strangest. Ever. About 45 minutes in, he began telling us why global warming might be sham (despite his having just told us his brother was the skipper of a ship that was measuring rising ocean temperatures for the UN...or something). When I got up for a restroom break, he told Eliot, for the third time, how he had been side-swiped by an SUV the day before. And so on. God bless the large (250 ml) glasses of wine in this country.

The next day we went to Whitesands beach until the clouds rolled in. Then we checked out the famous and very beautiful St. David's Cathedral. After one last ice cream, we packed up the Punto and headed home, exhausted and very happy.