Pembrokeshire - 15th Aug ‘22

Another short trip out with Brunnehilda- and it’s not to Derbyshire!!

I was dreading this one more than any Brunnehilda trip since the first trip out without Kim to Woolacombe last August.

The destination was South Wales - somewhere we hadn’t been together before - but the problem wasn’t geographical it was my travelling companions!

This 3 night trip is with my gorgeous grandsons - all 3 of them. This was something Kim and I had done many times before and, to be honest, this is when one of the times she was at her happiest. On holiday with her 3 little boys and a chance to be with them 24/7 and spoil them even more than normal.

I’ve not been looking forward to this trip out with them for a few weeks now. My feelings of loss (and the poorpoormes) are generally managed  to just background noise but this one has been hard to ignore.

It’s also making me feel a number of other emotions:

Guilt - I love these boys to bits but after 35 + years of sharing sometimes I just wanted Kim to myself so I could occasionally act like a bit of a jerk on these trips. Now ironically, she is gone and I am left.

Pressure - we shared all the duties to keep them safe, feed and watered. I’d hitch up while she sorted their clothes. I’d set up while she cooked. I’d wash up while she got the bed ready. Nope, all my jobs this time - with a bit of help from Charlie of course.

But like most things, the anticipation of the event turned out to be much worse than the actual thing. Once we got hitched up, there was really too much to think about to dwell on what used to be!

The weather is breaking. It’s been in the 30s for the last  week or so and no rain for a couple  of months. The ground is scorched and dry but like a native Indian rain dance, just the thought of Brunnehilda’s wheels turning is enough to drop the the temperature by 10 degrees and bring on the drizzle. 

And drizzle it did for a lot of the way down - although it was hot and sunny for the last hour. A record turnaround hitching up though - Charlie helped with gates, caravan packing and light checking! The journey took 6.5 hours (10.30 to 5) with just one stop at a very busy services at Cardiff. I had to back Brunnehilda out of a HGV space - not very nice given my reversing competence.

The site (Freshwater East) is right next to the beach - 10 minute walk. But that’s where the good stuff stops … there is absolutely no 4G or even phone line! Bad enough for me but my 14 year old travelling companion briefly felt like someone had chopped his leg off - although we did manage to pay for the camps erratic WiFi!

Although very friendly, the camp Kommendart insisted on me putting my dirty foreign van in nose first. Doing this meant that the pitch I picked (my fault!) was at a very dramatic angle sloping towards the front. I had to borrow 2 of their large blocks for the jockey wheel to stand on to get it anywhere near level. This meant a much longer set up than normal - it took him ages to bring them up to me. 

The boys had been great in the car for nearly 7 hours but the Twinnies were rightly getting a bit tetchy for the 90 mins it took me to get all set up!

Once done, and the heat was up again, we had certainly deserved our walk down the hill to the beach. I think the tide was out at Freshwater East beach. There was certainly a large expanse of beach and it was as still as a mill pond and the sea was an absolutely gorgeous temperature.  I couldn’t persuade the boys to go in so … we didn’t.

We paddled for a bit them played a fun game of beach golf. Harry and I beat Charlie and Finn. This was probably the best result as Harry and I have both been known to sulk a little if we are the wrong side of a beating!

The pub / restaurant on the beach wasn’t serving food on a Monday so it made for a simple decision -  back home to Brunnehilda for tea!

Bacon (and ham) sandwiches, noodles and cheese and onion crisps was the very non Kim meal I prepared for them before settling down to a DVD. 2 of the 3 of them seemed to enjoy it though - it’s hard to get all 3 gastronomically satisfied!

I put up Brunnehilda’s sun canopy and washed the dishes while the Twinnies watched the DVD and Charlie Tik Toked - or whatever 14 year old boys do online! Not sure why I put up the sun canopy - there is no sun scheduled for the rest of the week. But at least it’ll keep us dry if we want to sit out in the drizzle?!

The boys wanted to all sleep altogether with me on my own in the bigger double bed. After a lot of coaxing and persuading I did eventually manage to get Harry to join me - bless him, why would anyone want to willingly share a bed with their old grandad?!