The weather has been much better than the long term forecasts which we reviewed before leaving home, so we couldn’t grumble when we set off this morning to greyer conditions. Vanessa really wanted to have another chance to photograph the seals, so we returned to the only beach we had spotted the seal pup before and made sure that the tide was out.
Luckily the seal pup was high on the beach so I decided to try getting down to its level with the drone, but remaining very conscious of its proximity so as not to disturb the seal.
The seal did look up just as I took this, so I decided I was close enough and then returned the drone back to the take-off point to avoid any further disturbance.
Switching over to camera + 500mm lens I captured the pup looking up
From here we headed off to Abereiddi as there was a Blue Lagoon nearby. On arrival we had to park at the back of the beach (luckily the tide was out, but on the rise). A short walk brought us to the Blue Lagoon…
There was a placard explaining the purpose of this lagoon – Slate was quarried from Abereiddi until 1910. It was formed when the channel to the sea was blasted allowing the sea to flood in. The lagoon is very deep and a popular location for ‘coasteering’ – the sport or activity of exploring a rocky coastline by climbing, jumping, and swimming
There was a tramway from the cliff top to the port of Porthgain (covered on day 4) where the slate was transported to the port’s ‘road rock creation’ facility.
The water in the lagoon was definitely bluer than the surrounding sea water. I did wonder if the slate contained a copper content? The image below shows significant colouration in the slate.
We headed into St Davids for a coffee and sandwich and later headed off to Porthclais – a very small village harbour, but there really wasn’t much to see here, so we moved on. Vanessa wanted to try one more location, so I scanned the Google map coastline for a possible location and came up with Caerfai Bay and Caer Bwdy Bay.
The first location wasn’t as photogenic as expected so we walked east around the coastline towards the next bay, but we noticed the beach down in the crevice of the rocks which may provide more photographic opportunities – but not now, as the tide was an hour away from it’s peak. So if the weather tomorrow morning is suitable, we may try this location again.
The coastline along Caer Bwdy Bay looked more promising.
The Common Gorse flowers adding a hint of colour in the image – unfortunately we were only minutes away from the sun setting (behind the grey skies), so the light wasn’t at it’s best. Time to return before it gets too dark.
Bateson's Travel log 