Day 25 – Carmarthen to Llanelli

 

Date: Thursday 25^th June    Distance: 29.79

 

The breakfast was disappointing as it was cafeteria style and the scrambled eggs had gone grey and solid. Something was certainly at odds in the kitchen, as poached- egg was ordered by someone and the chef couldn’t remember how to cook it. We never saw how it turned out. This was a nice family run hotel that simply didn’t have enough staff and the Welsh lady at front of house seemed to be needed everywhere at the same time.  She served a good pint of beer anyway!

 

After leaving the hotel it was cycle route 4 again for over the river. At Ferryside we were back with the sea, a collection of cottages and a café for elevenses. The centre of the village had a fisherman sculpture and planting involving local children and an artist of regional repute.

 

Kidwelly was to have been a lunch stop. We passed a coach load of French children and wondered why they had stopped there as we couldn’t find anywhere open. (Maybe that was why everywhere was closed) There was a ruin of what looked like a jail house. We sat on a bench outside a pub as it had the kitchen doors open but the front door was locked! We raided the bags for anything edible then carried on for many miles across beautiful flatlands- marsh path through old airfields where the RAF were trying to “bomb” a marked tower. The next bit was tricky as the signs were ambiguous but we followed a forest path along the coast with a fine view of the Gower Peninsula.

 

Bob was able to show chivalry when a lady fell off her bike in front of us. He put her chain back for her. Old folk where everywhere on mobility scooters and one man who kept overtaking us said that he had a tandem 70 years ago!

 

At last we had lunch at Burry Port just off the cyclepath at a crepe van. The Welsh girl said that she had been trained to make crepes properly and it did seem quite French. Bob had cheese and onion in his and I had lemon, after a cheese sandwich.

Most of today had been off road and we arrived at the Premier Inn at Llanelli in a spatter of rain at 3.30.

 

This seemed like a 5 star hotel. Depite a busy road by it, it was quiet, having good sound insulation. They gave us a downstairs room so the tandem could come in with us. Everything was immaculate and we were careful to keep it that way despite the bike.  A table was reserved for dinner and we managed to hire a car from Avis for Saturday morning to take us home( this was preferable to multi train travel for the whole day.)  We slept easy in the crisp white sheets of the super king bed looking forward to seeing the Mumbles the next day.