Day 212 - July 31st

After a rainy start to the day, late this afternoon we drove down the coast to Burry Port harbour.

As has been the case with all of our trips to the beach this week, the tide was out. We walked along the breakwater of the harbour past the cute little lighthouse which had a plaque stating that it had been restored in 1996.

We then went down onto the beach for a spot of rock pooling.

There weren't many pools but we did find several crabs.

Some of the crabs were bigger than others!

There were lots of barnacles on the rocks ....

... and lots of shells.

Back up by the harbour we came across a memorial marking the spot where Amelia Earhart came ashore in 1928 as the first woman to have flown across the Atlantic Ocean. On this occasion she was only a passenger and it wasn't until  1932 that she became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic but her visit in 1928 put Burry Port in the map. (Shame someones dog had relived itself against the memorial!)

There was also the original large wooden buoy beside the harbour which the sea plane 'Friendship' which Amelia landed in was moored.

Day 211 - July 30th

Today was a first for us all. Today we returned to Pembrey Country Park for a tour of the park on Segways.

Unsure whether Lara weighed enough for the Segway to detect her shift in weight, she had a 10 minute taster session first.

Confident that she would be OK, we then all set off with our tour guide / Instructor round the park.

We went through the woods, through several abandoned military bunkers and through parts of the park not normally accessible on foot.

I have to admit not all of the following photos are mine. It would be impossible to ride a Segway and take photos at the same time so the rest of the photos are a combination of photos I took before or after the ride and some I found on the Internet.

Day 210 - July 29th

Today we went to The National Botanic Garden of Wales. About half an hours drive from where we are staying, the Botanic Gardens were opened in 2000 on the site of a once magnificent Regency Estate. 

Many of the original features of the estate have been restored and retained whilst many new ones have been created including the giant glasshouse (biome).

There were many familiar flowers and also some which were less recognisable.

There were also some quite interesting garden features like this 'waterfall', one of a pair, called Scaladaqua Tonda which means 'Curving Water Steps'.

This 'Dragonfly on a Bulrush' sculpture was created using steel reclaimed from an industrial site in nearby Llanelli. 

Day 209 - July 28th

Today after lunch and following a rainy start to the day, we drove a short ten minutes up the road to visit Kidwelly Castle.

The Norman Castle overlooking the River Gwendraeth is remarkably well preserved and was used as a location for the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

After visiting the castle we returned to Ferryside and spent some time on the beach trying out a new kite we bought with us. It flew amazingly well.

Several times the train which runs along the edge of the beach went past and stopped at the beach side station.