Plans Afoot 2023

As you know we've moved........to Wales, and all the plans we'd made previously no longer applies.  So, it's time to make new ones.  We're still trying to save money though so that means that we need to find stuff that is either free or as cheap as possible.  I've already started making a list.

We still have our National Trust membership, which is a gift, and there are quite a few places around us where we can go and gawp at luxury we will never be able to afford and that I'm glad we don't have.  It also means that there will be a few places where we can park for free when we go walking.  Of course, there is a whole lot of historical sites that are not owned by the National Trust (some of which we saw when we were on holiday here last year) and it'll be interesting to get to explore them too.  However, as they will most likely cost money we'll need to space out our visits to them.

We're wanting to get back into wild swimming again this year and, to that end, we brought the Wild Swimming Walks book for South Wales to give us an idea of places we can go.  We're going to start local to begin with and of course there's always the sea as well which isn't too far away from us.

I've also been looking at some pre-mapped walks in the area to help get us acquainted with the area.  I've picked walks that are relatively long so that it's more of a day event and included locations like the Black Mountains as well.  Once we get use to them we can start to map out our own walks to explore the area more.  There's also some hill walks that start right outside our front door and would mean no need to drive anywhere beforehand.  I'm also trying to find some old books that contain possible walking routes (and by old I mean pre-1960s) to see if it is possible to walk them still.

And then there's the coastal paths all around Wales that would allow us to get back to the sea again.  I'll need to research this a little more but they should be very easy to follow.  Of course, it would be practically sacrilege to not be in this area of the world and not visit Pembrokeshire.  Summer is always good but some part of me would also like to experience it when the winter storms are rolling in as well.

There is a lot to explore here and it'll take us a while, but we don't want to make the same mistake we did in Devon by not properly taking the opportunity.  The biggest issue for us is that our work shifts won't always match up so we won't have as much time to do all the walks and activities we want to do.  We will also be visiting family on some of the days we have off together as well.  I'll do some exploring on my own, possibly to places I know my husband won't be too interested in like the wool museum, but it wouldn't feel right visiting all the sites without him.  Especially as his work involves him getting to look at mountains all day long, but not getting to walk up them.