Tenby Day 11

August 24:  Today, we journeyed by boat to Caldey Island, which is about 3 miles to the south of Tenby.  We paid 10 pounds each for the round trip ride both and queued up with many others at the beach who had the same idea as us.  The weather promised a nice day with sunshine, calm seas (i.e., little wind) and warm temps.

After about a 30 minute wait, we boarded an open boat with seats along the gunwale.  We sat in the center on a hatch cover, since the operators were packing in them in and catching up with pent-up demand from the bad weather.  We arrived with little excitement about 20 minutes after leaving the Tenby beach.

Caldey Island is both part of the National Park and a 'monastic island.'  Every structure on the island except the lighthouse is owned by the Cistercian Order, as is presumably all of the land.  The island has been inhabited since the Stone Age.  It has a 1920's Abbey building, an 'old Priory,' tourist shops, and farm buildings.  The monks produce perfume and chocolates, and probably share in the tourist visitation business.  According to a 20 minute video we watched, there are about 15 monks and 25 non-monks living on the island.  The non-monks were either employees or volunteers who worked in the tourist shops, etc.  There was also a guesthouse and 6 cottages that could be leased from the abbey.

Caldey Island Abbey

Lighthouse, still in use

Old Priory

We walked around all of the trails open to the public, one that took us up to the lighthouse,and out along the south cliff side and another through the forest with a view back to Tenby.  While on the first walk, we paused at an overlook and spotted 2 grey seals in the water far below.

See the seals??

On the ride back we again loaded into another boat similar in design, but the ride took about 15 minutes longer, as we were heading into the wind.  I was able to get a couple of photos as we approached Tenby - South Beach and the current Rescue Boat House, the third or fourth one in Tenby's history.

Tenby's Castle Hill (bandstand, castle tower, lighthouse, Prince Albert statue and museum)

Rescue Boathouse

We stopped at a town cafe for 'cream tea' - a big pot of tea and 2 scones with creamy butter and fresh jam.  Since the afternoon was pleasant, we dropped our stuff off at the flat and went to sit on the beach in the sun.  We waded down to one end of the beach.  It was low tide and we saw various creatures on the sand - shells that push their way over the sand, worms that would spout a tube of sand out of a hole, a seagull who caught a crab and then lost it in a succeeding wave (I think it didn't know how to eat it), and an odd looking jellyfish (horizontal c-shaped).

We had drinks on the guest house veranda overlooking the beach, and later ate in on salmon steaks, with onions, mushrooms and pesto, and a salad.

Sunset