The Celtic Trail Day 3 (Fishguard to Tenby)

The Celtic Trail Day 3
Sands Cafe, Newgate

Open Mon-Sun 9-4.30,
Cwtch Cafe, Pembroke dock,
Open Mon-Sat 9-5,

After yesterdays bumpy ride and the words of Mrs Crusader "what part of that route could you possibly have thought I would have enjoyed" still ringing in my ears then I hoped that the worst of the hills were behind us as we now focus on National cycle route 4 for the rest of the trip which follows the coast line back to Newport. The only problem now was that it is due to rain for the next 3 days.

Mrs Crusader was clearly very tired, at least I assumed that's why she wasn't talking to me and things didn't improve as we hit the longest and steepest climb of the day within half a mile of leaving Fishguard. By the time she was at the top she already looked wasted and we still had over 60 miles to go. To make matters worse we were into a strong headwind. However the views were good and it wasn't raining, too hard.

First hill of the day

As we approached St Davids things got a bit flatter. After feeding Mrs Crusader an energy bar while relaxing by St Davids cathedral I hoped the ride would get easier as we would now be going with the wind.

Leaving St Davids

The scenery also improved and you could often see the coast through the mist. There were still a few steep bits to contend with but not as many. 

Another steep bit coming up

After nearly 30 miles we made a steep descent down to Newgate for our first stop of the day at Sands cafe.

Outside Sands cafe

Although it was too wet to sit in the outside seating area there were still good views of the beach from our table, leading to a high AAA score.

View of beach

Sadly the cake selection was limited so we both went for coffee and Walnut with our usual drinks of hot chocolate and Mocha. The cake and Mocha were good and the hot chocolate excellent so overall a high score. We thought it was the best cafe on the route to date but as my scoring system had it in second place some retrospective adjustment was needed to our current leader which I quickly did before anyone noticed. 

Drinks and cakes at Sands cafe

Although half asleep by now Mrs Crusader insisted on studying the remaining route and profile and she didn't like what see saw as there were several more steep climbs needed to get away from the coast before things flattened off.

An unhappy Mrs Crusader after studying the rest of the route

As we left it started to rain again and the promised steep bits soon materialised, however the views were fantastic and one of us thought worth the effort.

Lovely climb away from the beach

As we approached the final steep sections we were presented with another road closed dilemma. Yesterday we had risked it only to find an impassable hole but today it paid off as the hole diggers let us pass saving a potentially big detour. It had also stopped raining so maybe things were looking up.

More road closed drama

As it turned out they were as we reached a long stretch of off road good quality cycle track which was mainly sloping down. 

Some nice quality cycle track at last (and mainly downhill to boot)

Then to make things even better we had to go over a toll bridge which happens to be one of Mrs Crusaders favourite things so she was now in a much better mood when we arrived at the Cwtch cafe.

A lovely toll bridge to cross (Free to cyclists)

It was an artisan cafe so only had two cakes on offer which was a clementine cake or a lemon and sweet potato one. We had both with our coffee and hot chocolate.

Outside Cwatch Cafe

The coffee was ok whereas my hot chocolate was top drawer and the best I had had all week. The cakes were excellent too but not quite good enough to knock Sands cafe off first place.

Final coffee and cake of the day

From here the route predominantly followed the ironman cycle route to Tenby ready for the event on Sunday. I very much enjoyed riding on it as it brought back memories of the 4 ironman races I have done, but don't like to talk about.

Ironman excitement brewing

It had been a another very long day of cycling covering 60 miles in nearly 10 hrs. However after tea I suggested a quick walk round town past all the ironman preparations. I didn't have one of my ironman tee shirts with me so I wore my cycle helmet on the walk as it still had its ironman sticker on just to subtly let people know that I'm an ironman too, even though I don't like to talk about it.

Ironman sticker just so people would know

Tomorrow we plan to cycle back to Swansea but the forecast looks dreadful with thunderstorms so a plan b maybe required.

Map route

Profile 

Weather forecast day 4

Cafe ratings for cafes reviewed on (or near) the Celtic trail

Cafe	Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Café Selection	Cake Taste Quality	Atmosphere and Ambiance	Total
Bradleys Coffee Shop	7.6	7.25	7.0	7.6	7.0	7.29
Cafe Espresso	Na	Na	Na	Na	Na	Na
Time Coffee Bar	7	7	6	6.95	6.25	6.64
Caffi Becca (on 2 visits)	3	5.25	4	7.25	6.25	5.15
Sands Cafe	8	7.65	5.25	7.5	8.2	7.32
Cwtch Cafe	8.5	7	4	8.5	7.5	7.10

Stats 

	Miles	Average Speed	Hours on bike	Meters climbed
Newport to Swansea	57.7	10.3	5:35:50	679
Swansea to Fishguard	69.5	10.4	6:43:15	2075
Fishguard to Tenby	61.7	10.0	6:11:02	1411
Tenby to Swansea
Swansea to Newport
Overall