Tuesday – Caldey Island

During the night a heavy fog rolled in and blanketed the area. The Isle of Inishmore ferry makes its second daily visit each day at 12:15 AM and then leaves again at 2:45 AM. We have been hoping to catch a glimpse of the ferry all lighted up, but we are always asleep. This morning we didn’t see the ferry depart, but we sure heard it as its foghorn goes off every couple of minutes from the time it prepares to leave until it is out of earshot. As you looked out at the water just outside our bedroom, you could not even see a glimpse of the ship through the fog. When we got up at 7:00 AM, the fog was gone. Did we dream it all?

This morning we went down the marina and had breakfast at the Brunel Café which is run by our hostess, Carol, at Kiln House and her sister, Pauline. It’s a small place catering to the yachting crowd that uses the marina. Breakfast was excellent. I especially enjoyed a piping hot cup of hot chocolate.

After breakfast we drove back to Tenby, the seaside town I described in Monday’s posting. This time our purpose was a boat trip from Tenby Harbor to Caldey Island, a twenty minute crossing. We spent about three hours on the island exploring what it had to offer and found it to be a quite an enjoyable place. It is a thriving and active monastery that survives financially through tourism, a perfume industry, and a chocolate factory. We partook of some fudge and an extra dark chocolate bar at the chocolate factory. We passed on the perfume.

Getting on the boat to return to Tenby required a duck boat like vehicle to take us to the actual boat. We landed normally at a dock on the way over, but the tide was too low for the boat to dock for the return trip. After the return trip, we had a nice lunch in a pub in Tenby and headed home with a stop at Tesco for our final stock up of necessities.

Dinner tonight was at the Bar and Restaurant at the Neyland Marina.  The food was very good and the view over the marina was nice. Elaine had grilled salmon while I had a new dish for me, smoked haddock with poached eggs.  I had a lemon meringue pie for dessert; Elaine enjoyed her new favorite: honeycomb ice cream.

As we left the restaurant, it was raining.  It has rained some at night and when we have been driving, but this was the first time we had rain as we walked.  Scottsdale has had more rain since we left than the UK and Ireland.  Very weird.