Welsh Boundary Walk Port Burry to Carmarthen.

Sunday 5th June - day 47

I had a good meal at The Cornish Inn last night at Port Burry - whitebait then baked sea bass stuffed and wrapped in ham. This is a good pub specialising in fish, but inexplicably they had Sky tv showing darts; it wouldn't have been too bad if it had been rugby. I chatted with a couple - the husband was in the forces and we had quite a merry evening during which I had a tutorial on iPhone operation and various apps recommended to me.

The walk to Carmarthen was over twenty miles but mostly on the flat and following the Sustrans national cycle route 4. I have been on and off that cycle route since Chepstow and have now discovered that it runs from London to Fishguard so I will probably be seeing more of it

I wenf past, and heard, but did not see the BARC's own motor racing circuit. I must gave only been a couple of hundred yards off but it is all hidden by trees.

There was a pleasant little teashop in Kid... something or other (the name is cut off on my map). There were two groups of local WI type women there when I arrived who seemed to be involved in regular Sunday morning gossip meetngs.

At Ferryside I came across a gent who had refurbished a 1959 Mini to make it look like a team rally car of the period. He also had a Mini Moke which he was going to drive in the Laugharne Under Milk Wood event in a couple of weeks. We chatted about Dylan Thomas and he had the cd in the Moke and we listened to some of it. I was told It was said that Dylan had based much of llaregub on Ferryside. He used to come there to drink in the White Lion and is reputed to have missed the train back when he had overdone things.

A bit further down the high street there was a cafe where I had more tea. As I was leaving, having told the guy about my project, he presented me with a bar of chocolate to munch along the way.

There was only one section of footpath today starting from a farm. There were no signs and I ended up with the farmer coming out and showing me the way; why on earth don't they put up some markers and save everybody a lot of trouble? I have to say that this is a major gripe with me. Further on I took a compass bearing on the path descending steeply into a wooded valley. The stile was at least two hundred yards off the line and completely hidden by overgrown bushes and only visible from about fifteen yards away - why, oh why, can't they help themselves and others by making these things more visible?

I entered Carmarthen by two complicated roundabout systems, the second one using a dual carriageway to go into the town centre. After spending fifteen minutes of suicidal crossing and recrossing trying to find the footpath, I descended into an industrial estate and found a guy supervising the loading of a wagon and asked the way. He said he could direct me but it was complicated and he offered to drive me into the town centre, and now I have to confess to dodging about 1.5kms of my route. Martin was a stocky guy and I reckoned he was a rugby player to which he admitted when questioned.
He Is now playing for Laugharne of Dylan Thomas fame. Once again the Welsh demonstrated their generosity and welcoming nature- thanks a lot Martin.

I am now at The Rose and Crown in the centre of Carmarthen and have just eaten agreeably, but once again I have encountered the forks with scalpel ends which dig into the palms and are really quiet painful.
Sent from my iPhone