Every year Shirley and I try and take the whole family away for a week. Last year we went down to Cornwall. This year we rented a huge cottage near Carmarthen in Wales.

The cottage was connected to the Three Rivers Hotel & Spa so we even had the use of their swimming pool, sauna and gym. This was a great little bonus even though the walk back up the hill afterwards was a bit of a killer…

The weather held out again and I think it’s fair to say we all had a great time…

Here are a handful of photos from the trip showing off some of the wonderful places close to where we were staying. I know this post is a bit late but what with the distraction of the Royal Wedding I didn’t want to rush things…

Pembrey

Just down the road was a huge expanse of sand with large sand dunes and salt marshes behind them. Shirley and myself took ourselves off for a fairly mammoth walk along the beach. Walking through sand can be pretty hard going…

We pretty much has the place to ourselves though and there were some wonderful views and also lots of wildlife around…

The beach was covered in shells of all sizes.
This is a closeup of a nice spiral shell.
Shirley snapped this photo of me when I spotted some birds further up the beach. I have just slipped my camera out from my backpack.
These Ringed Plover and Dunlins were congregating further up the beach.
As we got closer they began to get a bit edgy.
Then they all took to the wing together…

Tenby

We also took ourselves off to Tenby for the day. A lovely little town with a harbour and some beaches along with the obligatory Welsh castle…

A view of Tenby harbour from the wall along the path down.
Another view of the habour.
A cannon overlooking the beach…
View of St. Catherine’s Island and Castle Beach from Castle Hill.
The back of the castle on top of the hill.
Tenby Castle.
A view of the harbour and castle hill from the other side of the town.

Ty Canol

All 14 of us stayed in the very impressive cottage called Ty Canol—it’s the big building on the left in the photo looking up the drive. The place was huge and easily accommodated us all. We were even able to have big family meals with all of us sat around a huge table—well actually it was 4 tables pushed together—which we haven’t really managed before. Last year the kids had to eat first and then we ate afterwards.

This is the back of the cottage.
The kids loved playing on the field out the back. This is Alfie, one of my grandsons. It looks like he is doing his impression of the Hulk…
This is Matilda, my granddaughter and Alfie’s sister, happily skipping across the field.
Next to the field at the back of the house were a couple of horses.
The kids loved the horses. Here’s Kain—currently my youngest grandson—with his mother, stroking one of the horses.
And this is Callum, the oldest grandson and brother to Kain, showing his approval of the cottage.

You can also see this photos in their full glory on Flickr. There is even a slideshow available.

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