Pembroke Camp and Climb (Jubilee Special)

Attending: Dave Wylie, Dave Dillon, Dave Shotton, Gareth Williams, Lucie Crouch, meet leader Laura Collier.

 

Last minute arrangements saw a slightly more compact weekend than last year's public holiday trip and a slightly more compact group of 50 % Daves enjoying camping by the sea with 2 sunbeam filled days and 1 washout. The group managed a splendid decamp on the last day when the rain and wind had definitely set in, some slick moves, some Laurel and Hardy moments and some just stuffing it away.

By the week before the only campsite in Pembroke with space left and hot showers was Porthclais, a 5/10 minutes walk from 2 excellent crags, which a multitude of climbers could have verified that weekend. The KMC had a challenge set, by Gareth, to climb every route in the rockfax guide on these 2 crags in 24 hours.

We arrived early (1st at the crag) with the half tide at 8.30am and an enthusiatic Dave Shotton and Wavey climbed "Against the Grain" rather than sticking to the plan. Dave Wylie and I counted 5 routes in 5 hours in baking sunshine. Energy lagged and a quick nip back to the campsite for a cup of tea and a sandwich turned into a cooling swim. When the group reconvened and tallied up there had been 2 climbs missed off the crag we had visited. Still the waves broke around climbers and some good shots were made. The next chance to catch the rock back from the tide would not be till 9pm by which time the rain had set in anyway. Must try harder…

Not as stormy a night as expected, tents intact - Sunday was decreed a day of bimble. Four of us managed 7 miles around the coast to the cafe at Whitesands and two more miles back overland, denied options of bus, hitching or a lift by Dave Wylie who navigated. Dave Shotton spotted a ragged robin and the rain had kind of let up so nobody minded too much. Gareth and Wavey had scampered off to explore an outcrop but after some discussion of the physics of tides, moon placement etc, apparently realised the water level was only going to increase. Wavey had accrued some footage of... waves and photos of a ferocious looking crocodile/ship and an elephant, or was it a tortoise? There was an opportunity for a juggling masterclass from Wylie before getting dry in a cafe, relief after the soggy tea the night before. Then we warmed up in the pub.

The next day would be sunny and it was. A more co-ordinated approach more or less saturated the three Porth Ffynnon crags with KMC, as crags were allocated by aptitude although unfortunately Lucie had a day off to recover from something nasty she had eaten. I eventually did a VDiff lead again after kindly been taken up most of the face by Wylie and Shotton. The E1 end of the range was achieved by Gareth and Wavey, with Shotton having a crack at it too, no problem. All but one was tallied up before tea. "For the sake of a diff" Gareth soloed the final route as the sun went down; challenge complete.

Laura Collier