Wales Coast Path, day 45: Goodwick from Parrog

C. and I leave Parrog and climb, thankfully to a lower cliff height than yesterday. To our left, the dark outline of Carn Ingli, to our left a succession of jagged sea rocks, one in the curious shape of a question mark. Coves appear, some inaccessible, others crossed on small wooden bridges: Aberrhigian and Aberfforest.

Then, at Cwm-yr-Eglwys, where a cemetery and an arched wall are all that remains of St Brynach’s Church, we meet P and C, our guest walkers for the day, and with them and their dog walk round windy Dinas Island, and talk of art in the making, skullduggery, academic politics and many other things, until they turn round for home and leave us at Hescwm.

Today’s gradients are kinder and winds more benign. The path edges farmland, some arable, and even the cliffs look more domestic. As Fishguard Harbour approaches the ferry, white and fearsome as Moby-Dick, glides by and turns course for Rosslare. In the harbour rival rowing boats, crewed by women, compete to noisy shouts from a quay crowd in Lower Fishguard: we watch from the remains of the fort built in 1781 to defend the town from other boats, crewed by male pirates.

A quiet walk takes us past Fishguard town to Goodwick, where in 1955 a vast model of Moby-Dick, constructed for the Gregory Peck film, broke loose and went missing. Somehow Fishguard has a tradition of lost ventures, from the quixotic French invaders of 1797 to the huge passenger liners that were planned to use the harbour but never materialised.