Thanks to our taxi driver, who has obviously dealt with coast walkers before, we agree on a plan to drive our car to St. Martin’s Haven and meet him there. He would then drive us back to Dale, where we finished yesterday and we would walk back the 12 miles or so to our car.

The tide tables website for Sandy Haven has been sitting saved on my computer screen for months, winking at me every time I sit in front of my laptop. Finally, I get to use it so when we turn up at 12 noon the tide is out, allowing us to get across the narrow estuary instead of a 4 mile walk around it, mostly on roads.

The forecast is rain and strong winds and as we sit in the car at Solva, there is indeed rain, great sheets of it sweeping across the windscreen. So we sit and dither, shall we try in the hope of it clearing up? Or shall we call it a day of reading and hot chocolate?

It’s New Year’s day and time for the annual dip – for some………. Whitesands Bay has it scheduled for 12 noon, in about an hour, so we cannot hang around for the vicarious thrill of seeing people throw themselves into the freezing waters of the Irish Sea.

We are in Pembrokeshire in Lower Solva, a village with a small harbour, which sits at the head of an inlet leading out into St. Brides Bay. It’s a grey day with rain building up in the clouds, but the forecast says dry.

And tomorrow is another day………………it could not be more different, blue sky, sunshine and the promise of a little rain in the evening when we’ll be tucked up somewhere warm and dry.