Tour of Wales Day 3 - Dyfi Ospreys, blog friends and familiar places

After a good night sleep and another excellent breakfast provided by The Ship Inn, I paid my bill, said goodbye and was on my way for a very exciting (and long) day. My family are from around St David's/Carmarthen so I know the area well and couldn't wait to re visit some familiar places.

First stop, The Sea! Abereiddi beach where I had a walk up the cliff path and also a potter on the (black from the local slate) sand. Wonderful.

I love picking up beautiful shaped stones and fossils.

There were very few people on the beach early on a Sunday morning.

Then back in the car and on to park and then walk to Pentre Ifan Burial Chamber. Amazing views out to sea from the footpath.

Some very pretty Welsh Mountain ponies were in the adjoining field

Then back in the car again and onwards past Castell Henllys Iron Age Hill fort, where I stopped and wandered up to the Sacred Spring for some quiet reflection. I then went down to the shop and bought some coffee, some celtic silver earings and a celtic pattern throw (in the sale and incredibly cheap!)

I stopped at Newport, where I watched the ferries come and go. I spent some time with family to say hello and visited some graves of relations to pay my respects.  I then headed up towards North Wales, through spectacular scenery to my next destination

Dyfi Osprey Project! I have been following the adventures of the Dyfi Ospreys for several years; they have a brilliant set up with live camera feeds observing the nest platform and now have a terrific observatory. I have been dying to see the place for ages.

After buying my ticket, I started the short walk across the marshes to the 360 observatory

Fabulous views from the upper floor

The Osprey nest platform through the lenses  in the observatory

I got to see (in real life, not via the live streaming camera!) Monty the male Osprey and his young ones Deri and Gwynant. The mother bird, had already migrated a week earlier.

Inside the Observatory there was an amazing full sized wooden model of an Osprey hanging from the ceiling - see how large they are!

Finally I had to leave ( it was closing time and they had to throw me out!) and walked back across the marshes to my car. Amazing views everywhere.

I then set off even further north, to my final destination, nearly to the very top of Wales.

The welcoming smiles of Sue and her Lovely Hubby, from the blog Our New Life in the Country. 

I had a lovely evening - met the dogs Suki and Rosy and Charley

and Ginger the cat.

Sue and LH were both so welcoming and after a lovely meal and lots of wine and lots of chat (we stayed up very late!) I was shown a beautiful guest bedroom and fell fast asleep.

Another really wonderful day :)