Gold

Day 129 Aberteifi/Cardigan to Y Mwnt 24 Oct 2022
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Day 129 Aberteifi/Cardigan to Y Mwnt 24 Oct 2022

We had to get up bright and early this morning as neither of us had found the carpark for the hotel yesterday and we were both pay and display carparks which charge from 8 am. We then wrapped ourselves around an excellent breakfast before driving to Y Mwnt to leave one car.  It was not immediately obvious how to find the carpark, but eventually we tracked it down – right at the foot of Y Mwnt – which is a pointy hill on the coast, visible from some distance.

Bridge over Afon Teifi, looking from the north. © Melita Thomas

I decided that we did not need to go back to Poppit Sands, as the walk from there is down the estuary, rather than along the coast, and is a narrow, tarmac’d road – unpleasant and dangerous to walk along, and not part of the coast.  Consequently, we started again from Cardigan Castle, right on the bridge over the Teifi. 

Aberteifi/Cardigan is a pleasant town (allowing for the fact that Welsh towns are not generally as pretty as English ones, although the surrounding countryside is nearly always fabulous). In the paving on the main road there is a slab with the words of the well-known hymn, Calon Lân, (Pure Heart) engraved.

The chorus of Calon Lân. © Melita Thomas

I am not sure why – perhaps it was written by a local bard? The castle was first built by a Norman invader, Gilbert de Clare, presumably as part of his assault across the Irish Sea on Ireland. It was taken for the Welsh in 1165 by Rhys ap Gruffydd (usually known as the Lord Rhys), the mightiest Welsh prince of the late twelfth century. He rebuilt the castle in stone, and some of his works remain extant.  

The weather was bright and breezy, with squalls to begin with, but we made good time along the north side of the estuary – there was a fair amount of road walking to start, but the views of the southern bank were good, and it is always nice to see the boats bobbing (or not bobbing) on the water. We passed some apple trees that were dangling temptingly over the path, so Jane clambered up the five-bar gate to supplement our lunch.

Bobbing and not-bobbing boats on the Teifi Estuary. © Melita Thomas

Turning off the road, we walked through beet fields, with Ynys Aberteifi/Cardigan Island ahead of us – it is known for its colonies of grey seals, but we did not see any there. In fact, the whole day, despite having our eyes peeled for dolphins, which are regular visitors to this part of the coast we only saw one seal. Eventually, the point of Y Mwnt came into view.  The sun had come out by this point, so we sat above the little inlet, where lots of people were enjoying themselves – some hardy souls were even swimming.  I decided that I was not brave enough for full immersion, but I did paddle – it was eye-wateringly cold, but exhilarating. My feet tingled for ages afterward.

Paddling at the foot of Y Mwnt. © Melita Thomas
Holy Cross Church, Y Mwnt. © Melita Thomas

We then climbed up to the top of Y Mwnt, great views in all directions, before visiting the lovely little church of Holy Cross at the foot. It has been there, time-out-of-mind, for the benefit of pilgrims and the tiny local community. It was a very tranquil space, moving in its quiet simplicity.

Another gold day, covering a modest eight miles.  

Day 128 – Trewyddel/Moylegrove to Poppit Sands 23 Oct 2022
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Day 128 – Trewyddel/Moylegrove to Poppit Sands 23 Oct 2022

I had a lovely drive through the autumn morning, stopping for a very nice piece of orange drizzle cake at Llanddymyfri.  I saw Jane come up behind me, but apparently she followed me for 30 miles without realising it, even though I waved frantically out of the car window at her – I hope she’s a bit more attentive to other activity on the road! After a not very brief and totally unnecessary detour through Aberteifi/Cardigan, we stopped for a quick lunch in the nice little café at Poppet Sands, then took Jane’s car to Trewyddel/Moylegrove. It was a rather steep and twisty route. We then walked up through the woods where Rachel and I had stumbled in the dark last year – they looked very different in daylight, and approached from the opposite direction – definitely less spooky. The weather was changeable, but stayed pretty dry. The views were excellent, but sadly there were no seals or dolphins.

Hitting the coast near Trewyddel/Moylegrove

We had a straightforward walk, with some excellent views and superb autumn colours.

Autumn colours

We got back about 5pm and walked along the lovely beach at Poppit Sands.  We sat down against a rock, and were just thinking we should turn back when it poured, so we got very wet in the last five minutes, nevertheless, an excellent day.

I have now finished the Pembrokeshire Coast Path – utterly magical from start to finish.

We are staying in the Castle in the town – it is absolutely excellent – can’t recommend highly enough. The room is spacious and airy, and the staff are lovely.  We are on tenterhooks as Jane and her partner are hoping to hear that the offer they have made on a house has been accepted.

Just had a good curry not far from the hotel – although it was BYO, which we did not realise. Jane stepped swiftly into the breach and nipped to the Spar for some red.

A mere 6.2 miles to get my legs in and another gold day.

Day 106 – Abertawe to Caswell Bay 22 July 2018
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Day 106 – Abertawe to Caswell Bay 22 July 2018

Today was quite a contrast to yesterday!  I left the rather lovely Air B and B I have booked, with the idea of leaving the car about halfway between Abertawe and Mumbles. Nick, my brother-in-law from Australia, was due to meet me mid-afternoon, so the plan was to walk half-way, then meet him back at the house and continue.

I duly parked, and waited for a bus. And waited. And waited. According to the timetable, they passed along the road every  half hour, and I saw two come along, and turn up the road just before the stop I was standing at. I wrestled with downloading the timetable again on my phone and concluded that the bus I wanted did not run on a Sunday (atlhough the whole site was rather vague on detail), so I drove into Abertawe and parked by the station again. A good hour wasted!

But it did not matter – the weather was warm, and although I was feeling somewhat battered about the legs after yesterday, I was in good spirits. I walked down through the shopping area of Abertawe, past the ruins of the Norman castle, and into the bay area. This has been renovated in recent years and is a rather lovely marina. There were hordes of people around, apparently a charity run is in progress.

I fought my way against the tide of runners, and along the marina, coming out onto a short passage of sand-dunes, before the beach.

It is a superb beach – I am amazed it is not a more popular holiday destination. The sands are flat and golden, with a long tidal range.  I walked steadily for a couple of hours, soothing my scratched legs in the clear water, before climbing back up onto the cob and finding a bus that was actually going to Swansea. I picked up the car, and went back to the house, where I met Nick.  After a swift lunch, we dropped one car off at Caswell Bay, just beyond Mumbles and took the other back to where I had caught the bus. Proceedings got off to a good start with an ice-cream from the local dairy.

Again, it was a leisurely walk – the beach at this western end of the bay is much less attractive – quite a lot of rather smelly mud, so we walked mainly along the promenade, into Mumbles. We could see the lighthouse on a promontory, off the beach below – there were steep stairs going down, then up again to the lighthouse rock, but much of it was inaccessible. The lighthouse was built in 1794, and re-engineered in 2017 to be LED lit. The other famous feature is the pier, with the station from the old Swansea-Mumbles railway – the first railway in the world that took paying passengers. At that time it was horse-drawn, but converted to steam-power in 1877. Always a popular holiday destination, Mumbles was described by Dylan Thomas as ‘a rather nice village, despite its name’.  The town was chosen by The Times newspaper as the best place to live in Wales in 2018 – personally, I preferred the beach at the Swansea end of the bay, but it is certainly a charming town.

The path then climbs up onto a headland, over the golf course and in the late evening sun we could see far away to the headland above Oxwich.  A thoroughly enjoyable day – actually reaching Gold standard.