Wales Coast Path
Wales Coast Path, day 47: Cardigan to Aberporth
Today we open a new front on the Wales Coastal Path: Ceredigion. Our starting point is the old quay in Cardigan – Aberystwyth without the university, as C. calls it. We’ve already toured the car parks until we find one that doesn’t ban all-day walkers. A sculptured dolphin marks the beginning of the path, but […]
Wales Coast Path, day 4: Newport from Rumney
The Wentloog and Caldicot Levels are like no other part of Wales. They’re flat lands that lie partly below sea level, protected from the Bristol Channel by earth walls and drained by artificial watercourses – more like the Lincolnshire fens than Wales. Three of us set out, on a fine windless April day, to walk […]
Wales Coast Path, day 11: Porthcawl from Port Talbot
Port Talbot, Tai Bach, Margam: for J. and me this is new territory, but it’s home turf for C. and H. So we’ve the luxury of expert commentators as we take to the streets and move east. We parked in the centre of Port Talbot, near where H. grew up and C. went to school. […]
Wales Coast Path, day 10: Dunraven from Porthcawl
By now we tend to see the Wales Coast Path as ‘our path’. We don’t expect to see many other long distance walkers, and having planned our routes we expect to execute them without hindrance. Imagine our indignation, then, when we find that the car park at Dunraven is closed because filming is taking place […]
Wales Coast Path, day 5: Rumney from Penarth
At last, a dry bright morning. C, J and I stroll down past Alexandra Park towards Penarth Pier. Bafflingly a woman with a small dog says we look like the Three Musketeers. She may be unaware that the only fences we tend to come across are ones that divide fields. After a coffee in the […]
Wales Coast Path, day 6: Penarth from Barry
At Bridgend we change to the miniature Platform 1A, gateway to all true adventures on the Vale of Glamorgan line. It’s cold and the fog is thick. The train creeps across the Porthkerry viaduct, unseeing and unseen. We leave at Barry – Barry Central to be precise, since like all respectable towns Barry has several […]
Wales Coast Path, day 7: Barry from Rhoose
It’s a dry and sunny morning after torrential rain in Swansea. C and I are drawn back irresistibly to the famous ‘Rhoose Point Transport Interchange Car Park’, this time with H as our companion, for a gentle amble east to Barry. Suburbia is the theme of the first section of this stretch of the coastal […]
Wales Coast Path, day 8: Rhoose from St Donats
I’m back with C and J in the King George V Field, St Donats. The morning’s not as bright as the weather forecast promised, but there’s no wind, and it’s not cold. So off we march down the field to join the coast path, and turn east for Rhoose. We’re high above crumbly sandstone cliffs, […]
Wales Coast Path, day 9: St Donats from Dunraven
We could be accused, C. and I, of cherry-picking the best sections of the south Glamorgan coastline. I have a hunch, though, that the least promising looking sections of the Wales Coast Path may turn out to be the most interesting. Anyway, here we are in the car park at Dunraven, below Southerndown, with our […]
Wales Coast Path: day 42: Whitesands to Portgain
Friday is hotter still. There’s almost no breeze. We decide to head south-north for a change, starting from Whitesands Bay and repeating a little of our mini-walk in May. It’s so oppressive that Ca. turns back at St David’s Head to join us later. The rest of us sweat onwards, through the rough gorse and […]