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Spring Walk June 2016 South Wales The Gower,
16/06/2016 - 20/06/2016
Thursday 16th June.
Travel day
Dick, Paul and Dave in one car going Luton, Chepstow (where they had breakfast at The Bellhanger a Weatherspoon’s outlet.) and on to the M4 to Cardiff to meet the others at the youth Hostel.
Ian and Graham went via Stow on the Wold stopping for a break at Chipping Norton before joining the others.
Steve and John cut across to the M4 at Slough and continued on to Cardiff to meet the rest.
Roland and Phil got the train arriving in Cardiff just as the heavens opened so stayed at the station before walking to the hostel.
Pete made his own way down joining us at the hostel later.
All apart from Pete, Roland and Phil walked down to the bay area in Cardiff, then around the Barrage to the Golden Lion, Glebe St, Penarth to watch The England Wales European Cup Game (football). There had been some rain during the walk but soon after getting into the pub the heavens opened. The pub was filled with red (Wales) shirts singing the Welsh teams praises, this got louder at half time as Wales were 1 up. In the second half England equalised subduing the atmosphere which then went very quiet as England scored again just before the end of the game making it 2-1 to England. Despite their disappointment there was no animosity shown towards us. Ian made one of his moves soon after arriving to get a chair. Good food and ale were available and tried before we returned to the hostel.
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Evening food was taken at the Urban Tap, again good food and Ale, before moving on to the Queens Vault and City Arms before returning to the Hostel.
The town had been very full as we walked through, despite being lively, there did not appear to be any trouble.
Friday 17th June.
The weather for the day started with heavy rain at Cardiff but as we moved west it cleared, staying dry for most of the walk though there was a brief shower.
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After a hostel breakfast, Pete went direct to Port Eynon to park up and go for a bike ride, he did however manage to book a table at The Ship Inn for dinner later. This proved to be a good move as it turned out, it was very busy in there later. All the others drove to Penmaen to walk from there. The route was along the Gower Way via Cefn Bryn and viewpoint until Red Pool where we took a path which was indistinct at times through gorse bushes and boggy ground to Oldwalls and the lunch time stop at The Greyhound Inn (the original site of the Gower Brewery). Here we sampled some good food and ale. Roland left us here to meet Pete in Port Eynon. The afternoon walk was via y Carreg, Pen-yc-alit, Caelfor farm, Parc-y-rhedyn back on to the Gower Way, Cillibion, Lodge Cwm, Long Oaks this section proved to be a long steady climb and back to the cars. Dick, Paul and Dave went to get some supplies for breakfast at the £1.89 shop where everything we wanted was £1.89. The rest went directly to the hostel where we all joined up.
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After a shower it was off to The Ship for dinner very good food, ale and service. During the evening there were a couple of points occurring, John came out and Roland gave Pete a wet leg. Once we had had our fill we returned to the hostel. During the night John slipped whilst getting out of his bunk and shredded his shreddies so had to go commando for the rest of the weekend.
Saturday 18th June.
We woke up to a fine day it was windy at times with some cloud around lunchtime which cleared later.
The hostel at Port Eynon was self catering so Dick and Paul did the usual breakfast. Paul doing the porridge which Phil had brought from Stotfold Mill and Dick did the beans, toms, toast and poached eggs.
Andy arrived just after breakfast bringing supplies for the other days but not from the £1.89 shop. He was hot bunking with Steve who was going home later as he was doing the London to Brighton bike ride the next day.
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Andy, Pete and Roland went for a bike ride the rest went to LLangennith (Dick and Steve via Rhossili to leave Steve’s car there as he had to leave early). The walk was via college mill down to Rhossili Down, where Dick and Ian went round and the others went over, all meeting at the cafe bikers as well. Then it was down to the Lookout station by Worms Head. Here Pete stayed on the cliff looking after the bikes. Dick and Ian started to walk back along the coast path to Port Eynon. Due to the timing of the tide the rest only made it to Low neck before having to return back to the mainland and continue on their ways, walkers along the coast path, bikers via the Rhossili Hotel (a place with a good frontage view) and Steve off to home. During the walk we saw some lizards, grass snake and several types of birds. When we all met after the walk at the hostel Andy took the drivers back to get the cars before we all washed and changed.
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Dinner was taken at The Captains Table a fish and Chip restaurant, there was a long wait for the food but it was well worth it. Then off to The Ship Inn to watch Portugal and Austria a 0-0 game the biggest cheer was when Ronaldo missed a penalty.
Sunday 19th June.
We woke up to rain at times very heavy with low cloud; you could not see the top of the cliffs. We hoped it would clear by the time we had had breakfast (again done by Paul and Dick) but to no avail.
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All apart from Pete (who cycled) got the bus to Parkmill then started to walk back via Pennard Burrows to the Welsh Coast Path. We had timed the walk to perfection so we could walk along the sands past Three Cliffs Bay, Nicholaston Burrows, and Oxwich Burrows to the cafe (meeting Pete) at Oxwich. Though flat it had not been a pleasant walk due to the persistent rain. After lunch Roland and Phil got the bus so they could stop for another cup of tea. Pete cycled, Dick and Ian went up the road to cut out the headland (just as well as it turned out as there was a newly fallen tree blocking the path at one point) cutting back on to the coast path at Slade. The rest went round the headland on the coast path, scrambling round the fallen tree, on to Slade passing through Horton back to the hostel, all meeting around the same time at the hostel.
After getting out of our wet gear and showering we set off to the Ship Inn (life is hard sometimes) for dinner. After we had eaten the conversation got around to the euro referendum for a while then on to other things. At the end of the night Pete said we should have a toast, so got a round in so that we could raise our glasses. We toasted and said we should continue this on future walks, that will be hard but no doubt we could manage it.
Monday 20th June.
Again we woke up to pouring rain so it was decided to go home straight after breakfast courtesy of Paul and Dick. As we packed the cars it started to clear but we stuck to our plans. Roland and Phil got a lift to Swansea with Andy but as their train did not go until 16:30 they had time to kill. Since the weather had cleared they went on a boat trip around the harbour before making their way to the station and home.
All made it back ok and upon our return we found out that Steve had completed his London to Brighton bike ride ok. Also Roland had picked up a passenger, a tick which he was very ticked off about. Another good trip, the next one is being planned.
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