Walk 364 -- Borth to Aberystwyth

(We were accompanied on this Walk by friends who live locally — Keith, his friend Liz, and his dog Billie.  Colin knew Keith at Bishops Castle School back in the 1950s)

Ages:  Colin was 72 years and 347 days.  Rosemary was 70 years and 124 days.
Weather:  Hot and sunny.  A cool breeze in exposed places.
Location:  Borth to Aberystwyth.
Distance:  7 miles.
Total distance:  3759 miles.
Terrain:  Mostly cliff paths which were very undulating.  Concrete and flat at the beginning and end.
Tide:  Going out.
Rivers: No.444, Bow Street Brook.
Ferries:  None.
Piers:  No.38, Aberystwyth.
Kissing gates:  Nos.784 to 788 (5 in all) on the cliffs.
Pubs:  None.
‘Cadw’ properties:  None.
Ferris wheels:  None.
Diversions:  None.
How we got there and back:  We were staying in our caravan near Aberaeron.  This morning we drove to Borth and parked on the seafront near the station.  We didn’t catch the train, instead we met Keith, Liz and Billie the dog who had travelled on it from Aberystwyth.  We walked down to the seafront together.
At the end we finished the Walk at the main river bridge in Aberystwyth.  Keith and Liz had parked near the station this morning, so they walked with us to there and pointed out the bus station just around the corner.  We said our “Goodbyes” after a really lovely day, and caught a bus to Borth where we alighted very near our parked car.  We had our tea and biscuits, then drove back to our caravan.

We met Keith, his friend Liz and his dog Billie at Borth station and walked with them straight down to the sea front.  (Keith, who lives in Aberystwyth, is an old school friend of Colin’s from nearly sixty years ago.)  It was really nice to have company for one of our Walks — the first time this has happened since 2003 when we were walking the Suffolk/Norfolk coast.

We passed a weird standing slate with a hole in the top, supposed to be some kind of sculpture, we thought.  It was covered in writing in Welsh, which even Keith and Liz couldn’t make out though each speak a smattering of the language.  Then we passed a Nisa supermarket which was housed in a most extraordinarily shaped building.  We were disappointed that the prom stopped as soon as we reached the village proper, forcing us to walk along streets between rows of houses.

We started to climb the cliffs before the houses ran out, and wonderful views began to reveal themselves.  We had a stiff climb up to the War Memorial at the top of a hill.  Following that we walked right down into a deep gully almost to sea level, then up even higher to the top of another hill — followed by a very steep and difficult descent into a second gully.  BUT — the gorse, which was growing everywhere, was so bright it almost hurt our eyes, and the views were truly spectacular.

After the first gully we sat on a bank to eat our pies.  Keith and Liz said they were relieved when we had indicated in an e-mail that we would have frequent refreshment stops on the way.  They were perfect walking companions for us, sauntering along at our slow pace.  In fact we were surprised to find how fit they were, coping with the steep slopes far better than me.  They had done this Walk before but the other way round, and Liz particularly had found it hard with the two deep gullies at the end when she was tired.  They said it was better to walk it this way round with the tough bits at the beginning when we were fresh.

From the second hill we had a glorious view back along the whole of the Borth sandspit all the way to the River Dovey with Aberdovey on the other side.  We felt quite proud of ourselves looking back at all the walking we had done.

After the second gully we came across a lost lamb — it had managed to get out of an adjacent field on to the coast path and couldn’t remember where the hole in the fence was to get back.  Keith tried to distract Billie, but the lamb was very distressed.  I walked on, remembering a time many years ago when we had tried to help just such a lamb on a cliff path in Devon — I put my back out resulting in months of excruciating pain!  Keith, a countryman, was keen to reunite the lamb with its mother, but they couldn’t catch it although the three of them had surrounded it at one time.  (I was watching the drama unfold from the next grassy knoll.)  It escaped and ran further down the path, dashed off through the gorse (Ouch!) and came out in a field — the wrong field!  It was still bleating through the fence for its Mum, but at least it was off the cliff path now.  We all felt there was nothing more we could do, so the others came on and caught me up.

The path was still undulating, but not so steeply — it was much more reasonable.  The gorse was still blinding, and the blackthorn blossom wasn’t too bad.  The views were just as spectacular, the geology amazing, the weather wonderful and the company great — in fact everything was perfect!  Billie was very good — he never wandered off even though he wasn’t on a lead.  He ran back and forth all the time keeping us all in a ‘herd’.  We came down, more gently this time, to a footbridge where a house was being built.  We sat on a bank and ate our sarnies, and stayed on for a long time in the sunshine just chatting.

We climbed over the next mound, and down to a caravan site complex.  There we caught our first sight of Aberystwyth Harbour.  We thought the shops there were all shut, but Colin found one round the side which was open.  We bought ice creams — they gave us the strength to climb to the top of Constitution Hill where we bought a huge pot of tea for four in the café there, and Liz bought us Welsh cakes to go with it.  There is a magnificent view of Aberystwyth from the terrace.  We all felt really relaxed and content.

Eventually we tore ourselves away and made our way down the steep zigzag path to sea level.  The cliff railway didn’t seem to be working that day — not that Colin and I could have used it anyway, it is against our rules!

A notice told us about the bar at the beginning of the prom: 
“Kick the Bar” is a local tradition which involves walking the length of the promenade to kick the railings at its northern end.  Some say it started when the male college students used to “kick the bar” to attract the attention of the female students lodged in nearby Alexandra Hall, once a female-only hall of residence.  Another story says that college students were once encouraged to walk the length of the prom to “kick the bar” in order to get fresh air and exercise, in order to reduce the spread of tuberculosis in the college. 
Whatever, both Keith and Colin — in their seventies the pair of them — spent the next five minutes proving they could “kick the bar” with both feet at the same time.  Boys never grow up! 

Fifteen months ago, this whole prom was destroyed in winter storms.  It has now been restored to its former glory, apart from the bandstand where work hasn’t yet been completed.  It’s a lovely waterfront with tulips ablaze in little gardens and lined by coloured houses across the road.  There were lots of people about on this sunny day, and we enjoyed the atmosphere as we walked towards the pier.  We did notice that a lot of the passers-by were obese, but I didn’t take pictures of them as I did at Skegness.  It’s become too much of a regular scene these days — and many of them are young which is very sad.  Can’t they see what they are doing to themselves? 

At the pier, Keith took a picture of Colin and myself with our heads stuck out of holes in a cartoon picture!  I wanted to walk to the end of the pier as it is in our rules, but we couldn’t find our way through.  In the end we discovered it was a zigzag route through the “Musies” (which is what I have called seaside amusement arcades ever since one of my students at Bognor School wanted to put “playing at the Musies” on his CV as his main hobby!) then through a darkened billiard room before we found an insignificant door leading out to the end of the pier.  They really didn’t want us to find it!  From there we were able to see that the cliff railway was now working.  Dogs were not allowed in the “Musies” so Keith stayed out on the prom with Billie.

Aberystwyth has been a University town since the 1870s.  We carried on along the waterfront past the original University buildings, many of which I’m sure, are ‘listed’ because they are so beautiful.

On the end tower were some mosaics, and there were mosaics set in the wall at eye level.  There was a sculpture on top of the wall — we’re not sure, but we think it was made to commemorate the University accepting women students from as early as 1884.  Keith told us that the woman who posed for it came back to Aberystwyth when she was a hundred to see what she had looked like when she was young!

We rounded a minor headland and were presented with what looked like another Aberystwyth — talk about déjà vu!

There was another beach with students playing on it, another row of coloured houses, more tulips in blazing colours, and lots more mosaics in wall cavities illustrating the history of the town.  Above the wall with the mosaics we could see the scant remains of an ancient castle, but we didn’t go up there today.

We could see the bridge over Afon Rheidol which seemed to be a much more important river than Afon Ystwyth.  We wondered why the town isn’t called Aberrheidol.

We walked to the end of the road and continued on to a wooden harbour arm called The Bar.  Liz tried out my walking poles because she is thinking of getting some, but she had great difficulty with co-ordination when using them.  I’ve had other friends who’ve experienced the same difficulty, but I’ve always found them very simple to use, and very helpful on a long hike too.

We sat on a weird seat which was celebrating metal mining, and another seat had curling snakes for it’s legs and back.  The small harbour is now a marina for leisure craft.  We walked along the river to the bridge.

That ended Walk no.364, we shall pick up Walk no.365 next time at the bridge over Afon Rheidol in Aberystwyth.  It was quarter to six, so the Walk had taken us eight hours.  Keith and Liz had parked near the station this morning, so they walked with us to there and pointed out the bus station just around the corner.  We said our “Goodbyes” after a really lovely day, and caught a bus to Borth where we alighted very near our parked car.  We had our tea and biscuits, then drove back to our caravan.
My left knee started complaining again today, especially when I was going steeply downhill.  Maybe it is not as ‘cured’ as I thought it was.  It was OK when I was walking along the flat, and chatting with friends helped to take my mind off it.