Walk 365 -- Aberystwyth to Llanon

Ages:  Colin was 72 years and 349 days.  Rosemary was 70 years and 126 days.

Weather:  Very hot and very sunny.  There was a pleasant breeze in exposed places.  It is unbelievable weather for April!

Location:  Aberystwyth to Llanon.

Distance:  13 miles.

Total distance:  3772 miles.

Terrain:  A couple of sandy beaches, and one shingle beach which was impossible to walk!  But it was mostly cliff paths which were quite undulating.  Concrete and flat at the beginning and end.
Tide:  In, then going out.

Rivers:  No.445, Afon Rheidol.  No.446, Afon Ystwyth.

Ferries:  None.

Piers:  None.

Kissing gates:  Nos.789 to 815 (27 in all).  Nos.801 and 813 were so narrow we had to take our rucksacks off in order to get through!

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 into Aberaeron, parked and walked to the bus stop.  We caught a bus to Aberystwyth Bus Station, then walked down to the river bridge.

At the end we got as far as the village of Llanon when we had to (’had to’ because there were barbed wire fences everywhere stopping us from going any other way) walk along a shingle beach.  I couldn’t cope with the loose stones — it put my back out and from then on my knee started to play up.  We went inland — we had no choice.  It was late, we were tired, and my back and knee were merry hell!  So when I saw a bus stop I decided the Walk was over.  We waited 20 minutes for a bus to Aberaeron where we got into our car and returned to our caravan. 

We set up and started today’s Walk by 7.30am — is that a record?  It was certainly lovely to be out at this early hour on such a beautiful day.  Passing an ornate lamp, we crossed the bridge over the River Rheidol.  This seems to be a much more significant river than the River Ystwyth which comes out into the sea at the same point.  We cannot understand why the town is called Aberystwyth — surely it should be Aberrheidol? 

We made our way past buildings to the riverside and walked down in front of bijou riverside residences which overlook the harbour and the marina within it.  The bijou residences were new and box-like, and cynically we wondered if they were tomorrow’s slums.

We crossed the River Ystwyth, a mere stream, which also empties into the harbour.  We noticed there were no railings on the south arm of the harbour, so we decided not to walk it for safety reasons.The coast path led south along the back of a shingle bank.  The local people had got together to prevent a development on this site — and they won!  Good on them!  The site is now a nature reserve.

At the top of the hill on the east side of the Ystwyth we could just see a tall column like a factory chimney.  A notice told us that this was erected in 1858 as a memorial to the Duke of Wellington.  At the bottom of this notice someone had put a large stone, on it was written “Litter is pollution, You are the solution”.  Colin climbed on to the shingle bank to see if there was any sand exposed on the beach for us to walk on.  There was, so that is what we did.

At the end of the beach we had a big hill to climb — it seemed a long way to the top.  Every time we thought we were just coming to it, more hill was revealed to us.  We were passed by a girl student who was out for a run.  She was very friendly and stopped for a chat.  Then she ran on to the top and back down — Oh!  To be young again! 

We did, eventually, reach the top ourselves, and there we were treated to wonderful views of a blue sky, blue sea, green hills, interesting geology, yellow gorse and blue violets.  We sat on a bank and ate our pasties while we soaked it all in.

As we descended we passed the back of a caravan site where a man was strimming the grass, and it was so noisy!  In recent years we’ve spent a lot of time sitting on caravan sites, and so often our peace has been disturbed by these loud mowers and strimmers — they ought to be banned!  We exited on to a lane where, almost opposite, was a gate leading into a field.  There we had to climb an almost vertical hill.  My left knee didn’t like it at all, so I started taking paracetamol and ibuprofen in tandem to ease the pain.  We took a long time getting up.  Two men were following us on the same path, but they never quite caught us up.

We came out on to a lane where there were lots of primroses.  Round the next corner a track led off to the right and it was signposted Coast Path.  We seemed to lose the two men there — did they not see the sign and go the wrong way?  We descended slowly, gently enough not to upset my knee which was twingeing, down a lovely grassy track for about a mile.  This was a lovely part of the Walk, I really did enjoy it — the views were fantastic and the walking gentle.  The path evened out to a flat track parallel to the shore, and we still had amazing views on this lovely sunny day.

We approached a ruined farm.  Just before we reached it Colin noticed an arrow pointing us up and around behind it.  I would have missed it and carried on through the farm — we wished we had afterwards!  We seemed to lose all signage until I noticed a post lying on the ground.  Colin stood it up, and we worked out we were supposed to go sharply inland up a steep hill.  Oh dear, my poor knee!  We struggled up several contours, then bore right following the footpath signs.  We saw the two men again — they were down by the derelict farm.  They were dithering about and appeared lost, so Colin waved to them and pointed to the wooden signpost we were passing.  They either didn’t see us or ignored us, because they carried on in a straight line.

Then, to our dismay, our path directed us downhill again to their level!!  We couldn’t believe it!  And the slope was steep enough to really upset my knee.  We could have stayed on the level which was a much shorter track, and my knee wouldn’t have been nearly so painful.

The two men were ahead of us now despite their hesitation by the derelict farm where they had made the right decision and we had made the wrong one.  The path continued through a gate and down to the cliff top (all of this was new and not marked on the OS map).  We went diagonally across the next field — blow sticking to the footpath, we’d had enough of that!  In a field ahead the two men seemed to be dithering again.  Then one went uphill towards a building, and the other followed.  We heard them talking to some hikers coming the other way.  We were a bit lost too, and got out our map — it was difficult to see where we were because the paths we were on were not marked on it, and there was no signage within view.  Then two ladies appeared from behind bushes, so we asked them if that was the way — they said it was.  Where was the signage to say we divert up there?  The ladies lived locally, and they agreed that the signage on this part of the Wales Coastal Path was “fuzzy”.  We told them about our project and gave them blog cards (are you still reading it, ladies?)  They were impressed and said we were “brave” — No!  Just mad! 

Hidden behind the bushes was a gate — this led to a track which soon reduced to a footpath.  But at least we were going the right way!  It was a bit of a mountain footpath really, along the side of a hill and not always horizontal.  But we had stupendous views!  We passed wind-blasted trees and bright yellow gorse, and were thankful that the weather was calm and sunny — we didn’t like to think what it would be like on that exposed path if it was wet and windy.

We passed interesting rocks and walked up and down steep slopes.  We passed a gate leading to a nature reserve, but that was steeply downhill so we ignored it.  We sat on a bank to eat our sarnies.  The two men were a little ahead of us doing the same, but they soon moved on and we didn’t see them again.  We caught tantalising glimpses of a caravan site round the hills ahead, it was out on a spur.  But we still had a lot of ground to cover before we got there.  There seemed to be a lot of uphill, my knees didn’t like it at all.

At last we were above the caravan site — downhill all the way now, so we were fooled into thinking!  We sat on a wall to eat our apples.  Colin saw a bright green lizard, but it had gone by the time I looked.  We continued down almost to sea level, then had to go a bit uphill in order to get round the caravan site.  I was extremely tired, my knees were painful especially the left one, the sun was very hot and a man on a motor mower (Yes!  Another one!) nearly drove me mad with the noise.  The path took us round a field behind the caravan site.  We sat on a bench because it was there.  Colin ate his crisps, but I don’t eat crisps ever since I read in a walking magazine that their nutritional value is so low they take more energy to consume than they put back into your body.  Junk food!  We filled our water bottles at a tap near the caravan site entrance.  We drank a lot of water because we could replenish it, and immediately felt a lot better.

From there we had to go up a road, uphill and away from the sea.  We were not happy about this — there was a bridle path going down to the beach, could we have crossed the river down there where it spreads out and is sometimes shallower?  We could hear the traffic on the main road getting nearer and nearer, not a sound we had heard since we left Aberystwyth.

We were almost at the road when, at last, we could cross the small river.  Then we followed a long lane back to the shore.  Halfway along we passed a road leading off to the right back to the caravan site, so it seemed.  Had we been cheated?  But we hadn’t — looking at the map later we saw that it led to a different caravan site on the south side of the river.

The coast path continued along the beach — shingle!  My heart sank!  But by now the tide was sufficiently out to reveal a strip of sand.  So we tried that — it was a little soft but pleasant to walk.  The sand ran out where there was a gate into a field, and the way continued along the edge of several pastures.  Trouble was, there were stiles instead of gates and I am finding them increasingly difficult as I get older.  (Stop moaning, grumpy old woman!) 

We passed a row of old lime kilns, and sat on a bank in cool shade to eat our chocolate.  There were clumps of primroses everywhere.

We climbed over a stile and the path turned into a track which took us towards a church.  We didn’t look at the map properly because we were so hot and tired.  An added difficulty was that we were on the corner of two maps, and we hadn’t bought the connecting map because it was completely inland, it didn’t show the coast at all.  We crossed a stream and went straight down to the beach which was shingle again.  We couldn’t see a path anywhere, but a woman in a nearby house told us we were going the right way.  The trouble was, the path shown on the OS map went along the edge of fields at the top of the shore.  But that had long since fallen into the sea and everywhere there were “Private” and “Keep Out” notices.  So we retreated to a footpath which went diagonally across to the beach further down.  We passed an open area with benches and litter bins — their village green I suppose.  It looked a pleasant spot.

We came to metal steps which lowered us down to the beach below soft cliffs — shingle again!  It was impossible to walk on but there was no other way.  I found it particularly difficult because of the state of my knees.  (I said I’d rather walk along a main road, that’s how bad it was!)  We came to another set of metal steps and thankfully climbed them — if only we’d known how near the path up from the beach was we’d have carried on despite the difficulties, hindsight is a wonderful thing!  At the top of the steps we had no choice but to walk inland for about a mile between two barbed wire fences.  (All of this path was on the inland map which we didn’t have, so we were walking ‘blind’.)  We felt very tired and cross.  We came to the main road.  Traffic!  No Wales Coastal Path signs!  We felt abandoned.

We saw a bus stop, and noted there was a bus to Aberaeron in twenty minutes.  Colin wanted to continue, but we didn’t know if the lane we were turning on to was the right one.  There were no signs and we had no map.  I said, “No!  I’ve had enough!”  We waited for the bus. 

That ended Walk no.365, we shall pick up Walk no.366 next time on the main road in Llanon.  It was half past five, so the Walk had taken us ten hours.  We caught a bus to Aberaeron where we got into our car and returned to our caravan.  We were disappointed that we’d cut short our planned walk, but perhaps eighteen miles over that sort of terrain was a bit ambitious.  The next day my back went, and I’m convinced it was triggered by walking along that shingle beach.