Walk 370 -- Mwnt to Cardigan (Aberteifi)

Ages:  Colin was 73 years and 7 days.  Rosemary was 70 years and 149 days.

Weather:  Sunny at first.  It clouded over but remained dry and quite warm.

Location:  Mwnt to Cardigan (Aberteifi).

Distance:  7 miles.
Total distance:  3811 miles.
Terrain:  Cliff paths at first.  Some quiet roads.  Farmer’s fields — too many of them!  Fairly undulating.
Tide:  Out.
Rivers:  None.
Ferries:  None.
Piers:  None.
Kissing gates:  Nos.865 to 880 (sixteen in all).
Pubs:  None.
‘Cadw’ properties:  None.
Ferris wheels:  None.
Diversions:  None.
How we got there and back:  We were staying in our caravan on a site at Oakford, near Aberaeron.  This morning we drove to Cardigan and parked for free in a little park not far from the town centre.  We walked to the bus station where we caught the ‘Cardi-Bach’ bus to Mwnt.
At the end we bypassed the car and walked down to the river bridge before finishing the Walk.  Then we returned to the car where we had our tea and biscuits.  We went back to our caravan and took down the awning.  The next day we returned home to Malvern.

 

We started today’s Walk at the top of the cliff at Mwnt.  There was a notice informing us that the chapel behind us was 13^th century and founded on an earlier monastic cell.  Also that medieval pilgrims bound for Bardsey Island (way to the north) used to embark from the beach at Mwnt.

Another notice informed us that the distinctive conical hill, known as Foel-y-Mwnt, was shaped by glaciers in the last ice age.  In other words, it is glacial till and not the remains of eroded bedrock.

Yet a third notice informed us that the old limekiln in the cliff was a furnace used for roasting limestone which was landed on the beach having been brought from South Wales.  The lime product was used as fertiliser on local fields.  The notice did not give dates as to when this limekiln was in use.

We passed the top of the limekiln and began our walk along the cliff path where we stopped to chat to a man with two overweight dogs.  We had magnificent views of the cliffs, the sea, the sandy beach at Mwnt and even caves in places.  We were delighted with the antics of a pair of stonechats who were flitting about amongst the bushes.  And the flowers were gorgeous — bright yellow gorse and violet blue bluebells.  We were in heaven!

We remembered that we were supposed to take our 3800 mile photo — we have walked 3800 miles along the coast from Bognor since we started in 1998!  We put the camera on a fencepost and set it on the 10 second timer.  With a bit of guesswork and adjusting it a few times, we eventually got it just right.

Then we saw a seal in the water.  And the stonechats were still flitting around from bush to bush — beautiful birds!

This cliff path was not as up-and-down as on previous Walks.

It kept to a level, more or less, around the gullies.

This was proving to be a most enjoyable Walk.

We sat on a rock by one of the gullies and ate our pasties.

Then we continued to enjoy the cliff path until we had to turn away—the coast path does not go along the last half mile to the headland, it is private land.

We could see Cardigan Island off the headland.  Apparently puffins used to nest on there but they got decimated by rats.  (How did the rats get over there?)  Now wildlife volunteers have got rid of the rats, and have put up a number of concrete puffins in the hope of encouraging them back.

The next part of the Walk was across farmers’ fields, mostly arable fields and it was boring!  It was uphill too.  We passed a kissing gate with no logos or walkers’ arrows on it.  I would have missed it because I was looking straight ahead where I could see a field gateway leading out to a lane.  But Colin stopped to try the kissing gate — and found it was nailed up.  The nail was loose so he got through that.  But just ahead was another gate which was also nailed up, this one so well he couldn’t budge it.  Yet we could see Wales Coast Path waymarkers further across the field where we couldn’t get.  Puzzled, we turned round and walked to the field gateway I had seen earlier.  This was tied up with blue rope which Colin managed to loop over the gatepost only with extreme difficulty.  There was a notice on the other side of the gate which said,  PRIVATE.  Yet this was the right-of-way marked on our supposedly up-to-date OS map — we looked very carefully to make sure we hadn’t made a mistake.  There was obviously an unco-operative landowner hereabouts.

We walked down the lane towards a road, passing a derelict cottage with another of those  PRIVATE  notices on the door.  At the road there was a metal gate leading out of the field we couldn’t get into at the other end.  It had the blue Wales Coast Path arrows and logos all over it, but again it was nailed up.  What’s more, there was a Wales Coast Path notice on a post, but it was pointing up the road in completely the wrong direction and showed signs of having been hammered down pointing that way!
We met a hiker coming up the road, obviously walking the Coast Path the opposite way to us.  He was going to follow the sign pointing in the wrong direction until we explained what we had seen and showed him the nailed-up gate.  He said he had heard that some landowners were being unco-operative about the route of the Coast Path.  We pointed out that if he followed the sign he could well be walking on roads for miles and may miss out Mwnt altogether.  In the end he decided to go the way we had come, through the ‘private’ gate — “If I don’t meet a man with a shotgun!” 

We continued down the road towards Cardigan and passed the entrance to “Farm Park”.  This was an unusual style of house with a conservatory on decking which came out over a pond.  A boat, and a rather silly fountain completed the scene — it looked a bit cheap and nasty to us.  (But then it was, perhaps, sour grapes because we strongly suspected that the unco-operative landowner lived there and we were still angry about the nailed-up gates and wrongly pointing sign.) 

We cheered ourselves up by looking the other way at the wonderful views along the estuary.  Although we were walking along a road, it didn’t seem like it because we were on a separate footway behind a bank which kept us away from the traffic.

We came to a car park at a viewpoint where there were about half a dozen seats, so we sat on one to eat our apples.  On the other side of the road was a house built out of an old railway carriage — this one looked very nice and well kept, unlike many we have passed around the coast which are rather dilapidated.

We continued down the road for about a mile until it turned sharp left.  We continued straight on as directed by blue Wales Coast Path logos.  We seemed to be in a boatyard where new yachts were being made and there was a horrible smell of glue.  We were not sure if we were going the right way as there were boats all over the place and we lost our bearings amongst them.  We hesitated, then a young man who was pressure-washing a yacht stopped what he was doing and came over.  He told us we were on the right route, the path continued behind those three yachts over there.  He was very friendly and helpful.  We thanked him, and carried on.

We had another mile or so of walking through arable fields which was boring!  (Farmer’s fields are not our idea of the countryside, especially nowadays when farms are more like a factories.)  Eventually we came out on to a lane, and according to our map we should follow this into Cardigan.  But opposite us was a signpost pointing us into the next field where the path skirted round the edge.  This was new, but we followed it and it kept us off the roads all the way into Cardigan.

Unfortunately the kissing gate leading into this field was so narrow we could hardly get round it, certainly not whilst wearing a backpack.  (I wonder who designs these things?) 
We met a girl walking the Wales Coast Path in the opposite direction to us.  She knew all about the nailed-up gates.  She told us that the landowner has so far spent £20,000 on court cases unsuccessfully trying to stop the Wales Coast Path going over his land.  He doesn’t want anybody looking at the view of Cardigan Island from the headland unless they stay at Farm Park at great expense and pay him to walk ‘his’ coast!  It smacks of the old landowners before the Mass Trespass of Kinder Scout in the 1930s — “You can’t come on my land because I own it!”   “You can’t look at my views because I own them!”   “You can’t breathe my fresh air because it’s mine!”   “Go back to your hovels and shut up, or I’ll clap you in irons!” 

The path led us down to the river, past a sewage works and into a little park where our car was waiting for us.  But we ignored it and sat on a seat to eat our chocolate.  Then we went down a path across a paying car park (we’d parked for free) to the bridge across Afon Teifi.  On the way we passed ornamental gates and a sculpture which was a couple of huge chain links.

Cardigan Castle is situated next to the river, we passed it’s outer walls as we walked down to the bridge.  It was built in the 12^th century and has a similar chequered history to most of the other castles in Wales.  Unfortunately, throughout the 20^th century it was allowed to fall into disrepair, and nothing was done by the private owner to rectify the situation, even for years after it was declared unfit for human habitation.

Eventually the old lady was taken off to a nursing home, and had to put the castle up for sale to pay her coasts.  By then it was so near to falling down it was dangerous to go near.  Ceredigion County Council bought it in 2003, and they immediately effected sufficient repairs to at least keep the building standing.  It is now open to the public, but it is not owned by Cadw so we didn’t go in.

That ended Walk no.370, we shall pick up Walk no.371 next time on the bridge in Cardigan.  It was quarter to three, so the Walk had taken us five hours forty minutes.  We returned to the car where we had our tea and biscuits.  Later we went back to our caravan and took down the awning.  The next day we returned home to Malvern.

Walk 369 -- Llangrannog to Mwnt

Ages:  Colin was 73 years and 5 days.  Rosemary was 70 years and 147 days.

Weather:  Very sunny and quite warm.  A lovely day!

Location:  Llangrannog to Mwnt.

Distance:  11 miles.

Total distance:  3804 miles.

Terrain:  Mostly cliff paths.  Some roads at Aberporth, then fields before returning to the cliffs.

Tide:  Coming in.

Rivers:  None.

Ferries:  None.

Piers:  None.

Kissing gates:  Nos.847 to 864 (eighteen in all).

Pubs:  None. 
'Cadw’ properties:  None. 
Ferris wheels:  None. 

Diversions:  No.83, a slight diversion in Aberporth because a JCB was blocking the path while putting in a new ship sculpture! 

How we got there and back:  We were staying in our caravan on a site at Oakford, near Aberaeron.  This morning we drove to Mwnt and parked just outside the car park to save paying £3!  (That’s National Trust for you!)  From there we caught the ‘Cardi-Bach’ bus to Llangrannog. 

At the end we came to the car parked in Mwnt.  We had our tea and biscuits, then returned to our caravan. 

In the bus shelter in Llangrannog we found a lovely mosaic depicting the arrival of St Carannog by sea.  He came in the 6^th century to this tiny fishing village to meditate and spread the word of Christ.  He built a church in the village, which is dedicated to him. 

There was a market in ‘The Ship’ car park this morning, where Colin was delighted to buy two CDs of 60s hits for £1 each.  So we tarried a little before climbing the steep hill past an old lime kiln and a house built from a railway carriage, until we reached a statue of St Carannog overlooking Llangrannog.

Then it was a steep climb which seemed to go on and on to the top of the cliffs.  But it was worth the effort because there were swathes of bluebells all over the place, also other wild flowers of many colours.  There were interesting rocks to look at too, and fantastic views. 

There was no wind and it felt quite hot in the sun — beautiful late Spring weather.  We sat on a bank to eat our pasties before continuing.  We came to a gully, the first of many.  I found the steps going down difficult because of my gammy knee.  My walking poles helped — in fact I couldn’t have done today’s Walk without them — but they didn’t stop the constant nagging pain in my left knee.  There was a secluded beach at the end of the gully, we didn’t go down there.  For a change, there didn’t seem to be so many steps going up out of this gully as there were going down, but I still found them knackering. 

Colin forgot to pick up his camera before we left the caravan this morning, so he kept borrowing mine and filling it up with bug pictures.  (He put those on his computer when we got home, I didn’t want them.)

We could see Penbryn beach ahead, but then the path turned inland past a hill with masts on it and down a track to a stream.  Penbryn itself is little more than a loo block and a café about a quarter of a mile inland from the shore.  We bought delicious ice creams there and sat outside in the shade to eat them.  As we were doing so, the Cardi-Bach bus passed through on its way back to Cardigan.

We crossed the stream behind the café and started to climb steps back up to the cliffs.  Fortunately we were in woods so it was not too hot for the climb.  BUT — each step was big and there were lots of them.  I found it really difficult, and tiring.  Part way up I turned round to find Colin had been inattentive to my chatter because he was doing Sudoku as he slowly mounted the steps behind me!  I was furious!  Why couldn’t he help and encourage me when I was finding it so difficult?  He said he was “bored” because I was taking so long!!  Really!  I think he’s going potty!  I refused to move until he had put it away.

When we did eventually get to the top, we looked back and could see Penbryn sands.  It looked a nice beach, but we never got down there — the coast path didn’t touch it.  We climbed and climbed, the path always seemed to be upwards.  We met lots of other walkers who were mostly going the other way.  Any walkers going our way passed us because I was so slow.  It was hot in the sun, but we found a nice shady tree to sit under to eat our sandwiches.

We came next to Tresaith.  We went steeply downhill once again, there were lots of steps and my gammy knee made it self known again.  I had dosed myself up with paracetamol and ibuprofen in tandem, but they have little effect on my left knee which is now seriously arthritic.  My right one is beginning to go the same way too, I can feel it.

We passed some volunteers mending the steps, they were very cheery and accommodating.  Well done them — and everyone who gives their time for free to help others.  We descended lots of brick steps all the way to the sands.  It was a lovely smooth sandy beach, and quite a few people were enjoying it.  We saw a lifeboat whizzing across in front of the sands.  Since it was such a lovely calm day, we wondered if it was on a training exercise rather than a callout?

We walked across the back of the beach, then it was up on to the cliffs again.  At the top we came to a wheelchair-friendly path which led all the way into Aberporth.  The path overlooked a number of fantastic rock formations.

We passed more houses built from railway carriages — they reminded us of Pagham, near Bognor, where a whole estate is built from them.  (When we get there we’ll be within spitting distance of the end of this Trek — I wonder how old we’ll be then?) 

We walked down into Aberporth and sat on a bench overlooking a beautiful sandy beach to eat our apples.  It looked a fabulous place, but we couldn’t get to the sands because there was a river in our way.  Aberporth used to be a major herring fishing port.  During the 19^th century it also used to import limestone, coal, coal dust, chimney pots and lots more besides.  (The coal dust was mixed with clay and used to heat homes in the village.)  Nowadays it is first and foremost a holiday resort — and a very pretty one at that.

We slithered down a steep grass bank (ouch!  m’knees!) to cut off a wide loop of the official footpath.  Then we found the path was blocked by a JCB putting a sculpture of a ship in place on the waterfront.  We had to divert up through a wood and down some steps — but it wasn’t very far.  We spoke to a lady who was out walking her dog.  She told us that the ship sculpture is a community project and will be celebrated with a mass picnic in a couple of weeks.  Sounds like fun!  We walked up to a bridge where we crossed the river, then proceeded along a busy road at the top of the beach for a few yards.

We turned off on to a side road which led uphill out of Aberporth, so we never got to the beach after all.  We just had to look at it from the car park where there was a wooden sculpture of a dolphin.  We also noticed a mermaid sculpture on the corner of a building.

The road was steep and kept going up and up — it was knackering!  We passed a strange plant which was three times the height of Colin, and I loved the little white flowers by the roadside.  The reason we had to go inland and uphill was to avoid a Qinetiq site, formerly an outpost of the RAE in Farnborough.  Colin knew about Aberporth when he worked at the RAE all those years ago, but I didn’t.  Why are these government places situated on the best bits of coast around our country, blocking the view and making us walk round them?

The notices on the gates and fences saying “Government Property” reminded me of the time I worked in the RAE for a year when I first left school.  Every single sheet of the “bullet-proof” toilet paper in all the toilets had the words “Government Property” written on it!  I used to take reams of it home and write letters to my friend, Linda, on it.  It amused our teenage minds at the time — but I never dared let my Dad know, he would have blown a gasket!  We were also warned, at Aberporth, that “images of trespassers may be recorded”.  So we smiled at the cameras and passed on.
We came to the end of the Qinetiq fences, and found the coast path at last led off the road.  It went down the side of the fence for a short distance, then veered off to the left across fields.  That’s better!  (We hate walking on roads.)  We came to a meadow where ladysmocks were growing — beautiful!  Love ladysmocks!

We walked over to a wood where we crossed a stream on a wooden footbridge with a rotten panel.  It reminded us of Bolivia where we went trekking in the early 90s, before we started on the Round-Britain-Walk.  Many’s the time when we took our lives in our hands by crossing a raging torrent in a deep gully on a rotten wooden bridge!  This one wasn’t exactly life-threatening, but we could have sprained an ankle if we hadn’t seen it.

It only seemed a little stream where we crossed it in the woods, but it plunged down an enormous gully a little further on.  We were so glad we were now on the western side of it — if Qinetiq hadn’t been there and we had been able to walk along the top of the cliffs from Aberporth, we would have had to come inland to these woods anyhow in order to cross this stream.  The gully was far too deep and steep to cross otherwise.  So perhaps Qinetiq is forgiven!
We met two girls with a dog coming the other way.  They were the only people we met between Aberporth and Mwnt, though we had met loads of hikers between Llangrannog and Aberporth.

We emerged on to the clifftop path at last.  The geology was fascinating all along, and there was fantastic lighting in the evening sun.  The sun shone through the wild flowers too — they were prolific and very beautiful in that light.  We sat on a bank to eat our chocolate.

The path to Mwnt seemed very long, but perhaps it was just because we were tired.  There were far too many gullies.  We didn’t have to go down too far into most of them, but we did wish they weren’t there.  We came to a seat — the first one we had come across on all the cliff paths today.  So we had to sit on it even though we had no more snacks left and very little water.  We didn’t tarry long because we still had nearly two miles to go.  The path was sometimes very good allowing us to walk side by side, but more often than not it was narrow and uneven.

At last we crossed a gully and went up to the chapel at Mwnt.  Mwnt is little more than a chapel, a car park and a beach.  We didn’t go down to the beach — too many steps in our tired state.  But it looked a lovely place — we must come back sometime. 

That ended Walk no.369, we shall pick up Walk no.370 next time on the clifftop above Mwnt beach.  It was ten to eight, so the Walk had taken us nine and a half hours.  (We get slower and slower.)    We had our tea and biscuits, then returned to our caravan.