Walk 367 -- Aberaeron to New Quay

Ages:  Colin was 73 years and 1 day.  Rosemary was 70 years and 143 days.

Weather:  Sunny with a cold breeze, but it did warm up later.
Location:  Aberaeron to New Quay.
Distance:  7 miles.
Total distance:  3784 miles.
Terrain:  Mostly grassy cliff paths, sometimes through woods.  One lovely sandy beach.  A bit of concrete at the beginning and end.  Undulating.
Tide:  In, but going out when it mattered.
Rivers:  No.447, Afon Aeron.
Ferries:  None.
Piers:  None.
Kissing gates:  Nos.822 to 832 (eleven in all).
Pubs:  None.
‘Cadw’ properties:  None.
Ferris wheels:  None.
Diversions:  No.82 where there was a bit of cliff erosion — we had to loop up a bit.
How we got there and back:  Yesterday we towed our caravan from home to the same site near Aberaeron where we stayed last month.  My knee is still painful, but the inflammation has died down a bit.  I’m taking painkillers, and I’m determined not to give up on this Trek!  This morning we parked in Aberaeron and started the Walk from the footbridge.
At the end we walked up from the lifeboat quay to the bus stop and caught a bus back to Aberaeron.  We bought ice creams and sat by the harbour eating them before returning to our caravan.

As soon as we began the Walk, the clouds scudded away and the sun came out.  A good start!  We crossed the footbridge over the river in Aberaeron and walked up the other side of the harbour — along Harbour Lane, as was prettily picked out in shells on a concrete bollard.  It was beautiful in the morning sun.  The tide must have been in because the yachts in the harbour were in the water, not leaning sideways on the mud.

We walked round some boats on the shore and out to the east limb of the harbour.  We couldn’t get right to the end because there was a security fence in the way.  We wondered if waves splash over there at particularly high tides, and so many people seem incapable of using their common sense these days that they have to bar everyone from places all of the time in case they get sued — it’s a sad world we live in. 
We met a man who stopped to ask us how far we were going.  We told him about our Trek and about the difficulties we had experienced at Llanon on our approach to Aberaeron.  He told us that he was instrumental in getting local permissions to set up the Wales Coast Path.  The owner of the bit of clifftop where we’d had to go down on to the shingle beach was very uncooperative — “Over my dead body!”  kind of talk — so they’d had to put those steps down to the beach, they’d had no choice.

We had to negotiate a short bit of shingle beach in order to get on to the cliff path going south-west from Aberaeron, but it was a good path when we got to it.  A grassy path led gently upwards.  There were magnificent views, and New Quay looked tantalisingly near — though we knew it to be several miles distant yet.

There were wild flowers all around, and we specially admired the bluebells.  We ambled along at a slow pace and were passed by a number of couples going the same way as us — but we didn’t pass anybody.

We came to a pleasant wood — I love walking through woods!  We crossed a stream and sat on a bank out of the wind to eat pasties bought this morning — they were still warm from the oven.  As we continued we passed lots of wild orchids, several different types.  They made a splendid display.

We had to walk down a gully to cross a stream and up the other side, then we had to go inland a bit to get round a holiday village which we considered to be a bit of an eyesore on this beautiful coast.  We continued along a lane between high hedges where the coast path signs were sparse and vague.  But we used our initiative and didn’t get lost.

We passed a  road-closed  sign, but we didn’t want to go that way anyway because it led down the wrong side of a stream.  When we were high up on the other side we could see the reason for the closure — there had been a small cliff fall further down the road.  The path we were on had been “legally” diverted (so they told us) to avoid the holiday village — which was all shut up and looked like a ghost town.  How many days of the year do these places function?  They are a blight on the landscape as far as we are concerned, especially on a beautiful bit of the coast like this!  We went up a lane, which we much preferred, and soon rejoined the path which used to lead across muddy fields.  We only had to negotiate a muddy gateway.

We followed more good paths along the clifftop, we were really enjoying this.

It was up, then down to cross a stream, then up, and down again to cross a stream…….but there were fantastic views, interesting geology, lovely wild flowers and the sun shone brightly.

We came to a barrier where the path had been diverted a little up the hill.  When we came back on to the original path a bit further on, we went back on the real path to find out why we had been diverted.  The cliff had eroded, and it looked like it was about to break away any moment — so we didn’t linger!

We came to yet another deep gully where we crossed a bridge and looked at a waterfall into the sea.  It was a dramatic scene.

We sat on a rock to eat our apples (only Colin discovered he had forgotten his apple so he had crisps instead) and contemplated some pretty little pink flowers which we didn’t know the name of.  It was a very steep path out of there.
We met a couple going the opposite way to us — this was the first time this Walk we had met someone going the other way, everyone seemed to be going our way today.

It was a very pleasant path to walk, going through woods at times.

We passed a lot more orchids in the grass.  We climbed high, and the higher we got the greater the views.
We ended up in a yard which led into a lane.  Recent subsidence over the stream next to the lane had been repaired, and the lane was safely shored up.  There was a slipway under an old stone bridge, and we wondered if there had once been a mill on that spot.

We walked out to the end of a spur.  The beach there was shingle, and I inwardly groaned because of my painful knees which I had been trying to ignore all day.  We sat on a concrete jetty to eat our chocolate.  By the time we had finished, the tide had gone out just enough to reveal sand — impeccable timing, good job we are so slow! 

It was a lovely walk along the sand, and there were lots of other people doing the same in both directions.  A girl asked us how long was it to walk to the waterfall over the cliff, and how could she get there?  We gave her directions, but she seemed to think it was too far — these young people!  I love being by moving water, I took a video of the waves so’s I can remember what it is like when I’m at home.

Halfway along the beach we had to leave the sands (sob! sob!) and climb steps because there were rocks and cliffs further on.  The path took us up to a higher level and on into New Quay.  We passed the “Official Photo Spot”, so I dutifully took the obligatory photo — not the best photo I took today by any means, and I later deleted it along with all the other rubbishy shots I had taken.  We got into conversation with a young man about coastal walking, blogs, etc.  But we were very aware that the bus we wanted to catch back to Aberaeron was only an hour away.  (That’s the trouble with doing the public transport bit at the end of a Walk, you have to be constantly watching the time.) 

The path took us steeply uphill into New Quay on the top road, where we passed a plaque telling us we were on the Dylan Thomas Trail.  We went along to find out where the bus stop was, then we returned and went downhill towards the harbour.  We went through some gardens steeply downhill, and descended big steps (ouch!  m’knees!) on to the lovely sandy beach.

We saw children being taught sailing — Lucky them, I would love to have had the opportunity to learn sailing when I was young! — and young kayakers were out as well.  We ducked under the lifeboat slipway to get to the next bit of the beach,  We walked along the harbour wall and back.  Then we watched a caterpillar tractor tow the lifeboat on to the beach — they didn’t seem to be much in a hurry, so we assumed it was an exercise, not a callout. 

That ended Walk no.367, we shall pick up Walk no.368 next time on New Quay beach.  It was half past three, so the Walk had taken us six hours.  We walked up into town to the bus stop and caught a bus back to Aberaeron.  We bought ice creams and sat by the harbour eating them before returning to our caravan.