Worm's Head: Conquered by Some, Admired by All

We spent the rest of the week hiking around Gower.  It was fantastic. It's a really special place, and it's a compelling argument for exploring the countryside on foot.  While not as mighty and expansive as the neighboring Pembroke peninsula, it was effortless hiking. 

And by effortless, I mean it was easy to find a trail and make a nice loop.  Some of the hills were kind of tough!  By no mean mountains, but just a good stretch of the legs, and plenty of wind to whip your hair around and redden your face on top.  

Rhossilli Downs

We had invited a couple of friends along for a New Year celebration, which involved cooking a nice dinner, drinking a few bottles of fizzy, then heading over to the local pub.  It was quite surreal as we were the only foreigners there and drew a mix of curiosity and bewilderment from the locals.  Ah, and there was a band playing all of 6 songs, and the only people on the dance floor were the women, and the men just sat at the tables drinking beer and watching.  It was like high school (except I never went to a dance in high school) and the city-folk were definitely the more exuberant dancers.

The next day, a head-clearing walk from Three Cliffs and Oxwich bays back to Port Eynon in a gale.  

We got covered with mud and blowing sand and soaked to the skin, but warmed up nicely next to the fire at the end of the day.  It's safe to say that we all slept like rocks that night.

Having the cottage was really a fantastic idea.  Not only did we eat much, much healthier than we would if we had to rely on whatever random pub we end up next to, it was fantastic to have the option to laze around when the rain and wind got too much (not that we took a day off at any point...but the option was there).  Cooking dinner and drinking wine every night, playing board games and singing along to Kenny Rodgers- this made for a much more memorable experience, and no one at the YHA down the road were tormented by a bunch of nutters.

Oxwich castle

 A loop up Llanmadoc Hill made for a fantastic walk.  It was steep, there were ponies and not too much else on the top, and coming back down we a fantastic beach walk.

This beachy area along Loughor Estuary was stunning- there were thousands of wintering sea birds, no people at all for miles, huge mounds of dunes to escape the wind in, middens of picked-over mussels and oysters thanks to the birds, and a ghostly iron lighthouse far into the bay.

Our last bit of walking was a big one, and probably the most stunning day of walking yet.

We got up early to hit the tides right, and wandered out across the causeway to the storied Worm's Head, which had taunted us with late-night low tides all week.

This is probably the only hike I've ever done that had a coast guard station with spotters watching your progress, lest the tide swallow your escape route.

We picked our way across, and started up the steep and muddy slopes.

We got to this point, and I stopped.  This was not my kind of hiking.

So I sat down on a sunny rock and watched the painfully slow progress of crossing an impossibly craggy puzzle.  My ankles would have snapped instantly.

Thank goodness I did decide to stay behind- they told me it only got worse.

And the final scramble to the top as indeed a trail-less scramble.

Well, that was fun.  Self-preservation makes for uninteresting photos.  I did have good company with some Herdwick sheep though.  I've never seen these outside of the Lake District.  The fact that they can survive on the fell-tops means they don't mind a seaside holiday on such an unforgiving little island.

On the way back across, we literally stumbled upon a gray seal pup.

Suspicious of us, but unwilling to give up his sunny rock.

Once back on terra firma, we headed up to the highest point in Gower, Rhossilli Downs.

We watched a group of hangliders make their way up with equipment, waiting for the wind to calm enough for a fly.

The views were stunning from the top.

There was a bronze-age carin near the top- a huge circular rock pile- and lots of burial chambers.  Ancient man knew how to pick the best spots to spend eternity.  

The way down the equally steep far side of the hill, which was a bog, we all had fun slip-and-falls, leaving our bums wet and interesting mud splatters on our backs.

Then a long walk back on the beach- perfectly flat, seemingly endless.

Rhossoilli beach had a rather famous and picturesque site: the bones of a ship, wrecked more than a hundred years ago.

There was also the ghost of the original Rhossilli village along the shore- built too close to the beach, the villagers eventually forced to move to higher ground.

A beach holiday in which not a single bikini was donned.

We lucked out with the weather- having one stormy day to contend with in a week of winter hiking.  In love, I am.  The people were friendly to a fault, the trails were fantastic.  I was in my element.

Dreams of the Pembroke coast now dance in my head.  September coastal hiking, anyone?

Gower

There's been so much going on in life lately, we scrambled to find something to do with that elusive free week between Xmas and New Year.  With so much free time from work, we really have to go somewhere.  A plane  was out of the question: the stress involved with flying somewhere around the holidays makes me actually remember the occasion last year when I said "never again", and I meant it. 

Where to?

Someplace with palm trees.  

Like Wales.  

(our back garden really did have palm trees)

I phoned up some outdoorsy friends and booked a cottage for the week in Gower, a storied peninsular near Swansea.  It's about an hour to drive to the Breacon Beacons from here, and loads of gorgeous beaches and countryside trails to explore just outside our tiny rented cottage in Port Eynon.

After a somewhat stressful stormy drive to get there, we awoke to pleasant skies and temperate climes.  Though the sun not coming up until nearly 9 was a bit harsh, we were on the trail to greet it every morning as it lazily peered over the water.  

Gower is stunning- go if you get a chance.  Ruined castles dot the landscape, and a beautiful ancient former saltworks sat seaside, right next to the rather well-located youth hostel with beach access.  I'm telling you, the YHA here is really worth looking into.

On this first day, we aimed to hike from our front door, all the way to Worm's Head along the coastal path, and then back to the cottage following tracks through farm fields.  It would be about 14 miles of walking.

The day- perfectly sunny, but exhaustively windy.  We saw no one on the trail at all until we got close to Worm's Head, and then it was mayhem.

The coast here was extraordinarily beautiful, in a way that I didn't think Wales might be.

Even in late December, it was brilliantly green.

There were beautiful sandy coves that you would have to hike quite a ways from the nearest car park to get to (and possibly not in a bikini as there were thorny brush everywhere) and lots of dramatic vistas to be taken in from the clifftops.

Finally- the most beautiful beach in Wales, Rhossilli.  With Rhossili downs rising up dramatically over a huge sandy beach, a lone farmhouse, and the coast of Pembroke on the horizon, this became my favorite place in Wales so far.

Worm's head juts out far into the sea here.  This is a tidal island that you can walk out to a few hours around low tide, but I was knackered and ready to get out of the wind at this point.

Dylan Thomas famously took a nap after hiking out here and ended up having another few hours to kill as the tide came in while he was out there.  There is a a coast guard station overlooking it to make sure no one gets stuck and everyone scuttles back over the causeway before the sea swallows it.  

The wind was really getting to me- gusting strongly enough to knock you off balance, and cliff-top wise that was less than ideal.  The car park in Rhossili was streaming with visitors trying for a walk out to the point and blowing back to the car in haste.

We walked back to the cottage inland going along swampy farm roads and across sheep and cow pastures.  I did spy some some intrepid surfers, shuffling through the mud on their way to the beach.

In the end, we came home in the dark.  Somewhat windblown and exhausted, but proud of my first foray into the slightly uncomfortable world of winter hiking.