Whiteford Sands to Gowerton on Wales Coast Path: Day 10

A day walking around the extensive salt marshes which are, in their own way, as impressive as the long sandy beaches of yesterday.

I woke at 5:30 am, and looked up at the stars from the warmth of my sleeping bag. Although outshone by the bright moon I picked out the "Plough", one of the few constellations I can recognise. Last night it was to the east, this morning it had pivoted to the west. After a couple of energy bars (or maybe they were protein bars) which were hard going on my teeth, I packed up my damp and sandy gear as the sky was beginning to lighten, and found a way out of the dunes down a steep bank, onto the beach and started my day's walk.

First, I had to round the point of the sandy peninsula I was on. The tide was high as I stumbled over pebbles in the half light. Off the point I could see the old, abandoned lighthouse made of cast iron, and in the distance, across the water, the lights of Burry Port. Pembrey Sands, where the Wales Coast Path visits later on, were also visible to the west. Turning to a southward heading on the other side of Whiteford point, I followed the horse trodden path with pine trees on my right. I was expecting to see some sign of the salt marshes that form the north coast of the Gower peninsula, but they were underwater in what must be a particularly high tide. I wondered what had happened to the sheep and horses that normally graze on the short grass of the marsh. The meat of the lambs is said to be very good as a result of their salty diet. This section of low lying track is always wet and muddy, and people and horses had made multiple paths among reeds and small trees to avoid pools of mud and water, only serving to spread their extent. I was glad to reach a section of track, improved by aggregate, where I admired the rising red sun, casting reflections across the water.

Rising sun over salt marsh flooded by the high tide.

Once there was a route across a seawall, but the ancient wall was breached by storms in 2014 and the path has been diverted. Maybe the incursion of seawater accounts for the lines of dead trees standing in the water, although the National Trust has found the accidental development of this new area of salt mash behind the sea wall as a source of a great biodiversity as salt marsh plants have colonised the area, together with birds, dragonflies, otters, crabs and fish. I followed the diversion of the Wales Coast Path up via the café at Cwm Ivy (closed when I passed). A subsequent part of the trail was submerged beneath the tide, forcing me up the signposted alternative, a roundabout route which added a considerable distance. This alternative was itself flooded by the tide in places and I was glad of waterproof boots as I paddled through. Water flowing across the path heading for the sea, indicated the tide ebbing, and I had no further problems today.

The flooded path is actually to the left of the wall, I climbed onto the top!

Horses waiting for the tide to retreat.

Mud sucked at my boots as I walked along the following section of path, at the base of a bluff (the old sea cliffs), through fields of pasture and woods, but the views over the flat expanse of salt marsh was a compensation. At one spot a herd of horses were standing on a grassy patch surrounded by water, no doubt patiently waiting for the tide to recede. With their long, shaggy manes, which swept the ground as they grazed, they had an attractive, if rather rough and dirty, appearance. Maybe they are owned by someone, but they look wild (but not unfriendly) with thick coats for surviving winter outdoors.

After the village of Llanrhidian, the coast path followed a quiet, single track road along the edge of the marshland, which seems a mixture of grass, cropped short by the animals, and clumps of coarser yellowing reeds. Beyond the marsh and the broad estuary of the River Loughor, white buildings at the edge of Llanelli were visible in the distance. At one point there was a "traffic jam", as a flock of sheep seemed to be trying to enter a farm, opposed by a closed gate, while a herd of horses tried to walk along the road through them, and a van (with a dog in the passenger seat) was attempting to approach from the opposite direction.

Crofty was a village at the end of this road section. I took a detour to visit its shop for a Coke and chocolate covered ice cream. As I bit into it, most of the chocolate coating fell off onto the road. A passing man said "What a bugger when that happens". I could only agree. Following the coast path as it skirted around Crofty, I praised a conscientious women clearing up litter that had collected at the edge of the marsh. Then the route was beside the road through the town of Pen-Clawdd, before following a cycle path between the road and marsh. The path was built on the bed of an old railway line that once served coal mines in the area, which surprised me as it is not now an area that I would associate with mines and industry. It was however easy walking before I returned to muddy fields and a quagmire of a track through woodland, where dense brambles prevented any deviation, to reach the town of Gowerton. I reached the station just as a train arrived, as I still had to cross the bridge to the far platform, I thought I would miss it. However, it kindly unlocked the doors so that I could board, and I was soon on my way back home.

Horses on the marsh.