Burry Port to Loughor: finishing Carmarthenshire and starting the Gower

The recent end of lockdown allowed visitors and holiday makers to stay in self-contained accommodation in Wales from Monday the 12th if April. By Thursday, Helen was at her caravan in Mwnt, and by Saturday we were walking some more of the Wales Coastal Path. Time to crack on with it and do what we can when we can!

I am back at work and weekends will soon be filled with marking as the assessments in the classroom replace GCSE and A Level exams. So we had to take our chance when we could.

To be frank, I couldn't bloody wait! To get in the car and drive away somewhere. To get out into the fresh air, to get walking again. Excited wasn't the word! We had sorted out meeting points and times, we had washed our walking kit, and we were ready! The sun came up and I was watching, listening to the dawn chorus.

I had driven down to my caravan and had limbered up by walking part of the Cardigan coastal path. There was a lot more 'Uppy downy' than I remembered and after 8 miles I was knackered. I was profoundly grateful that the walk we had planned to walk together was 11 flat miles. I had spent the night cocooned in a duvet and some welsh wool blankets as it was very cold but the morning dawned fine and sunny and I was keen to get going. The drive across country involved me driving into valleys that were full of dragon's breath mist and it was very atmospheric.

We had arranged to meet at Loughor and I got there first, parking at the foreshore by the Boat Club. The morning was chilly but sunny and the tide was in, so some jet-skiers were zipping about.

Looking up river the view was unexpectedly lovely - I had never really visited this area before and am very taken with it, I must say. On Helen's arrival we headed towards Burry Port in her car and found a great spot to join the path just before you reach the marina. We were beside ourselves with excitement. We had a little faff about which car park to use and were so over excited we almost parked in one 2 miles into the walk which would have been cheating! Burry Port is a relatively new development, staring in the mid 19th centaury as a port for the local metal and coal industries. The most noteworthy historical fact is that Amelia Earhart landed here in 1928 at the end of her transatlantic air crossing when she became the first solo woman to across the Atlantic https://www.ameliaearhart.com/

As our friend Ian Thomson says, the mirror image sign makes the Welsh easier to read!

Me with my Axl Rose head band...

We saw this standing stone a little way off the path and had an explore. I have no idea if it is a prehistoric standing stone or a modern copy and the internet is not forthcoming with any information. Either way, the stone is the same age and it made a good marker for the start of the day's walk.

The Millennium Path runs for 13 miles from Pembrey to Bynea and continues on as far as Penclawdd on the other side of the Loughor estuary. It is completely flat, a cycle path and walkway that we were thoroughly impressed with. It was fantastic to see the use it was getting. Dog-walkers, families, cyclists, runners, plodders like us all out enjoying the surroundings and the weather. One runner, a very tall, well-built young man with a beard and headphones who looked like he could be a blind-side flanker, if not a tighthead prop, bounded towards us with vigour and boomed, "Well it doesn't get better than this, ladies!"

"You are absolutely right!" I found myself tittering in a totally uncharacteristically girly way. (Honestly, I can't take her anywhere!)

This little cove is very pretty and you can't see it because my photography is terrible but there were a group of women bobbing about and chatting in the freezing April water, their voices carrying to the path. (She wanted to get in and have a swim. I offered to look away while she went skinny dipping but she declined.)

The path is excellent and even we couldn't get lost. This was a lovely view, looking back towards Burry Port and the small bay. We walked the headland in the far distance when we had walked the rest of the Carmarthen section three years previously.

The day was perfect for walking, warm but not too hot, a gentle breeze but not too windy and the sun was shining. It was a Goldilocks' kind of a day. Just to add to out happiness the café was open for take-aways at the Discovery Centre and we sat, enjoying a coffee, eating Brace's raspberry jam welsh cakes. Not as good as mine, but very tasty and since Covid we have all become much more appreciative of small indulgences.

The rugby post and sculpture is a reminder that the path is passing the southern edge of Llanelli, home of the famous Scarlets rugby football club. https://www.scarlets.wales/ Along the right hand side of the path were pools of water, havens to sea birds. It was shaping up to be an excellent day. We passed the breakwater and walked along the waterfront, excited to spot the accommodation we have booked for the week of summer walking. There were lots of people out enjoying the sunshine, while keeping 2m apart. It was wonderful to see a section of the path that has been so well designed for public access and everyone was having a fine time. We enjoyed petting over excited dogs who were taking their owners for a walk and we all agreed that, yes, it was a lovely day and yes, we were all happy that the Covid restrictions were being gradually lifted.

Even the benches were designed to add to the pleasure of the views, a shame someone has spray painted it. In spite of the light vandalism we took a moment to congratulate ourselves on having walked 'All that way'.

We stopped for lunch (this is the view from our lunch stop) and then walked on to Machynys which might take its name from the Welsh for Monk and Island. Landlocked now, older maps show that this area was once an island.

'Go on, read about the next bit of the path', said Rhian in between mouthfuls of sandwich.

I skim read and said, 'There areas was once an island but became silted up and local legend has it that a monastery was founded my Sr Piro during the 'Age of the Saints''

'Oh aye, The Age of the Saints. How was he related to St David then? They are all related to St David.'

'First cousin but they fell one one Christmas and never spoke again.'

Rhian laughed. 'What is he the patron saint of?'

'Half of Machynys. He had it on a job share with a monk from further down the coast. The rest of the time he was patron saint of corkscrews and bottle tops.'

'Busy man'

Machynys was once a highly industrialised area, with a tin works and a sulphuric acid factory on the site and a village called Bwlch y Gwynt grew up to house the workers. When the factories shut in the 1960s the whole area was abandoned. Eventually the buildings were demolished and the land was reclaimed. This must have taken a vast amount of time and effort since it is hard to imagine more polluting industries in the Victorian era. The reclamation work is outstanding and the land is now a golf course. Inland you can just make out a steel works which is the last remaining metalworks in the area. The houses in the photo are also part of the redevelopment and with a passing resemblance to the foreshore of one of the Hamptons, I quite fancied buying one.

Following on from the golf course is the National wetland centre which is an important site for bird breeding. It has numerous habitats and is home to egrets. Also flamingos. Amazing birds. I once took a group of year 7 pupils to the Centre and watching their startled faces as we walked onto the viewing platform, in silence, and were suddenly assaulted by the sound of a 100, huge, pink birds cackling like geese with a very powerful sound system. One little boy (the most annoying, by far) shot back out of the door as if his backside was on fire. Oh how we laughed.

Here is another rare bird, taking a swift breather before we plodded on. Please note her coordinated fleece and back pack. I was very impressed. My search for the perfect rucksack continues. I now have 5 and I'm still not happy. (I have 3 larger ones and this, smaller one. It's very hard to find exactly the right one).

As we left the wetland centre the path turned into a tree lined area and we passed a family, Mum and dad and two small children. They were all happy and smiling happy and the parents had that look of 'God I love my kids so much but I want them to leave me alone because I really need to sit down with a cup of tea for five minutes in peace and quiet.' The children were running literal rings around the parents. We were walking away from them when we heard one of the children shouted, 'You have got a baby in your tummy, Mummy.' We looked at each other and smiled, how sweet. At that point the mother said, wearily, 'No darling, no baby'. And the child asked 'So why is your tummy so big?' There was a brief pause and then the Dad snorted with laughter. Big mistake, he's going to be in the spare room tonight, I thought. Once we were out of ear shot we laughed a lot.

We walked along and eventually got to a boardwalk section. It raised us above areas that were prone to flooding, this path was so well designed.

'Look Rhian! Over there!'

'What?'

'Look. Over there, it's a gathering of caravans. Part of their mating ritual.'

She looked at me as if I was insane.

'They give birth to shopping trollies. They then hatch into motor homes and over the winter they metamorphose into the adult caravan. They spread out across the country but cluster together in the summer to fine a mate. They are early this year, it must be down to global warming'.

I was treated to a hefty dose of side eye. She is very patient.

The bridge pictured led over the busy road into the village of Bynea then across the bridge to Loughor. I was quite tired at this point, having only managed a maximum of 5 miles in a day so far this year. Also, my left trainer sock was working its way under my foot in a most annoying manner, so it was lovely to reach the end and discover that the Boat Club was serving ice cream.

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The rest of the walk was through some nondescript streets and past a pub that was closed due to Covid restrictions. Eventually we got to the bridge that took us over the Loughor Estuary and into the Village of Loughor itself. When we had left that morning the tide was in and the river was being enjoyed by jet skier, now the tide was out and we could look up the river to the mountains beyond, with the blue sky reflected in the tranquil water. Looking out across the other side of the beginning of the Gower Peninsula that we would be walking in a few months. It was tantalising and I really wished that we could start the next section as soon as possible but sadly Rhian had to head home and I had to drive back to the caravan.

All in all, this was a genuinely delightful start to our walking adventures in 2021. In case you were wondering, Helen's ice cream was Turkish Delight flavour and mine was Biscoff. Both are highly recommended. Bloody lush, in fact.