Easter in South Wales

The Easter holiday, being an altogether mobile entity, can find itself cropping up in all sorts of seasons, and sometimes even provides a bit of all of them, excepting autumn perhaps. This year, falling in mid-late March, was no exception and provided the usual spice of sunshine, hail, snow and high winds. The University provides around a week of closure time, giving a nice little break mid-way between Christmas and summer. Our intentions had been to head to Pembrokeshire, via a couple of days in South Wales. The camping gear, along with wetsuits and climbing equipment was all loaded into rucksacks and suitcases in anticipation of an early seaside expedition. Over the first couple of days of our Cardiff visit we made it out for a sunny but windy day in the Brecon Beacons and met up with my Pentyrch crowd of friends at the wonderful Kings Arms village pub. The Axe Family base is currently a building site and we had the opportunity to view the progress on the new build, clambering around the interior of the timber-frame on ladders. It had progressed a long way since climbing the scaffolding on the exterior at Christmas.

Llyn y Fan Fawr, nestled below the sandstone scarp slope of the Carmarthen Fan in the western Brecon Beacons National Park.

On Saturday we had been due to move out west, to St Davids for the camping trip. However the weather forecast on Friday evening was promising a series of weather warnings for the coming few days with a return to heavy wintery showers and storm force winds, particularly around coasts. After some careful deliberation we decided to settle for the warm and dry option of staying put for day trips out of Pentyrch. The Cardiff half marathon was taking place on the Saturday, and Lindsey and Liz were helping out in the competitor base near to City Hall and the University. What a wild day for the runners. Imogen, Steve and I had elected to spectate in Cardiff Bay, and given the weather we certainly weren't fighting the crowds for a good view of the race. We pushed out towards the barrage from the imposing Pier Head building, intercepting the women’s elite race at the new(ish) Dr Who exhibition and attraction. After a section where the half-marathon route traversed the Port of Cardiff land, separate to the walking and cycleway that links the Mermaid Quay waterfront to the main barrage, it opened out onto the most exposed section facing right onto the Bristol Channel. We found plenty of space to obtain a perfect view of Mo Farrah and others in the mens elite race as they sped past us. Soon after, the main pack of the race followed, and rather unfortunately for the runners, they were greeted by the most violent of squalls battering across with almost horizontal rain carried on a ferociously cold wind!

Looking along Traeth Bach and Traeth Mawr towards Monknash on the Glamorgan Heritage Coast.

Sunday brought drier weather, with more sunshine and we explored the Glamorgan Heritage coast at Dunraven Bay, also known as Southerndown. Heading east from the ruins of Dunraven Castle and the more intact walled gardens the limestone cliffs leading to Monknash and Nash Point are particularly spectacular. The flat farmland comes to an abrupt precipice, dropping up to 30 m or so to the sands below. The Carboniferous limestone displays fine layering, and in places there is fresh evidence of slips and rockfall. All the more reason to keep a good distance back from the edge, especially in the swift NW wind. There are several locations where it is possible to access the beach. We dropped onto the wave-cut platform that extends out from the Monknash valley and headed back West towards Dunraven Head across the large area of sand exposed on a falling tide. The dogs had a great time bounding around on the massive expanse of beach, even Diva enjoying some off-lead time! Both Diva and Jess are not keen swimmers, Toffee on the other hand can’t be kept out of the water on beach visits.

For our Easter Monday outing we headed coast-bound again. This time, further west to the Gower Peninsula. The Gower has some great beaches and coastline. Most well-known is probably Rhossili at the far West, with a large expanse of sand stretching several kilometres from Rhossili Head to Llangennith Burrows and Burry Holms island. On the inland side, the land rises rapidly with the heather-clad Rhossili down providing a wonderful backdrop. Beyond Rhossili Head is a tidal causeway leading to the undulating Worm’s Head. We parked up at the Llangenith end and started our walk by ascending up and along the downs. The stiff NW wind was prevalent once again, and in the clear air that such airflows often bring, the Carmarthen Fan in the Western Beacons could be seen with fresh snow on top. After Liz had taken Imogen for a quick browse of the National Trust shop at Rhossili, we dropped onto the beach to walk back towards the Llangenith end. The long beach walk and some good timing on the part of the succession of showers was helping to conjure up sufficient enthusiasm for the first swim in the sea of the year. Added to this was the opportunity to try out Lindsey and Steve’s boot tent; a tarp-like structure that attaches to the boot of their Vauxhall Vectra estate, providing the ideal changing tent for cold British days at the beach. It wasn’t long before Liz and I were clad in the wetsuits and making our way back down through the dunes for the fresh plunge. Llangenith is a popular place for surfing as there is normally some form of swell coming in on this due-West facing beachbreak. The water temperature was apparently a little over 8ºC, but we managed a reasonable session of body surfing and wave ducking before retreating once again to the relative warmth of the changing tent.

Rhossili Down and Bay, lovely sunshine but the clothing and white breakers on the sands below say something about the wind!

Heading into the cold March water at Llangenith

Next up was a trip to the imposing ruin of Carreg Cennen Castle in Carmarthenshire. This involves a fair-run out west to the end of the M4 from Cardiff, before turning north to Ammanford and the increasingly hilly and wooded country of the western Brecon Beacons National Park. The castle is worth a couple of hours of exploration, most notably for it’s subterranean dungeon, an interesting blend of man made passageway and natural cave. Visitors are free to clamber down and explore but a torch is essential for the deep section as there are no lights down there! The castle sits proud atop a limestone crag with good views of the surrounding approaches. After looking around the castle, we took the signposted woodland walk that descends to the valley and follows the Afon Cennen river that runs along beneath the steep limestone cliffs. As we crossed a field of sheep and new born lambs, a heavy shower starting as rain but rapidly turning to sleet piled in. In order to make a grand circuit for the days’ tour, we took the country route back across winding lanes via Talybont Reservoir and Sennybridge to the A470 near Brecon. We had some good views in sunshine between the heavy showers of fresh snow on the hills.

Carreg Cennen Castle

For our final day of the holiday, we went for a lovely walk in the countryside that surrounds Pentyrch. It’s always nice to have a walk around the woodland and hills that were my immediate backyard when growing up. It was even starting to feel much more like spring in absence of the cold winds of the previous days. The valley that leads from the village of Pentyrch down to the Taff contains a lovely deciduous woodland, Coed-Y-Bedw, which is managed by the Wildlife Trusts. To the north is the mountain known simply as Garth, this, of course assumes you are using the definition of a mountain to be the most prominent point on any ground above 1000 ft. Indeed, the debate as to whether Garth is actually a hill or a mountain is played out in the film ‘The Englishman who went up a hill and came down a mountain’ starring Hugh Grant. Either way, the view from the Garth is certainly of mountain standard. As the first prominent high point north of the Severn Estuary at Cardiff, the vista extends from Exmoor and Brean Down through the islands of Flat Holm and Steep Holm, all of the South Wales valleys of world fame for the carboniferous coalfield that sits beneath right up to the twin peaks, Pen-Y-Fan and Corn Du of the Brecon Beacons.

A lovely Easter holiday and great to see Lindsey, Steve and Liz before our big wedding expedition to Scotland in April. We were certainly pleased to arrive back in Lancaster with nice dry and clean camping gear. No need for days of tents draped out in the kitchen for several days this time.