Walk 6 Mumbles to Llangennith 11th-12th August, 2013

We had been eagerly awaiting the Gower walk and now we were here! Having left the phone at home, the photos for this walk are from disposable cameras...better than nothing we decided! See what you think...

It was a bit of a cloudy start but not for very long, the sun soon burned through...we headed over from Mumbles pier, past the lighthouse which you can only peer at really round the corner sort of thing. This was a typical coastal path with all the ups and downs and in and out of coves and beaches! It was quite busy at first passing the lighthouse, Langland Bay, Rotherslade and Caswell beaches on a very well made and wide path.

We met a few lovely people to chat to on our travels but were finding that tourists aren't really interested in donating to however worthy causes....

It was relatively easy going but then we had some field crossing and then dropped down to Pwlldu Beach which was beautiful with its stone boulders at the back of a pretty beach with the tide out a little..

but then it was very steep going up out of the cove and around Pwlldu Head..and we hadn't done much climbing so far. Lunch was most welcome as we sat on the top and looked at the lovely view and the vast distances we'd covered! We could still see Port Talbot and its smoke as we rounded the Head past Oxwich beach a little further on! We dropped down on to the beach shortly after lunch on the tops!

Three Cliffs beach adjoins Oxwich making a truly enormous one with the tide out and this meant we could beach walk this next part - wonderful!, and it meant we missed the heavy going of up and down through the dunes. The 3 cliffs can just be seen to the right of the picture - they are amazing and you can walk under them through an arch to an even bigger beach behind where Pennard castle stands. About 4 miles of beach walking was refreshing with boots off and a lemonade at the Oxwich Bay cafe was most well received. Then up we went once more passing the 6th century St Illtyd's chapel in the woods. We had thought of walking along the beach further but rocks soon took over from the hard sand so it would have been hard going on the ankles so the climbing was preferred overall...Lovely walk through cool trees and onto a grassy path beneath high cliffs - different scenery once more!

The last mile of 16.14 total was long and so the B and B a welcome sight - and very comfortable too - The Rickyard in Port Eynon.

Day 2 saw us leaving Port Eynon around 10am in the sunshine once more. Eynon is named after an ancient Welsh prince and Port Eynon is the most southerly point on the Gower. Port Eynon has a pretty beach which we crossed with the tide out and walked up to the Point from the Youth Hostel - what a lovely place for one. Superb views from the top of where we'd been and where we had to go...and so we dropped down to Overton beach..

and around the other side..

Lovely walking along the clifftops with fabulous views. Passing Longhole Cliff where Cave Bear, Mammoth and other bones have been found but which is not for public entry so we had to go inland a little. Amazingly slim cliffs when we got back to the coast - and some grey coated sheep - and soon first views of Worms Head, named after the ancient Celtic mythical dragons. Lovely coves all along until we came to Mewslade Bay 

where we saw Ruth Wignall off the telly news - missed opportunity for sponsorship publicity.....views to the coves we'd passed were really lovely. Worms Hear soon in full view - and very busy it was too! With the tide out lots of people were walking across.

We enjoyed lemonade once more in Rhossili before dropping down onto the beautiful beach....voted the 3rd most beautiful in Europe recently (the top one being Rabbit beach in Sicilly - don't know Italian for Rabbit, sorry). Another super beach walk - the path normally goes above the beach but with the tide out it was too tempting. There were many steps to drop down to it! Lots of razor clams here and it was a bit windier. Saw a chap earlier in the day who was on his 35th day walking the path the other way round so had 700 miles under his belt. Didn't envy him though, he wasn't sure what day it was and can't have had time to stop and stare much. We left the beach about halfway along and headed for the Hillend campsite and up to the village of Llangennith to await our taxi at the Kings Head where we'd eaten the night before....