Monday 19 Sept
Distance: 17.2 miles
Weather: a few periods of light drizzle but otherwise overcast and dry
Getting away from civilisation this morning seemed to take a long time, with a lot of tarmac, although immediately beyond Cardigan there had been some farmland walking, where I wiggled my way around a series of field boundaries. One of those fields presented me with quite an obstruction.
I didn't initially think anything of seeing a cow with its head poking over the pedestrian gate and I soon convinced it to back away so I could get through. At that point I realised that the cow had got itself trapped between two pedestrian gates in a place measuring about one cow wide by four cows long. I clearly couldn't get past it to open the far gate and the map didn't reveal an obvious route around.
A cow where a cow should not be
A bit of clambering, involving stinging nettles, brambles and a bit of snagging of my shorts on barbed wire got me into the field, whereupon it seemed the right and proper thing to do to try to release the cow. I did succeed, but trying to hold open an inwardly-opening self-closing gate and to keep out of the path of the escaping beast was no mean feat.
Still, it gave an interest to my first couple of hours, which were otherwise quite dull. There certainly would have been merit (per my original plan) of getting as far as Poppit Sands last night, so as to set out on 'proper' coast this morning.
Finally, five and a half miles through my morning, I reached Cemaes Head and from there I was fully surrounded by glorious rugged coastalness.
In the full-sized photo you can make out all the wavy layers in the rock
Three miles or so later, having passed no-one but two dog walkers near the road at Ceibwr Bay, I reached a gate bearing warnings about the strenuous nature of the next seven miles, about the lack of escape routes on that section and about the lack of facilities. The sign was pretty accurate (exaggerating a little on the quantity of violent ups and downs) which is perhaps why that section didn't seem to be as well walked as what came before it.
Here be dragons. Or something...
I was just approaching the end of the section when a chap dressed in jeans, and carrying nothing with him, approached. I greeted him warmly, as it was Mick, and he turned back to escort me across the golf course (I'm not very good with golf courses) and back to Colin.
A tidal pool, inland of the coast path
It being only just gone 2pm when I finished my day's walk, there was plenty of time left in the day to sit around for a good while before going a little inland to do some hill reps. I'll cover that little outing (and re-outing) in a separate post.
Distance: 17.2 miles
Weather: a few periods of light drizzle but otherwise overcast and dry
Getting away from civilisation this morning seemed to take a long time, with a lot of tarmac, although immediately beyond Cardigan there had been some farmland walking, where I wiggled my way around a series of field boundaries. One of those fields presented me with quite an obstruction.
I didn't initially think anything of seeing a cow with its head poking over the pedestrian gate and I soon convinced it to back away so I could get through. At that point I realised that the cow had got itself trapped between two pedestrian gates in a place measuring about one cow wide by four cows long. I clearly couldn't get past it to open the far gate and the map didn't reveal an obvious route around.
A cow where a cow should not be
A bit of clambering, involving stinging nettles, brambles and a bit of snagging of my shorts on barbed wire got me into the field, whereupon it seemed the right and proper thing to do to try to release the cow. I did succeed, but trying to hold open an inwardly-opening self-closing gate and to keep out of the path of the escaping beast was no mean feat.
Still, it gave an interest to my first couple of hours, which were otherwise quite dull. There certainly would have been merit (per my original plan) of getting as far as Poppit Sands last night, so as to set out on 'proper' coast this morning.
Finally, five and a half miles through my morning, I reached Cemaes Head and from there I was fully surrounded by glorious rugged coastalness.
In the full-sized photo you can make out all the wavy layers in the rock
Three miles or so later, having passed no-one but two dog walkers near the road at Ceibwr Bay, I reached a gate bearing warnings about the strenuous nature of the next seven miles, about the lack of escape routes on that section and about the lack of facilities. The sign was pretty accurate (exaggerating a little on the quantity of violent ups and downs) which is perhaps why that section didn't seem to be as well walked as what came before it.
Here be dragons. Or something...
I was just approaching the end of the section when a chap dressed in jeans, and carrying nothing with him, approached. I greeted him warmly, as it was Mick, and he turned back to escort me across the golf course (I'm not very good with golf courses) and back to Colin.
A tidal pool, inland of the coast path
It being only just gone 2pm when I finished my day's walk, there was plenty of time left in the day to sit around for a good while before going a little inland to do some hill reps. I'll cover that little outing (and re-outing) in a separate post.
That cow. A blogger's gift, and congrats for remembering to take the photo.
ReplyDeleteThe taking of the photo filled a bit of thinking time whilst I tried to work out what I was going to do to get around the beast!
ReplyDelete