2025 Gower Pilgrimage - Day 5

Thursday 11th September

Anyone for a swim?

Today was an excellent day with a slightly unexpected finish. 

We really got a TAB on for most of the day averaging about 2.5mph over good but varied terrain after Denise dropped us off at Cilonnen. 

She took the obligatory start photo while we larked about pretending it was so hot because it was actually dry!! Needless to say, pride definitely came before a fall. 

We hadn't gone more than a few minutes before the heavens opened and the rain came down in stair-rods. 

We tried to shelter against a high hedge (& took a video) but it really didn't offer much shelter against the lashing rain.

Weather was bonkers all day. Mostly sunshine but with some truly biblical heavy downpours.

By lunchtime we had broken the back of the day's walk having covered 7.19 miles at a really good pace. 

We stopped at the same place as yesterday for our lunch with a view. Penmaen (& the Three Cliffs Caravan/Camp site) has amazing views over Three Cliffs Bay. 

We shared our lunch-stop with a young lady on a bicycle who must have been touring & camping as she went. 

Her bike was laden with packs front and back and she seemed to struggle to wheel it back towards the roadway. 

She was pint-sized so we really wondered how on earth she would manage to pedal the thing. But pedal she did, passing smoothly and confidently along the roadway in front of us.

After Lunch we pressed onwards  with only 4 or 5 miles to go. Before going down the path that I had laboured up yesterday before lunch I stopped outside the campsite shop to re-fill my waterbottle and Ali headed into the shop to kindly buy us both a bar of chocolate!! Yummy! Thank you Ali xx. 

Of course, having gone down we had to come back up again. We took a short cut which involved scrambling up a very steep, narrow path with 3 separate sets of very, very steep steps! So steep we ended up crawling up on our hands & knees!!

Still, it got us onto the lane that we wanted, cut of half a mile or so of walking & swapped a short, very steep climb with a longer but still steep climb!

We were going really well despite the occasional heavy downpour. 

We made use of a bus shelter to get back into our waterproofs when the sky was threatening rain again. Just as well as we suffered another drenching . . . . & then the sun came out again and dried us up. 

I phoned Denise to tell her that we'd be arriving at the drop-off/pick-up point in about an hour as we only had a couple of miles or less to go. 

We were getting quite cocky. So cocky that it all went horribly wrong!! 

We got to within about a mile of the finish and the pathway just disappeared in a tangle of trees, bushes and brambles. 

There was a lovely gate with a clearly marked footpath sign but just a jungle behind it. 

After much heaving and  pulling we managed to free the gate from it's bramble clutches and fought our way through the said jungle. we managed to find a route, of sorts, through a copse of bushes and came out the other side to be faced with chest-high grasses, reeds, irises and other marshy vegetation interspersed with copses of scrubby trees. Of the pathway there was no sign. We tried to follow the route as shown on my OS App but it was impossible. 

Eventually we found ourselves in another marshy copse and came to a full stop with a bit of a river blocking our path. Neither of us wanted to turn back and fight through the jungle again so there was nothing for it but we  had to wade more than ankle deep down the rushing stream & then clamber up a muddy 30 foot cliff to get out and find the path again. Not ideal but we regained the path. 

We make a good team as neither of us was prepared to give up on it. Go us!! 

The weird thing was that on this side there were brand new kissing gate at every field boundary: the paths were still rubbish but the gates were very pretty!!

We got back to the road and our pickup point about an hour later than we'd hoped. 

Denise had been tracking us via our shared Google Maps so wasn't too worried. 

She drove us home  for a hot shower and change of clothes. 

I do hope that our boots dry out ready for tomorrow's adventure around Whiteford Sands! 

If not the forecast says its going to be sunny!! So shorts and trainers might be on the cards!!

Ha! Ha!