Marg Davies Charity Walks: 2025 Gower Pilgrimage

Saturday 13th September - Penultimate Day

Slight change of plan

Today was a tough but enjoyable day on the Wales Coast Path again.

We walked about 12.5 miles of up and down, lengthy detours, rock strewn narrow paths and lots of sand. Not just walking along sand but climbing up it too!

The original plan was to start at Langland Bay and walk westwards to finish at Oxwich Bay. It occurred to be in the night that the wind was blowing from to west so we'd be battling against it all day. I knew it was going to be a long, difficult walk so we changed the plan and started at Oxwich to walk eastwards to Langland Bay with the wind generally at our back and blowing us along.

The weather hasn't been too bad today, a bit blowy, well,VERY blowy at Caswell Bay when it suddenly kicked up a fairly hefty short storm. We also had the odd shower but generally it was sunny and quite pleasant.

We managed a fairly good pace, considering the terrain, until we got to Three Cliffs Bay. There were burrows and of course we were going up and down like the proverbial "Fiddler's Elbow." When we got to Three Cliffs Bay and Pennard Pill (a stream sometimes) we were hoping to cross via the muddy causeway but of course, with approaching it from Oxwich, we arrived earlier than I'd anticipated. The tide was still receding and of course, with all the rain over the past week, the Pill was in full flow. Nothing for it but to walk a mile upstream, cross via a sturdy bridge, then walk a mile back downstream to regain the Coastal Path. After our experience of Thursday we had no intention of wading across!

We then had to clamber up onto Pennard Burrows which entailed climbing up the almost vertical (only a little bit of an exaggeration) Sand dune/cliff. As I stepped up the sand kept giving way beneath my foot and I was back where I started. Ali kindly took over the lead and I literally followed in her footsteps as we made our way slowly up onto the headland. It was now approaching lunchtime and my "tank" was distinctly on empty. We forged ahead a bit more until we reached the car park at Southgate where we found a handy glass bus shelter complete with bench. We were able to sit and have our lunch in the sunshine, while it lasted; sheltered from the rain, which inevitably arrived; but best of all next to a busy little cafe/shop where Ali kindly bought me another bar of chocolate!

After lunch we headed off along the road as the coastal footpath beside it was a bit muddy. We managed to up our pace a bit until the road became a muddy track which then became a rock-strewn, twisting, steeply descending path down to Pwlldu Bay. Having gone down we then had to clamber up an equally steep but wider rocky path where, to our surprise, we encountered a vehicle descending! It must have done wonders for his suspension and sump!!

Once we'd reached the top we had a fairly easy, flat, grassy stretch which made for great relief. Until, of course we had to descend again this time down some interminable steps. At the bottom was a kissing gate which, by this time, I just couldn't find the energy to open so I stopped dead, which kind of took Ali by surprise. I then broke into hysterical giggles which never helps boost my energy. It took a while for me to regain some composure whilst Ali looked on in some puzzlement. I put it down to not being fed enough Haribo's!!