The Welsh Walker

My final walk of the Gower Walking Festival took me to one of my favourite places in Gower; Rhossili, and it's distinctive landmark The Worm. This post is going to be especially image heavy under the cut - it's impossible to stop taking photos of this place.  The topic of today's walk was a talk by local historian Gary Gregor, along with Gower Unearthed, on Edgar Evans, a Rhossili native who was one of the members of the final ill-fated Scott expedition to the Antarctic. 

This is the walk I was looking forward to the most, the chance to find out more about some of the castles in Gower. I love castles, and here in Wales we have more per square mile than any other country in the world. The Gower is absolutely teeming with them, some visible, some hidden beneath shifting sands and tangled woods. Today's walk was headed by archeologist Charles Hill along with the Gower Society, focusing on the buried castle of Penmaen, and the ruins of Pennard.

After my last weeks disappointment I decided to try a new group for today's walk. I'm getting surprisingly used to walking up to a group of strangers and introducing myself, a year ago when I started joining groups the idea used to make me shaky. Of course I still have my fingers crossed that they'll be friendly and there won't be any weirdos, but I've definitely gained in confidence. This group is focused on walking, which means no ambling. Today's adventure was an expedition along North Gower - I'm definitely more familiar with the south, so this was a new area for me. My sat nav app behaved and took me to Cwm Ivy car park (only £1 for a days parking), and I met up with the group there.

Today I went a little further afield than normal and met my mother for a walk around Pembrey Country Park. This is a great place to visit because it has a bit of everything; forest, lakes, rivers, beach. There are various trade shows going on most weekends, and there is also the opportunity for horse riding, skiing, or even having a go on a toboggan. 

The Gower Peninsula is renowned for it's beauty, everywhere you turn there is something new and amazing to see. Today I joined another group for a fairly short social walk along the coastal path from Langland Bay to Caswell. The weather was perfect, and the views, as expected, were stunning. 

I decided to go for an after-work run along the promenade. Not very successful to be honest, it's a mystery how some days I feel I can run for hours and other days I can barely manage a shambling shuffle. Today was definitely more of a (gasping, wheezing, stumbling) shuffle.  Despite my fail, it was a lovely evening on the seafront and definitely worthy of a few quick snaps. 

I've always wanted to go up Kilvey Hill, I drive past it regularly but going through the trees on my own seemed a bit iffy. Happily, I was mooching about on one of the websites for local walking groups and discovered one of them was doing an evening walk to the top so I went along. 

The original plan for this evening was to head to the cinema to see Spiderman Homecoming, but the weather was too glorious to be wasted in a darkened room, so instead my friend and I decided on an evening stroll around Mumbles. 

For a long time I couldn't see the point of walking unless it was to get somewhere. Walk to work? Sure. Walk to the shops? Fine. Spending the weekend walking around the countryside? Uh... no. But recently that's changed, what began as a couple of social walks has evolved into wanderlust and the desire to be outside exploring all the time . Living in South Wales I am fortunate enough to have spectacular scenery right on my doorstep; from the magnificent mountain ranges of the Brecon Beacons to the stunning seascapes of the Gower. This blog is a record of my adventures, the walks I've been on that I've loved (along with a few I haven't), and my experiences along the way.