I love finishing work at 1pm on a Friday, especially when the sun is out, and Yasmin and I have a walk planned. When the first of this year’s good weather arrived last week, we headed to the Vale of Glamorgan.
From Rhoose train station we walked downhill to the coast, and spent some time on the beach looking for fossils. When we didn’t find any we started walking east, past the old cement works and the new housing estate. The route took us gradually uphill and rewarded us with great views over the sea. We passed a sign that informed us that we were at Rhoose Point, the “southernmost point of mainland Wales”. Which it turns out might not be true.
We enjoyed spotting goldfinches in the tops of trees as we walked through Porthkerry caravan park, which took a surprising amount of time to get through. Exiting through a field we noticed a large metal structure in the opposite corner, and eventually worked out that it was used to guide planes in to Cardiff Airport. Walking down through a wood we heard a plane approaching, and I managed to snap a photo through a gap in the branches. I’m pretty pleased with how it came out, and that it resembles a photo I took of a helicopter in Tintern Abbey over a year ago.
At the bottom of the wood we exited the shade onto a long pebble beach that curved around to Barry. I spotted an partial ammonite fossil, which I was pretty chuffed about. As we approached Porthkerry Country Park and its viaduct, I was reminded of coming here years ago and playing pitch and putt golf on a wet day, and watching my brother Jack slip on the waterlogged green and get upset at me for laughing at him. That fond memory kept me smiling for a good while as we continued up an intimidating amount of steps, and through “Cliff Wood” where Yasmin spotted a jay. Exiting the wood we got our first view of Barry in the distance, the Ferris wheel being the standout landmark of the Barry Island skyline, much like Pripyat.
After descending the hill and perusing the Roman ruins at the bottom briefly, we passed the Knap Gardens and wandered around the headland. At this point we were pretty hungry so we left the coast path just after Parade Gardens, and headed for the Sir Samuel Romilly Wetherspoons near Barry train station. We stuffed our faces and caught one of our trademark “free” trains back to Rhoose, where our car was waiting for us. I felt good that we’d done so much on the weekend and it wasn’t even Saturday yet!
Walked: 20/04/18
Published: 03/05/18
More photos:
These two photos share no common elements apart from the sky, yet they are weirdly similar.
hywelwithoutborders 