Walking around Gower Peninsula

Part of the reason for coming to Wales was to visit the Gower Peninsula, a trip that Gary and I wanted to do for a long time. The Gower Peninsula was a place very convenient to get to from Brecon Beacons because it was only an hour away.

What it attracted us from Gower was the variety of landscapes along its coastal path, from spectacular cliffs in the south and beautiful beaches in the west and east, to extensive marshes in the north. Ideally, we would have liked to walk around the entire peninsula but, as we were only going to be there for a couple of days, we decided to walk from east to west via the south coast, which seemed to have more interesting landscapes.

So, we left Brecon Beacons on Monday morning and arrived at Mumbles in Swansea Bay at lunchtime. After doing some shopping and a bit of admin, such as renewing the tax disk for Dora which had expired the day before (oops), we headed to the beach and had a picnic before we started the walk.

 

 

By the time we finished lunch it was already 16.30, which meant that we could only do a three to four hours walk.  So, we left Dora in Mumbles, took a bus to Caswell Bay and walked back.

Caswell bay is a very popular destination for surfers but none was around that day due to the lack of winds, so luckily, we had the beach for ourselves.

 

 

We went for a short stroll on the sandy beach before we started the walk. I tried to photograph a seagull but this is the best I could get; they were just too quick.

 

 

As the sea waves crashed over the shore they left beautiful ripple patterns on the sand.

 

 

We took a last look at the bay before leaving it to start the walk back to Mumbles.

 

 

Rather than starting the walk like everyone else, we scrambled up the cliffs to get to the path higher up. When we see an opportunity to climb, we take it.

 

 

That is very brave of me, taking a photo whilst climbing up.

 

 

Did we climb all of that?

 

 

 

Erosion is quite dramatic here because the cliffs along the coast are made from soft and crumbly rock

 

 

 

After turning around the corner of Bracelet Bay, we took a rest and sat on a bench to admire the stunning view. We got really excited when we saw lots small black dots on the sea. Sadly, we soon realised that what we thought they were a group of seals were just a bunch of surfers.

We watched them for a while but soon got bored. We don’t really see the point of this sport; you wait there, freezing cold for just a few seconds of riding a wave and inevitably, fall over anyway.

 

 

The cliffs offered spectacular views all the way along the walk.

 

 

After a couple of hours we finally arrived at Mumbles, our final destination.

 

 

Quick look at the stunning view before we get back to Dora.

 

Route information:

Start: Caswell Bay

Finish: Mumbles

Distance: 8 kilometres

Walking time: 3 hours