Tales from Wales #2 :: Along the Estuary

Hi there everyone 😃

For our first small venture out from Garden Pitts we opted for a short walk along the estuary. We really wanted to just see how Martin would get on walking any kind of distance with his crutches, following his recent ankle operation.

We headed right out of the gate and along the lane … which leads to a dead end, which does make for a very nice quiet spot …

Towards the end of the lane we came to the sign for the public footpath which would take us down to the banks of the estuary …

It was little odd at the bottom of the footpath as we seemed to be faced with a wall of very tall reeds and weren’t sure about where we would be heading …

When we reached the bottom we could see that the path had been trodden down to the left so we headed into the reeds …

Once we emerged from the reeds there were some lovely views in either direction …

We were heading down river …

 … and soon found the next footpath sign which would take us upwards …

After a previous hairy experience with the bovine kind we did make sure the locals were well and truly contained before making our way back up …

… and away from the river …

We were now on the homeward straight and followed the track …

… stopping to take in the signs of autumn in the hedgerows …

It was as we arrived back at Garden Pitts that we got to meet our neighbour for the duration of our stay for the first time and we had a good chat about the history of the area and the mining disaster.

We’d done just over 2000 steps, over some bumpy terrain, and whilst it wasn’t far it was just about the right distance for Martin and his crutches. We set ourselves the objective of doing at least 2000 steps a day for the rest of our stay.

A few days later, in between the rain showers, we broke out for another breath of fresh air … this time heading left out of the gate to walk down to the memorial on the quay …

The ferns were looking very green and lush …

Although rain had been forecast all day it was actually pretty nice …

This time we stopped for a good look at the memorial, reading the names and noticing the pieces of black welsh coal that had been placed in the nooks and crannies …

We hadn’t gone far enough to complete our 2000 steps so decided to have a walk along the bank of the estuary … this time upstream to see what we could find …

It was one of those walks where we kept saying let’s just get to the next bend in the rocks …

There was loads of different varieties of seaweed and so many different types of rock … which we took in in more detail in the way back …

We were both surprised too at the number of ancient oaks that were just growing out of the side of the banks …

Back at the memorial we bumped into another local chap walking his dog who was very happy to stop for a chat … it turned out that he actually stayed in Garden Pitts for a while and used to know our neighbour well, though they hadn’t seen each other for years … since the local pub shut.

As we started to head back we could see our neighbour over the other side of the quay, with his dog, so we all walked back together and we were chuffed to have kind of facilitated a bit of a reunion of two drinking buddies from years gone by 🍻🍻🍻

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