Walk Around Wales - Dai's Blog

I can finally get this month's walking blog started with a walk along Oxwich beach on the Gower Peninsula. Saturday the 8th was a beautiful day and with that in mind we planned a day on Oxwich Beach with my daughter Victoria, her friends and my son Dale and his family.

Back row from left to right - Jet Dog, Jess, Mary, Jessie, Cristina, Dale - in front Marley Dog & Gethin - behind the camera - me

The weather however was not playing ball and a gloomy and windy day welcomed us as we arrived at the beach car park. Plan B went into action and a Sunday afternoon stroll ensued along Oxwich beach towards Three Cliffs Bay. There were a lot of fisherman out although we didn't see any fish being caught but there was a massive Portugese-Man-of-War washed up on the seashore which took our interest for a while............

.............. and a superb sandcastle on the way back.

Dan of the 'Jones Brothers' fame is always visiting this Vulcan bomber crash site on Fan Bwlch Chwyth and I had dinner earlier in the year with John Samuel who was one of the first on the scene after the crash with the RAF Mountain Rescue team so curiosity got the better of me and off I went......

Vulcan XH536 - Fan Bwlch Chwyth - 11th February 1966 - this plane crashed while on radar trials in bad weather. All five crew members were killed. F/Lt McDonald, F/Off Sutcliffe, F/Lt. R Clare, F/Lt B Waring, F/Lt. E Fuller. Location SN 91152 21363

........with the possibility of a nice sunset I timed a walk so that I could watch the sun setting on the Black Mountain from the top of Fan Nedd and it was nice.

It was a Saturday morning and I'd spied the first ripe blackberries the previous day so I went in search of the best local blackberry patches to make a crumble. It took me nearly 3 hours to pick 2lb of blackberries but I did get to see where the best crops are for future picking. It's the 30th of August when I'm writing this and I'm blackberried out, I've picked 16lbs of blackberries, made 4 crumbles and eaten blackberry crumble amost every day since the 15th, I'm sick of blackberries and never want to see one again, well maybe next week I'll start picking them and adding to the freezer. While I was chasing backberries I came across a gorgeous area of wild mint (bottom picture). The aroma was delicious.

The moon was full again and Dale had a bad back so our Thursday moonwalk went out of the window. As it was the end of the month and I was busy with daytime job admin so had nothing planned, the weather was looking good so I jumped in the car and followed my nose.............. which was leading me to my old stomping ground of Baglan for a pint in the Tyn-y-Twr Tavern and a possible moonwalk around the holy mountain (Mynydd Dinas). I got as far as the Melyn and the fact that I hadn't yet seen Carreg Hir popped into my swede so I pulled over by Cwrt Sart and bumped into my old mate Paul Evans who grew up around the corner from me in Long Vue Rd on the Sandfields Estate. I had no idea where it was in the school so just walked around, I was expecting everything to be locked up but lucky times were ahead when a gate was open for car parking for a match at the Briton Ferry Town Football club. I used to train with the Ferry back in the early 1970s in the Hen Gwrt barn, my uncle Mal Rees was manager at the time but that's another story so lets get back to Carreg Hir, the gate was open and I couldn't believe my luck, you can see Carreg Hir from the road and I waltzed in to take some photos except I'd left my camera in the car so I took the photos after waltzing back out to fetch the car. A good effort on my part apart from I forgot to switch from manual to auto focus on the camera so the photos are a little blurry. That's the full set of major standing stones in Neath completed Careg Bica and Carreg Hir.

My nose looked upward and saw the start of an amazing sunset so I headed off to my original destination, the Tyn-y-Twr Tavern. I hadn't tested the sunset from there but when I got there it fell short of expectations............

............. so it was back in the car for that old trusted friend sunset from Blaen Baglan farm, and the result was amazing. Even though I'd missed the sun's final bow the remaining colours on the superbly patterned clouds left me in no doubt, I needed a Guinness there and then. Well the Guinness had to wait for the colours to fade away because this was without a doubt the best sunset of the year so far.

My nose took be back to the Tyn-y-Twr where I had that celebratory Guinness then proceeded a to do a Baglan memory walk, Kenilworth Court, Sunningdale, Willow Grove, Laurel Ave, Greenwood Rd, Baglan Rugby, where a 'Fun day' was in full flow Thorney Road, Maple Ave, Cherry Grove, Crofton Drive, Church View and back to the Tyn-y-Twr Tavern where I bumped into my old mates Colin Evans (Baglan Rugby), Kev Wellington (Baglan Cricket) & Nigel Whitworth (Glanafan). We shared a few good memories, thanks guys.


Mary & Jess	Vics