Sandy Adventure

I didn’t think it was possible. There were times today with no clouds in the sky. Today is the third day we’ve had out of nine without rain. I was beginning doubt that the sun existed in the UK.

Aside from the cracking weather, cracking is a good thing here, the day was rather uneventful, until it wasn’t. We rode through some nice rural areas until we got to the coast. Then it was mainly flat boardwalk riding along the beautiful beaches near Swansea.

Everything was going fine, we even had a tailwind the whole day, until we decided to take an alternate route to the Three Cliffs Holiday Park. Instead of taking the main road with its incessant stream of motor vehicles, we tried to follow a hiking path around a golf course as a backdoor entrance to our campsite.

The grassy trail soon became rutted from horse tracks until solid ground gave way to sand dunes. Have you ever walked in a sand dune? It’s hard work. No imagine dragging a 50lbs bike along with you. It’s many levels above hard work. In fact it’s just plain shitty.

At this point we’d already committed to the route. There was no going back. So we trudged through the sand over some hills and along a cliff, where we had to carry the bikes separate from the panniers lest we topple down the cliff onto some unfriendly lava boulders. Despite the effort and my stupid stubbornness, the views from the dunes onto the bay were spectacular.

That evening, after a toad in the hole and spinach salad dinner, I was determined to walk to the nearby pub for a drink. We walked about 2 miles on the shoulder less road, defying death during every blind corner, and had ourselves glasses of beer. We weren’t looking forward to the walk back to the campsite in the dark, so we took a trail through the bay.

The bay trail was pleasant, except high tide had just ended. We couldn’t cross the steep stones to get across the river because they were still submerged from the tide. We considered going back the way we came, but that would have added an extra hour to our walk. It was already 10pm. What light was left wasn’t much.

Luckily the tide was receding quickly. In about ten minutes, the step stones emerged. We crossed safely. Carrie vowed to reduce our level of adventure for the next day.