llywela | sunshine and the seaside!

Okay, so I took a few days off work last week. I booked these days completely randomly, over a month ago, because I had annual leave allocation that needed to be used before the end of September, which I hadn't managed to take any earlier because of work being manic and desperately short-staffed and whatnot, so I just looked at my calendar and randomly selected a few days when I had no meetings. And then those few days arrived and turned out to be absolutely glorious and a terribly unseasonal heatwave, and boy did I feel good about randomly selecting them for random days off work!

To celebrate having time off work in a glorious heatwave and absolutely nothing better to do than indulge, I went to the seaside two days running. On Wednesday I went to Penarth, which is the next town along the coast from Cardiff and has a fabulous Victorian pier and a shingle beach and coastal walks and all good things. I took a friend and a book and plenty to drink and had a lovely day, relaxing in the sun. I mean, seriously - look how glorious for the end of September!

Beyond the pier, walking along the beach toward Cardiff, I spotted this sign - now, bilingual signage is common in Wales, but you don't see many signs that are trilingual!

This is the cliff the sign is warning about - and with good reason. As you get closer to it, you start to hear a strange rushing noise, and only when you get very close do you realise that the sound is caused by the constant rattle and rush of gravel and stones down the side of the cliff. Coastal erosion in action!

The retaining wall designed to keep people from getting too close to this unsafe cliff is not in great condition. But it still does its job, more or less.

Underneath the pier!

Looking out across the beach with the islands of Flatholm and Steepholm visible on the horizon

Sailboat emerging from beyond the pier

View back toward the pier, with Cardiff Dock behind it, from the coastal path along the cliff edge, heading west toward Lavernock

Do not tell my mother I got this close to the edge of the cliff!

Flatholm and Steepholm

Autumn berries - in unseasonal, blazing sunshine

Then on Thursday, I went to Barry Island to meet up with an old school friend who lives there these days. And once again, it was an absolutely glorious day - with temperatures of around 28oC and glorious sunshine, you'd never dream it was the end of September!

Barry yacht club with the tide going out - Barry sits on the Bristol Channel, of course, which has the second greatest tidal range in the world (the depth of water can change by up to 50 feet between high and low tide!), so when the tide goes out...it goes waaaaay out. Shame it was just a tad too misty over the Channel to be able to pick out Flatholm and Steepholm in this picture, as they sit to either side of the mouth of the harbour here

View across Barry's Whitmore Bay - the main beach - from Friar's Point at low tide

On the other side of Friar's Point lies Watchtower Bay and the Old Harbour

At high tide, this is a relatively safe area for water activities - and these boats in the Old Harbour (separated from Watchtower Bay by York Breakwater) all float when the tide is in

But at low tide, there is just this huge expanse of sand - which is usually much, much quieter than Whitmore Bay

It isn't hard to scramble down the rocks from Friar's Point onto the beach - or if you continue onto York Breakwater, there are steps down into the Old Harbour. With the tide just out, the sand is really soft so your feet sink a good couple of inches with every step - yet it is sand, not mud, on this side of the Channel, so there is no danger of getting stuck, the way there is just across the water at Weston-super-Mare, where visitors aren't allowed beyond a certain point on the beach at low tide.

At the Knap end of Watchtower Bay stands the old lime kiln, relict of the industrial past

Knap Point, separating Watchtower Bay from the Knap beach

Back to York Breakwater, which is an excellent spot to lounge around drying off muddy feet on a sunny day!

Talking about hanging on for grim death - these trees are managing to cling onto a nearly vertical slope!

So there we have it - two glorious days at the seaside...at the very end of September. Recorded for posterity, as I'm sure it will be raining again soon, and the sunshine will once more be a mere memory!