The next stage of my walk this week takes us across the salt marshes next to the Loughor river here in South Wales. I say “walk”, but perhaps I should say paddle as there had been a high tide and significant areas of the marsh and footpath were still draining the sea water. I was determined to carry on and knowing the tide was on the ebb I could be sure the way would only become easier.
During the nice weather at the end of September I made a point of going for a morning walk slightly earlier than usual in order to catch the rising sun. The sky was just beginning to lighten when I arrived at my viewing point and the atmosphere with the clouds and mist lying along the valley floor and amongst the trees was almost eerie.
Looking north up the river Loughor valley the distant Betws wind farm could be seen through a gap in the clouds while looking east across the valley the sun is clearly on its way as proven by the vapour trail glinting in the lightening sky.
You will also be able to see the second photo in monotone on Wednesday at Leanne Cole’s Photography blog post – Monochrome Madness 2-28
The mouth of the River Lliw is near Loughor on the Loughor Estuary in South Wales. Its width is obviously significantly greater here than at its source and as a consequence, the children of Felindre Primary School could only estimate the width and the depth.
The flow rate of the river could still be measured and this was done by throwing a piece of orange peel into the water and timing it between two points on the river bank. This and much more information will be included in the teaching and learning resource that I will be helping to produce as a part of the Clear Streams project managed by Swansea’s Countryside Connections team.
It is worth keeping our rivers and streams clean if only for the beautiful effects of sunlight falling on clear water.
The reasoning for the Clear Streams project goes much further than that of course. However, it is still important in my mind, that those taking part in the project appreciate these visual aspects as well as developing their understanding of the environmental aspects.
The orange in the second image was not left in the River Lliw. It was being used as a device for measuring the rate of flow of the river at this second stage through Felindre on its way to the river mouth at Loughor.
I managed to get a short walk out at lunchtime on Friday – down to our local marshes. I hadn’t been there for a little while and was reminded of the StillWalks I have produced such as the Old Churchyard Walk (on the Summer Walks page). Despite the sound of traffic in the background, it still one of my favourite local walks.
This week I am going to focus on some of the images from that video but start with the couple of shots I took on my iPhone yesterday.
Loughor River
I took these photos with my iPhone on a wet walk on the marshes this afternoon and now I’m trying out publishing this post from it as well.
It stopped raining for 5 minutes so I thought I’d get out quick – but I still got rained on. Mind you, 90 minutes without rain was asking a lot.
Happy Christmas !
