heavy weather

My Walk this Week 161 – North Gower Walk

My walk this week looks back at a walk on the North Gower coast and the expansive and beautiful salt marshes of the Loughor Estuary. The walk was originally taken as part of the “Taste of Gower” project in 2015.

Salt marshes, North Gower

Sheep graze the marsh grass and herbs from day to day and when the tides cover the the greenery, they move on and off the marshes via “causeways” such as the one above.

The sense of space and the distortion of perspective gives the place a strange, unreal feeling. Distance is difficult to judge and I suspect you would need to be careful of the incoming tide if unused to the area.Continue reading

Across the marshes

Project Walk 1 – Returning to Weobley Castle

After exploring and recording their reaction to the salt marshes on this project walk, we all returned to Weobley Castle to eat our sandwiches in the dry before setting off for another Gower environment.

Weobley Castle

The views from the castle across the marshes are excellent and if the mist and rain were wet, they also added a timeless atmosphere to the place. Though some were more wet than others, everyone was happy to carry on.

Project Marsh Walk Soundscape

muddy marsh track

My Walk this Week – Our Gower Project Walk 1, Salt Marsh

My walk this week follows on from the project recce walk I posted about at the end of September. That was the recce – for the real walk we had to change the route as the ground underfoot had become non-negotiable for walking with a group following high tides and wet weather.

Salt Marshes

And the wet weather was a big part of the walk experience for the pupils we were taking out to experience the wonderful expanse of the salt marshes of the Loughor Estuary and Burry Inlet on the North Gower coast in Wales. Starting at Weobley Castle where they produce the delicious salt marsh lamb, everyone donned the wellington boots provided for them.Continue reading

open marshes

My Walk this Week – Project Recce Walk 2, Llanrhidian Marshes

My walk this week features the second of our project recce walks for a schools project on the Gower Peninsula. This time we were walking across the open tidal marshes in the Burry Inlet near Llanrhidian on the north Gower coastline.

Llanrhidian Marshes

I know the area quite well but hadn’t been to this particular location. The tide was out and the sense of expansive space was wonderful. Continue reading

Weobley Landscape – Reviewing the Walk

Back at the starting point of my walk this week and standing in front of Weobley Castle on the Gower, the view out over the salt marshes towards Burry Port and Carmarthenshire in South Wales was accompanied by a very blustery wind.

We had been very lucky with the weather – the wind had been kind to us in making sure the rain fell on those across the other side of the Loughor estuary.

These Taste of Gower walks take place each month and I am looking forward to the next one next week which will be at Llanmadoc and heading for Whitford. Fingers crossed for good weather again.

Salt Marsh Landscape

Listen to the soundscape and click on the first thumbnail below to view selected images from the walk in sequence.

Weobley Walk Soundscape

If viewing this in an email, please click the post title to see more of the post, thank you.

Weobley Walkers

Towards the end of our Taste of Gower circular walk at Weobley Castle on the Gower we had one last area of open field to cross before the incline back up to the castle.

My parents used to go on many walks with a group that called themselves jokingly “The Wobbly Walkers”. This was a reference to their average age I guess, but the group of walkers at Weobley Castle, which could perhaps be called the Weobley Walkers, has quite a wide age range, with people joining in from many different walking clubs and other community groups of people sometimes described as “hard to reach”.

The Taste of Gower programme of walks organised by Steve Lancey from the Gower Landscape Partnership and Mike Aspland, has done an excellent job of encouraging people to get out and explore a part of the Swansea area in South Wales that, though well known, can be hard to reach for some people. To this end there is also an excellent bus service that is specifically aimed at enabling access to this Area of Natural Beauty (AoNB) and its Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) as well as encouraging walking, cycling, etc. in other areas of Swansea Bay.

Taste of Gower walkers

footpath incline

 

Walking and Talking

Having left the fields and re-entered the woodland on this Taste of Gower walk at Weobley Castle on north Gower, we encountered yet more gates. There were many more gates and stiles on this walk than I have shown and this can sometimes cause delays if the group of walkers is large, but on this occasion it did not seem to be a problem.

Of course it may have been an issue of which I was unaware, hanging back from the main group as I was and taking photos of the conversations ahead of me as well as the colours, textures and patterns of different gates and mossy walls.

Woebley Walk-24

The soundscape below features a number of the gates on this walk. They do not appear in the clip in real time, instead I have composed this piece to emphasise the different sounds of the gates on the walk – its as though they have their own language.

Weobley Gates

If viewing this in an email, please click the post title to see more of the post, thank you.

My Walk this Week – Taste of Gower 16-1

My walk this week follows the first of the Taste of Gower walks for 2016 organised by Gower Landscapes Partnership. The same walk was done last year but this time round I have recorded the full walk and will present it here throughout this week.

The walk was circular, starting at Weobley Castle and farm where not only did we have the chance to look round the castle, we also got to see the lambing shed – there was a lot of bleating!

The weather was very good and the views across the salt marshes of Loughor Estuary and Burry Inlet were excellent.

Weobley Castle

Seemingly the sheep know to go in and out with the tide and it is the mixture of grasses and herbs that grow on the marshes that give the salt marsh lamb its unique taste.

Lambing Shed

If viewing this in an email, please click the post title to see more of the post, thank you.