Category Archives: Walks

Scale in the Bay – Swansea Sea Wall

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Swansea harbour sea wall is, to my mind, an amazing structure. The textures, colours and patterns of this seemingly huge scabrous metal arm that reaches far out into the bay intrigue and fascinate me. I say “seemingly” and “intrigue” because of the deceptive sense of scale that it presents to the walker as you proceed towards it along the beach.

Until you are standing right next to it, you do not realise how much it will tower above you. No doubt this has to do with its length relative to its height – a length that helps guide some of the flotsam and jetsam up to the top of the beach.

Bay Walk-33

 

Fun and Games on the Beach

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The sky may still be murky on this Swansea Bay walk, but the dogs are having great fun playing games on the beach. Walking along the tide line, it was great to watch them and see how much they enjoyed it. The patterns of tracks they left in the sand were mostly chaotic, but now and then there would be clear arc of paw prints showing a dog’s direction as it chased a stick or ball.

Other fascinating patterns were also to be seen in the black sand or coal dust covering part of this eastern end of the beach.

dog tracks

Playing Fetch

If viewing this in an email, to see the sound player you will need to visit the blog – please click the post title to view the full post.

Beach Finds

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All sorts of stuff had been washed up on the beach to entertain me on my Swansea Bay walk this week. Everything from a colourful tree stump to a limbless doll. The sand, too, gets washed up into some interesting drifts – I can only imagine the state of the windows of the apartments on the promenade. Having lived on a seafront in the past, I know how quickly the salt and sand builds up in the Winter months.

Beached Wood

Promenade Perspective

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You can see the rain clouds moving away into the distance at this stage of my walk along Swansea Bay. The scene doesn’t lighten much but at least the rain is gone.

These different views from the promenade show where my walk is headed and as I descended to the beach, the patterns of stones and ripples in sand and water caught my eye.
Promenade Perspective

Stepping It Up

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I said yesterday that my walk along Swansea Bay had changeable weather. I promise it does change – by that, I mean it stops raining! I suspect from the evidence of discarded bottles that it was not raining the previous night.

Swansea Bay Rain

My Walk this Week 20 – Bay Walk

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My walk this week sees more changeable weather. There were plenty of other people walking and running in spite of the wintry wet conditions which says something for the attraction of Swansea Bay. Fortunately, from the point of view of photography, what can feel like miserable weather for walking, can produce some “atmospheric” images.

Looking out for those shots can also help with the mental attitude to walking in this weather and as it didn’t continue raining for too long, the walk was in fact very refreshing and entertaining.

It wasn’t just the able bodied who were using the promenade – having said that, take a close look and you will see that the runner below is clearly very able bodied!

Swansea Bay

If you listen carefully to the sound clip below, you should hear the intermittent tone of Mumbles lighthouse in the distance as well as footsteps and an intrepid cyclist.

Windy Seafront

If viewing this in an email, to see the sound player you will need to visit the blog – please click the post title to view the full post.

The Waterside and Reviewing the Week 56

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Heading home from my day at The Waterside, I was surprised and delighted to be driving across the Welsh hills and into a fantastic sunset. The colour, light and shade typified the mixed weather from the start of the day to the end.

The soundscape below may not fit perfectly with the sequence of photos if you listen and view them at the same time, but it is not meant to be StillWalks video but hopefully it will help to give you a better sense of that beautiful, secluded South Wales valley.

The Waterside-27

The Waterside Soundscape

If viewing this in an email, to see the sound player you will need to visit the blog – please click the post title to view the full post.

Still with the Stillness

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Walking on round the corner, away from the turbulence of flowing water in yesterday’s post, I arrived back in a place of stillness. The water was still flowing fast at the overflow to the lake at The Waterside, but the surface was smooth and the ripples clear – no leaping froth and foam here, even if it was just a few yards away.

This was a good place to end my walk and return to the warmth of the lakeside cabins for a coffee and a delicious bite to eat. Until the next First Friday (if not before), thanks very much to Sue and Steve Heatherington at The Waterside.

The full walk sequence and a soundscape will be on tomorrow’s post.

Flowing Ripples