Under Milk Flood?

I have just realised with horror that not only is it June, and that my blogging of the Wales coast path walk is way behind schedule, but also that I have blogged once so fat this year. So here's an attempt to put that right with the next couple of stages on the coast path.

Laugharne – St Clears.

Another year is with us, and with a bit of luck, 2014 is the year in which I will finish the Wales coast path. It is also the year that marks the centenary of Dylan Thomas’ birth, so perhaps it is appropriate that the walking this year begins in Laugharne, where he lived and wrote.

You’re not far out of Laugharne when the path leads past his former house,

 and then, round the next corner is the famous boathouse where some of his best-known works were written.

At this stage, the path was a bit muddy, but not too bad. I’d certainly encountered worse than this before today. Later, though, it became a squelch. Some boards over the worst of it helped, but really, after a wet Christmas, there’s not a lot anyone can do about mud in January! Going over the boards, I did get a wave from a farmer – he was only saying good morning, but just for a moment, I thought he was trying to warn me of something, no, just a friendly greeting.

As it took place in January, it wasn’t the longest stage of the walk ever. Indeed, it has been one of the shortest. I suppose it’s more strategic than anything – St Clears, whilst not exactly a thriving metropolis, is just a little bit more on the beaten track than Laugharne.

To be continued with the hope of a bit better weather to come.

St Clears – Carmarthen

There has been some terrible weather since the last stage of the walk. Storms, wind and heavy rain have battered Britain, so much so that today, large parts of the coast path were more than another potential squelch – local knowledge had it that the path was flooded in places, and was impassable.

 So for parts of it I was forced to take the coastal cycle path instead, though that still offered some large puddles to navigate!

So was there better weather today? Well, I wasn’t battling serious wind and rainstorms, but I hadn’t got very far, in fact I’d only just turned off the cycle path along the A40 out of St Clears when I was greeted with a hail shower. A taste of things to come? Well, no, it was short-lived, but it was an uncomfortable few minutes.

After a couple of hours of trying to work out what was path, what was cycle path, what was road, what was flooded and what wasn’t, I eventually reached Llansteffan. There, chatting to a local lady about the path, I was advised that although the path between here and Carmarthen wasn’t flooded, there was mud which would be likely to be up to my knees. Most people had been opting for local roads instead, so, very reluctantly, that was what I decided to do. 

There were some pleasant bits to that though, Llangain church was a rather nice spot to have a sandwich, then the area around what was left of the castle also made for pleasant walking.

So, somehow or other I made it to Carmarthen.

I hadn’t been on the path as much as I would have hoped today, though it did coincide with the cycle path and even minor roads at some points, so it wasn’t abandoned altogether. The train home was delayed, and not helped by the fact that at the station there were three drunk Irishmen who didn’t seem to know the difference between Pembroke and Paddington!