Llantwit Major Beach

The recent bank holiday weekend was a chance to go back "home" and of course to visit the beach.

I love this beach. Many of my childhood holidays were spent here, often in driving rain and indulging in the hated activity of "winkle picking" for my grandfather who loved this delicacy...

More to my taste was fossil hunting in the boulders on the shore. The cliffs themselves are dangerously unstable and although full of tempting caves I was forbidden to go anywhere near them.

Llantwit Major beach is world famous for its limestone pavements.

The pavement is deeply scored by the tide  and the water collects in the depressions. Home to many sea creatures such as the aforementioned winkles.

Although mostly rocky, there are a few patches of sand, especially on the lower reaches of the beach.







This is the home of the Honeycomb worm (Sabellaria alveolata) .  A strange worm that builds a tube home out of mucus and sand particles. Being gregarious in nature these build up into fragile reefs which are easily crushed underfoot.

However the Honeycomb worm doesn't have the sand to itself. The occasional visitor had been seen to paddle across from Somerset in a coracle.

Rather him than me - it was bitingly cold!

Not according to plan!

You know, some days life really is out to get you. Carrying on regardless may seem like a good idea at the time but I really should know better.

The Brecon Beacons beckoned - nice weather ( for once) so a picnic lunch in the car and off we go. Hit the M4 for the Severn crossing and all well. That is until we pass the junction for the M48. Huge traffic jam. Huge. Going nowhere very slowly. WTF did they install those expensive roadside screens for if they are just going to be used for trite "Don't drive tired" (sic) messages?

Anyway after 20 minutes able to loop back via the Avonmouth junction and make the 25 minute round trip back on to the M48 to go over the old bridge.

Now an hour later than planned so tempers start to fray. Several wrong turnings later we get to Merthyr Tydfil where we planned to pick up some more bottled water. On a Sunday this is the place that time forgot. Eventually find an off licence open but miss it so several circuits of the town later we get back to where we started. Park and buy water and head for the hills. Choice of a couple of unmarked tracks - yup you guessed it - wrong choice.



Eventually find our destination and start the ascent. It's heaving. Every few yards we pass someone and have to nod and smile in greeting. This is really not my idea of fun. 

 The idea was to walk up the bottom of the valley, up the side of the mountain and along the ridge back to the car park. Some pretty little rills though to break the montony.

The trouble is I'm bored. Very bored. I can see where I've been, can see where I'm going and worse still can see where I'm going to have to climb up and walk back. Well we reach the end, scramble up a really steep slope, admire a pretty view and admit defeat,  heading back to the car as quickly as possible.

  After that what else to do but find a nice pub and have a drink. We do find a nice pub - first thing that has gone right all day ( if you ignore the small issue that the car park was full). There was even a table left at the canal side.

And  look what we saw - I've never seen a coracle in use before- plenty in museums of course but never one on the water!  This almost made up for the rest of the day!





Of course it couldn't last- heading back to England what did we get caught up in? Yes another massive traffic jam! Definitely NOT my day......