A Cliff Walk.

Looking inland this morning all I could see were clouds but out to sea the sun was shining around a few fluffy clouds. The wind was blowing from the north and very cold so I wrapped up well before heading out for the walk I'd promised myself. 

Before I walked out of the door I checked the mirror and realised that it looked like I'd overdone the co-ordination. Purple jacket, purple fleece neckwarmer and yes a light purple hoody too. Not to mention a pair of sparkly lilac earings. I'm only wearing those because they have the thickest and smoothest hooks which I need to re-establish the holes in my ears. The over abundance of purple is down to the fact that I tend to buy clothes in a limited colour palette, black, more black and for variety purple or grey. 

And now for the walk - above- looking back to the first section where I've climbed up to the Memorial, down to Aberwennol beach and up the next bit.

Looking back again, once you're on top of the cliff the path is fairly level and the views are fantastic but every now and again you have to drop down to a combe (I don't know what they call them in Wales) or a beach. The National Trust maintains the coast path repairing the steps or re-routing the path when bits fall into the sea.

Sometimes the dips are small but more often on this coast they are steep and long. 

As I climbed the long flight of steps (on the right of the fence) to the high point my thoughts turned to how in past times the Borth women, many of them widows would make their way along the same route to town. This was in the days when Borth was just a row of fishermens cottages on a shingle bank. The boats would bring in the herring catch to shore where the women would clean the fish and pack them or cockles harvested from the beach into large baskets that they carried on their backs and walk seven miles along the cliffs to Aberystwyth. Bent over with their black clothing flapping in the wind these women were known as the Black Crows of Borth and to this day crows are part of folk art in the village. How their backs must have suffered and remember there were no handy steps going up the slopes or wooden bridges across the streams in the combes. 

The same set of steps viewed from the top and yes it is a long way down. Not a route for those with a fear of heights.

Looking inland.

I planned to see where walking for an hour would get me which was this point. I walked on a little further but there was a very steep descent into the next bay and the equivalent upwards on the far side so I decided to make this my turn around point.

I stopped in this sheltered dip for a bit, watching a sailing boat and enjoying a couple of squares of chocolate from my emergency rations. I mangaed not to have to carry a backpack by stuffing the essentials into my pockets and slinging my camera across my back. As it is so much larger and heavier I left my new phone at home and took my tiny dumb phone. I rang Peter just to test it and it worked fine though if I was going for a really long walk or up into the hills I'd bring the new phone.

I was out on my walk for just over two hours, took lots of photos, saw red kites, a sparrowhawk and oystercatchers and had a stroll on a beach as well. Not a bad outing though my knee is grumbling tonight.