Walking the Coast Path.

On the coast it has been bright and breezy but a misty haze has been trying to creep in from inland.

As our original plan to visit the Osprey Centre and then the café in Mach was deferred I decided to cadge a lift to Aberystwyth with Peter and walk back along the coast path. The sign post said 5 miles but that fails to take into account the undulating nature of the cliff top.

Peter dropped me off at the end of South Beach and I followed the path that winds its way around the cliff railway to the top of Constitution Hill locally known as Consti. In the above photo I am halfway up and in the one below I had made it to the top. It took me 15 minutes and was a hard climb. No wonder they built the cliff railway.

Looking northwards I could see Aberdyfi in the distance. That made the walk feel less of an expedition and more just a local walk.

However I had not been to Clarach holiday village before as the coast road runs a bit more inland. There were extensive holiday park amenities which normally I would avoid but thankfully there were very few people around so I didn't mind walking through it and I have to say that the toilets were spotless.

Before I got to Clarach the hillside behind me was covered with dead and dying pine trees whose trunks were full of holes. Such a shame.

But ahead the sun shone and the wind blew. Walking in the sheltered spots between brambles and gorse I was amazed by the number of butterflies especially as they seem to have been so scarce this year.

It was only just over an hour into my walk when the sight of the old lime kiln on the beach told me that I had reached Wallog, the point that I got to when I walked from Borth. It was a long haul up the far side of the hill so when I made it to the top I had a 20 minute break for a coffee and a couple of oat biscuits.

Then back along the familiar route until the Memorial and Borth came into view. Not counting the rest stop it took me two and a half hours to walk the five miles.

Before we left home in the morning I painted a second coat of blue on the garage door and after I returned from my walk I went over all the metal work with black Hammerite paint. Then I was free to do some gardening. I dug out the two mature fennel in the front garden, that was hard work and moved some agapanthus and sea holly into the space. The agapanthus had not done well in their raised bed in the back garden so I'm trying them in a border in the front garden instead. I had planted the sea holly in the shingle but the tall blue flowering stems flopped right over. I'm hoping that by planting them all in a group amongst other plants they'll support each other. A couple of other perennials also got moved as the colour of the flowers was quite right where they were. I'm fussy about colours in the garden.