This year seems to have been less about climbing up and more about climbing down. Trouble with that once you have climbed down! you have to climb back up again. Still these things have to be done.
On Saturday we decided to visit the Gower Wildflower Cafe to have a look around and get some lunch. Sadly there wasn't much there in the way of plants but we had an amazing lunch (OH's was a beef chilli pastie AND beans - pity there's no spare room!) and there was so many tempting organic and free range goodies to buy that I could have spent an absolute fortune. I did splash out on a jar of Gower Honey (that's the dog starving for the next week lol).
These lovely meals were accompanied by lovely coffees and there was definitely the need to drag our lazy selves out to walk off all that food (not to mention consider fasting for the rest of the weekend).
So we groaned our way back to the car, grabbed the map and looked where, in Gower, we hadn't been.
Southgate! Between Pennard and Three Cliffs. I'm ashamed to say I'd never even heard of it but I'm delighted to have found it now. There appeared to be two paths down to the beach / bay (there may be more) and the one we chose is really steep in parts. As we walked down over mud, then scree, then broken concrete over a pipe my brain was thinking - bad move - at least when you walk up first, you have the comforting thought of the potentially more relaxed walk down. However, at least we'd be walking off some of that meal. On the way down we were serenaded by Dunnocks who flitted from shrub to shrub in front of us, which distracted from the steep descent.
The sand was much softer than we imagined but on reaching the beach the delights were numerous. Fantastic rock formations, the like of which I don't really remember seeing anywhere else, which created fantastic rock pools, full of life.
As we explored the beach, looking across to Oxwich point, we could hear birds calling above us. One bird's call made us both stop and look up immediately. Could it be what we thought it was .... I managed to catch a quick glimpse of it as disappeared round the edge of the cliffs. OH was luckier and managed to catch this. (Clever boy!)
Of course - its a Chough - and we were chuffed to see a Chough (sorry bad joke LOL).
The weather started to turn a little darker and we puffed our way back up to the top of the hill, but it was made all the better by enjoying watching a pair of Stonechats as the male sang and 'chinked' his little heart out at the top of one of the shrubs. Once we reached the top, we turned and walked a little way across the top of the cliffs towards Pennard, stopping every now and then to take pictures and to watch the many gulls battling with the wind above us.
The afternoon was great in all ways. Lovely food, a beach for OH, a cliff walk for me and bird watching and great views for us both.
Perfick!
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