Monday 6 August 2012

LLANSAINT TO CARMARTHEN

Continuing my rehabilitation following my knee operation today's walk was to be longer and include some rougher ground. The plan was to catch a bus to Llansaint and walk back to Carmarthen using the Wales Coastal Path.

Route (click)

We parked our cars in Morrisons and caught the 0923 bus to Llanelli which went via Llansaint - a free ride courtesy of our bus passes.

This route would all be new to me as I had never been to Llansaint before and had not walked on this side of the Tywi estuary either.

The village of Llansaint put me in my mind of a small Cornish fisherman's village with narrow streets and cwtched in around the church. The history board shows the village was famous for its cockle women despite it being on a hill and a fair way to the sea.

A potted history can be found on the link below.

Llansaint (Click)


We were on the look out for the Wales Coast Path logo, which on the whole were visible on the route but with a number of annoying omissions.


Our first stretch took us along a path leading to Pengay Farm which had an impressive bell in the courtyard gateway - mention of this in the wiki notes above.

Looking out to sea we had views of the Gower and Worm's Head and carried on along footpaths which lead into a hidden valley and then on to Ferryside  and its beach.





Ferryside (Click)

In days gone by one could catch a ferry to Llansteffan on the other side of the estuary where there are fine remains of a castle.



In Ferryside there is a wooden carving celebrating those who fished using a seine net.


Our walk continued along a quiet lane and footpath to join another lane near Cwmburry.  This lane was followed  to the ruined farm of Pentrecwm and into the woods where the map shows "Hydraulic Ram". This was either some experiment to do with sheep or more likely water, but we did not see it.

On we went through Towy Castle now a care home and no evidence of a castle.  There were some expensive cars in the car park and if belonging to the owners I cannot see my sons placing me here!

At the end of the footpaths we came across the most attractive style I have seen, probably because it leads into a garden, but it is the path.


We came across a place name and an adjacent warning sign which made me chuckle.



More footpaths, some quite muddy, led us to a green lane  and eventually to a minor road which led us to Croesyceilog and then back to our cars on the outskirts of Carmarthen.

Not a bad test for the knee as the distance was about 10 miles and the ground was quite rough in places with some ups and downs.  We are off to Brecon area on Thursday for further testing!

1 comment:

  1. I'm glad to hear the knee thing has gone well. After linking to this blog from your email last night I tried again this morning but had not realised this was a new blog for walks versus cycle rides.

    It looks like you walked more or less the same route as I did, but I passed to the south of Llansaint.

    I have posted parts of my journal either side of this section on your blogs so here is the bit in the middle leading to Carmarthen:


    "I passed, and heard, but did not see the BARC's own motor racing circuit near Pembrey Forest; I must have been within a couple of hundred yards of it, but it is well hidden by trees.

    There was a pleasant teashop in Kidwelly where two groups of local WI type women seemed to be involved in two separate, regular Sunday morning gossip meetngs.

    At Ferryside I met a gent who had refurbished a 1959 Mini to make it look like a BMC rally car of the period. He also had a Mini Moke which he planned to drive in the Laugharne Under Milk Wood Event in a couple of weeks. We chatted about Dylan Thomas and he had the Under Milk Wood CDin the Moke and we listened to some of it. I was told Dylan was reputed to have based Llaregub on Ferryside, and that he came there to drink in the White Lion, often missing the train back when he had overdone things.

    Further down the high street there was a café where I had more tea. As I was leaving, having told the guy about my project, he presented me with a bar of chocolate to munch along the way.

    There was only one section of footpath today starting from a farm. There were no signs and the farmer came and showed me the way; why don't they put up some markers and save everybody a lot of trouble? Further on I took a compass bearing from the path on the map from a known point on the ground. The path descended steeply into a wooded valley. The stile was at least two hundred yards off the line on the map and completely hidden by overgrown bushes and only visible from about fifteen yards away - why, oh why, can't they help themselves and others by making these things more visible...."

    I had a bit of a rant there about indistinct footpaths, but from your account it sounds as though you navigated that dip into the woods without problem

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