Thursday 5th September 2024

Day 4 – Southerndown to Porthcawl

Treated ourselves to a taxi today as it was going to be a double bus fare day and this would have amounted to the same overall cost. We had a fabulous driver who regaled us with Welsh stories all the way – many laughs to start off the day.

It was an easy enough path along the coastline at Southerndown but sadly there was no way across the river – so a trek up the estuary it was .. what’s an extra 4 miles between friends.

It was raining today, a completely different weather day to yesterday. And it persisted.

As had been advised, we reached the river crossing point at the magnificent site of Ogmore Castle, an early 12th Century fortress, built to guard Glamorgan against attacks from the Welsh-held West. Here we had the delight of crossing the ancient stepping stones – slightly precarious but we all managed without a topple.

Then we crossed the bridge into the extremely picturesque village of Merthyr Mawr. The roads had been closed to cars but they allowed us humble walkers through. All very exciting as the village was set up for filming – film crews, vintage cars, film set designs and a large gang of security people all looking rather important. Despite questioning a few of them they were not giving away any information as to what what was being filmed … obviously a period drama of some sort – dying to find out.

From here we entered the famous Merthyr Mawl sand dunes, partly woodland – they are the second highest in Europe and quite fabulous. Not to grumble but the sand was soft and deep in places so progress was slow but we all made it out in one piece. And from the soft sand we moved on to beach walking where the sand was a little wet – we left deep footprints as we wound our way back to Porthcawl.

It was still raining as we arrived – 10 rambling miles today.

p.s. I’m going to attempt to post this on Facebook as I always do but my last two blogs have been removed as apparently have tried to gather sensitive information from others … it’s a complete mystery!!

p.p.s. I’m struggling to upload photos for some reason – when I get back to MK I need to get some help from a young person!!