There are twenty one stages to this final section of my Welsh adventure, in addition to the odd day off. Today is a relatively short coastal cliff walk to position myself for a longer and tougher section tomorrow and the day after. The Wales Coast path turns inland from Borth to go up and then down the River Dovey. Over the next week, I will make my way up the coast to Porth Madoc, before heading on to the relatively isolated and sparsely populated Llyn Peninsula. Making my way round and up the peninsula, I will be bypassing Anglesey to head for North Wales and a walk up the Dee Estuary and river to cross back over in to England via the Hawarden Bridge. And there the journey ends. I hope for good weather, particularly on the Lleyn Peninsula, but the long range forecast is not good at all. 'Ca Sera'.
There is a steep climb out of Aberystwyth and half way through the walk you have a climb up to Craig y Delyn, an ascent that does its best to be a smaller reflection of Flower Barrow in Dorset. In between there are a number of smaller gullies, as well as some beautiful coastal scenery. The weather is set to be fair and I expect to be walking in sunshine for at least some of the day.
The area around the hill can be busy as there are a number of attractions there, including the cliff railway with seven hundred and seventy-eight feet of track and rising up to four hundred feet. On the top of the hill there is a 'camera obscura', one of the few working cameras in the UK, including one in my home country of Angus, at Kirriemuir. I spent a bit of time talking to people about my walk. It seems carrying a large rucksack is always taken by as an inviation to ask questions.
The path rises up again on a narrow, stony track, close to the cliff edge and giving a wonderful view of the churning waters and grey shingle beaches below. There is a small element of rise and fall in the path here as it progresses but nothing that particularly taxes the legs or the lungs. Rather, it is one of those sections that encourages you to just stop and look around or, to lend an ear to the soundscape of the place, the sough of the wind, the rustle of the sea or the cry of the seabirds.
On the left, just below Moelcerni, is the location of a blow hole. Shortly after the blow hole the really hard work of the day starts with the ascent to the clifftop at Craig y Delyn. It is a hard and steep climb, even with the assistance of the many steps cut in to the hillside. Despite the steps, I found myself needing to take the odd thirty-second break to catch my breath. About half-way up the hill I stopped and had an interesting conversation with a man who worked for British Rail and who has photographed most of the signal boxes in the UK. He was on a trip to try and capture images of the last few boxes he needed in Wales.
On the beach here there are the remains of a submerged forest that can only be seen when storm conditions have removed the top sand layer. The exposures are indicative of a former fenland / forested landscape. Nearby, archaeological finds on the shore point to human habitation. The age of the remains have been dated using the BP scale (Before Present - taken to mean before 1 January 1950, date when radiocarbon dating began) and suggest a date when the forest was flooded of four to six thousand years ago. Locally, there is a legend that suggests that the site is the location of 'the Sunken Kingdom' of Wales called Cantre'r Gwaelod.
From the low hill above Upper Borth I dropped down into the town to a crossroads, from where I had a road walk out to my campsite at Glanlerry Caravan Park. It was a nice little place, with good facilties and nice level camping pitches. Knowing the weather forecast, I took a pitch underneath the trees, hoping to be protected from the rain that was expected over night. A nice little river flows through the park and later I took a walk along it on a clear path to the back of the town to find a restaurant for a meal.