The beach and the Gower

Unbelievable.

I've seen views like this in movies, but never anything real. And I'm sure there's something like it in the United States. I tell you what, I fully intend to find it when I return home.

Farydeh took six of us to Rossili and Wormshead Bay.


We caught the bus at about half past noon for a 3 pound 60 and a half an hour ride to the west coast. The countryside is home to flocks of sheep and horses and cows, none of which were neatly groomed. They looked like wild animals, but there were enough marks on the sheep to indicate that they weren't lost. There were red, green and blue spray paint-like dots, on their sides and rears, indicating which flocks they belonged to.

Farydeh had been talking up the Gower so much, I almost expected to be disappointed. We'd been to the Swansea beach the day before and it was gorgeous. The tide was out more than a mile and we entertained ourselves for about two hours, writing in the sand, snapping picture after picture.

But I couldn't have been more pleased when the bus dropped us off, we walked around the bend and out to the edge of the first cliff.



My pictures can only begin to describe what it was like up there. We wandered across the tops of the cliffs to the east, where there were steps carved into the side of the last one. At high tide, visitors are not able to walk across the ocean bottom, covered with mussels and all other types of sea creatures. But we were there at low time, and four of my friends made their way to the top of Wormshead, a tiny little peninsula that marks the edge of the range. Carrie and I walked down the steps the opposite direction, hiked to the beach across a different area that normally would be under water at high tide.



We took off our shoes. The puddled water was freezing, but we stayed close to the cliffs until we made it halfway down the beach. There there was less sea debris and the waves came up ankle deep.

Sonya and Anne came down to meet us after awhile and then we climbed the other set of steps back up to Rhossili. It took about 15 minutes and was pretty steep, but it was completely worth it. My calves weren't even sore this morning.

I'll share pictures when I get home, I promise.

I'm told Three Cliffs is even more beautiful. I see a road trip in the making.



Pictured above: Sonya, Amelia, Farydeh, Carrie, Cassie and me on Swansea's beach; Farydeh and Anne taking pictures at the top of the first or second cliff; a view of the cliffs and Wormshead; and Carrie and me a few minutes before we climbed down the steps to the beach.