Coastwalk

St Clears → Carmarthen

Distance: 17.5 miles
Ascent: 508 metres
Duration: 5 hours 52 minutes

Farmers: the good and the bad
« Pendine | Ferryside »

After three miles today I wanted to give up. The footpath had been blocked by a thick tangle of brambles and with no way round I had to take a long detour through fields of soaking, long grass.

By the time I reached the road both feet were cold and my right one had taken to make farting noises with every step. I wrung so much water out of my socks that I wondered how there was any room left in my boots for my feet. Not a good start. Why do landowners treat rights of way with such contempt?

Eight or nine miles later though, I met the opposite kind of farmer.

Pausing to admire the sun sparkling on the sea, he stepped out of his van to help me identify the objects on the horizon. Worms Head was easy, as was Caldey Island. But I'd never have made out his prize landmark. That thin shadow on the horizon, I was told, was Lundy. "Exactly thirty miles off," he said. A brief pause and then "D'you like our view?"

There aren't many paths here, so I spent most of the day pounding along narrow lanes between the rivers Taf and Towi. Leaving the viewpoint I was directed to use the freshly mown fields to save myself from the roads. This is the face of farming that I want to remember: folk working the land and sharing it with others, rather than building obstacles to keep everyone out.