Coastwalk

Pennard Cliffs → Swansea

Distance: 13.1 miles
Ascent: 383 metres
Duration: 4 hours 30 minutes

Mission accomplished!
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I started this week with a clear goal: to walk round the Gower Peninsula, as far as Swansea. Monday was the northern coast; Tuesday was the southern. Yesterday I walked the western coast, leaving only the eastern for today.

This walk is best described in two halves: a set of generally good footpaths round the headlands and coves towards The Mumbles, then a long march along the prom that follows the curve of Swansea Bay.

Swansea's beach was working hard today - but for locals rather than tourists. As I stopped for lunch towards its north end a game of five-a-side was being played out by local office workers while drones from a lone piper further down the beach drifted in on the wind.

The day brought a new sight with it. Rising across the water to the south, the North Devon cliffs remind me there's plenty of walking yet to do. As has become my tradition, I stopped my walk half-way across a bridge. This time, a footbridge across Afon Tawe.

Tentatively I made a plan. I'll be back next year - probably in August - to see if I can make it to a far larger bridge that will take me out of this country before the year ends, well on my way to Devon.