Day 9
Tresaith to Cardigan: 13 miles
Place of the day: Mwnt, Mwnt, Mwnt
Reason: Not only do you not have a vowel in your name (for those who read only English - 'w' is a vowel in Welsh), but you're one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen.
Aberporth - home of exactly the breakfast I needed
So I left Tresaith in the morning, and walked the short distance to Aberporth. Unfortunately it was looking like a foggy morning again, which was a shame given this is supposed to be one of the more scenic stretches of the Ceredigion coast.
When I got to Aberporth I learned all about it's maritime heritage from a series of placards on the beach, in particular the number of shipwrecks in the area and also the rise and fall of herring fishing in the area. My favorite story was that during a particularly lean time in Aberporth, a French ship carrying wine was coming into port and the townspeople intentionally wrecked it, drank all the wine, and apparently many of them died of exposure, over-intoxication, or I would assume some combination of both. Yikes.
Moving on, I knew this was my chance for breakfast, so I headed towards a cafe overlooking the beach (I'd say the name except I'm not sure if the sign I saw was the name of the cafe, or was advertising something, because it was in Welsh).
Anyway, it was right over the beach, and it turned out to be more of a diner than a cafe. I ordered the half English breakfast, and I knew I was in for something that would get me all the way to Cardigan when I was asked whether I wanted toast or fried bread. Fried bread, it goes without saying - really, why toast bread when you can fry it? Then I watched them start up the deep fryer, and, let me say, wow. Wow, wow, wow. I left very full and ready to tackle the day.
And it was a good thing too - because the first part of the road took me up a steep street past a distinctly unattractive MOD (Ministry of Defense) facility. Then I went through a field with sea fog blowing across it. Then I believe I got some stinging nettle scratches on my leg - if you've never had the pleasure, think intensely burning poison ivy (but the sensation goes away far quicker).
After that, things got better. I really keep being shocked by how every turn brings more wildflowers here. The path is consistently lined on both sides with some combination of yellow, blue, pink, green and white. Along stairs, pathways, growing out of rocks - the flowers are just everywhere, making it slow going for those of us to take inordinate numbers of flower pictures.
The sea fog also conveniently cleared up some as I went along, so I was better able to make out some lovely sea cliffs, inlets, rockfalls, and in one case an MOD facility that emits non-ionising radiation. Umm, I guess at least it's not ionising? That last part I tried to scuttle past as quickly as humanly possible, what with it's weird white and black painted thing that I probably am not supposed to describe in detail on the internet so I'm not going to because I had my head down the whole time and really wasn't looking I swear.
Mwnt
Moving on from that strangeness, I eventually came upon Mwnt, and was pretty much blown away. First you see the tiny little cone-hill made of rock right next to the shore. Then this teeny tiny white church and its small graveyard come into view. This is the 13th century Church of the Holy Cross and its where the Catholic devout would start their pilgrimage to Bardsey Island in North Wales (on the Llyn peninsula).
And then, as if that wasn't picture postcard enough, the beach unveils itself. Bounded on three sides by cliffs, and on the fourth by the sea, the beach seems like a perfect little windbreak with stupendous views. Although I didn't go down to the water, I'm pretty sure I took enough pictures to make a time-lapse video of the place. I'll stop describing it, you can look at the pictures and decide for yourself.
Incidentally, I ordered a ham salad sandwich from the beach stand there expecting cubed ham, mayo and pickles. Instead I got a slab of ham with a fresh salad in a bun, and it was actually really, really good.
So all in all, Mwnt was a win.
On to Cardigan (Aberteifi), which has nothing to do with little sweaters
The rest of my voyage was relatively uneventful, I passed Cardigan Island, more stunning cliffs (in some case man-made through quarrying), another MOD area, Gwbert, and a lot of beached boats before I realized I was going inland and following a river/estuary rather than the sea. This is because, apparently, although Cardigan used to be one of the most important ports in the UK - in the 19th century the river silted up making it virtually impassible for larger vessels.
Walking around town later, I had to disagree with one of my guidebooks saying that no vestiges of this proud heritage were left. Although a bit downtrodden in some areas, there is actually quite a bit of interesting architecture here if your willing to look. Take the store fronts, for example. If you look closely, you notice that each one seems done differently, which is unusual. The glass is framed in many cases with intricately carved wood or metal - sometimes the paint isn't kept up, but the amount of minute artisanry that must have gone into these facades is something.
And that's not even counting the store fronts that have been recently re-done and vibrantly repainted, home of cafes, art stores and other shops, I assume in keeping with what looks like a mini-town centre revival around the refurbishment of the castle. And not to mention the building that says it is the oldest coaching inn in Wales - and if I remember right says it originally dates from the 11th century.
And there were good-looking restaurants by the river as well - although of course they were due to re-open the day I left Cardigan, of course, when the season began. So I have no idea if they're good - though the pictures of the pizza tipi made me very sad I wasn't here at the right time.
But I got perfectly passable Chinese food. Made all the better by the fact that the waitstaff seemed to entirely overlook that I look (and potentially smell) like a disaster.
So Cardigan has that going for it too.
