Day 32
St Clears to Llansteffan: 8 miles
Dedication of the day: Whoever was in the tractor
Reason: You got rid of all the cows, whether you meant to or not.
St. Clears
So, I've been staying in St. Clears, a Carmarthenshire town where the first crossing over the Taf is. I'm staying here because there's an AirBnB here, as it turns out an AirBnB single bedroom with a David Bowie record in a house that reminds me of the Ace Hotel in New York - except nicer and more homey (I meant that as a compliment).
So, it was a great place where I got to watch Batman movies, pay extensively with a very drooly adorable cat, and I was offered a job at a chocolate factory. No, not seriously, but the other boarder there worked at the Nom Nom chocolate factory. If you're ever in Wales you'll see Nom Nom sold absolutely everywhere - but actually it only started three years ago, when the owner at 18 set about making chocolate bars in an impromptu set up in his mother's garden (it was either a shed or a van of some sort, I don't remember).
He recently flew his entire staff to Madagascar to see chocolate making there. Apparently inspired by Willy Wonka, the company has bought an abandoned chocolate factory that also used to be a tourist spot for children, and they made this creepy promo about it that I got to watch in the kitchen (fyi the hat in the beginning is a traditional welsh hat) and you can watch here.
But the key point here is that the staff get to take home the leaky bars - and so I got to have one of the burnt marmelade and one of the sea salt and caramel bars (I think it was Super Salted Caramel Chocolate). If you know me you know the salt went down well. They try all kinds of flavors on the staff, a lot of small runs and mixtures with alcohol (they're adult chocolates, obvs). Anyway, the factory is in Llanboidy not St. Clears, but I was very tempted to take a visit.
St. Clears itself is one of those towns that have a lot of nice, half-filled store fronts that you hope are increasing rather than decreasing, but you know are probably decreasing. There's a great craft market, a gourmet deli, and my favorite, a Bangladeshi restaurant that I went to - Elaichi - that was fabulous. I do love how everywhere in the UK you can get food from that region.
Onward to Llansteffan
Anyway, I walked from St. Clears to Llansteffan on the opposite side of the Afon Taf on yet another bright and sunny day. Really, three main things.
First, I'm finding this whole three pronged tidal estuary thing very confusing and disorienting. I can't figure out where I am, and I keep looking across the water to places I was at yesterday and entirely lose my bearings.
That possibly was the cause of point number two - being that somehow I followed the Wales Coast Path signage today and made a loop. I swear to you I didn't miss a sign, but I somehow made a 3 mile loop around a few fields. I ended up just making my way down a road and righted myself eventually, but I'm still not sure how it happened and am convinced someone turned a sign.
But backing up a moment to point number three - once again, the bane of my existence, the cows, oh, the cows. As soon as I set out from St. Clears, I hit a field, which I walked into. I was immediately beset by about 50 cows sauntering (yes, sauntering, it was a casual run where they looked like they were trying not to look like they were running) over to me. So of course I immediately backed off back past a gate. Which they then shoved their heads over inexplicably trying to do I don't know what.
I backed off way past the gate so they couldn't see me and debated my options. I walked one way to see if I could go around the field - nope. Same issue the other way. So I looked at the map and started to go the long way round. Then I looked back and the cows had started to move a bit away. I decided to wait.
Testament to my infinite patience, I waited 45 minutes watching individual cows each walk left as they chewed grass in that direction. They moved more swiftly once a tractor came to that part of the field, but when I decided they were gone and went back to the gate - of course there were still a few stragglers hiding in the hedge where I'd left them, waiting for me. I decided to pretend they were T-Rexes and that they couldn't see me if I didn't move (I also decided not looking at them also meant they couldn't see me, I think I was crossing Jurassic Park and the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal in The Hitchhikers Guide) so I spent another ten minutes as a statue, and eventually they left.
Then, as I started to hurry across the field, I suddenly noticed a whole clutch of cows were still over in one corner close to me lying in the shade. Of course as soon as they saw me they all stood up and took a step toward me. But that's when I decided pretending they weren't there meant they weren't, and so I looked straight ahead and basically ran up a hill away from them.
Seriously though, I don't understand what's up with the cows right now. It's ridiculous.
In any case, I made it through fields and cows and misplaced signs to get to where I was going, and went back to St. Clears for the night for some more chocolate.
