Day 36
Kidwelly to Burry Port: 11 miles (unfortunately in a few stages)
Thing I learned of the day: Don't stray from the path
Reason: While it's not like I'm going to die in the desert - it is still possible to get very, very, very lost here.
So today (or the two days it actually took me to do this walk) wasn't great. Not because of the scenery or the sights, Cefn Sidan Sands in particular was gorgeous. Not because of the weather, which was fine. But because if you take a wrong turn in Pembrey Country Park, eventually you start to think you're going to run into David Bowie and that little dwarf troll thing (wait, am I confusing Labyrinth with The Neverending Story? I honestly don't know).
What I mean by that is you will get very, very lost, just like I did.
Everything started fine
Everything started off fine. I followed the path into the forest at Pembrey Country Park. But I seemed to have gone in at the wrong point, so I then tried to correct to where I was supposed to be, using only the one basic map at the entry and the very sketchy sketch from my guidebook.
As it turns out, when you're in a flat forest with straight roads at around noon, all the roads look the same and it's very hard to get your sense of direction. After wandering for at least an hour, I finally ran into a couple and asked them where I was. They showed me (it was literally the exact opposite of where I wanted to be) and then they basically physically pointed me in the right direction and told me to just keep walking that way and everything would be fine.
So I did. Except the road turned. And I saw a field and thought I didn't want to lose the landmark and get turned around again. So I took a side path.
Long story short, somehow I ended up in the middle of a NASCAR like racetrack.
Mistakenly thinking this was the airfield in my map, I tried to skirt it, and ended up at a dead end where either I'd have to go a mile back where I came from or go through a broken piece of fence into the racetrack. Of course I chose the latter, and just hoped the several dozen people at the racetrack itself didn't care I was there. And honestly they seemed not to. No one said anything as I walked pretty much 75 percent of the property, trying to find a way out.
Eventually I crawled under a fence and ended up in a field of wild parsnip, which although it sounds cute actually produces a fiery allergic reaction on every piece of skin it touches which stays for at least a day. Leave it to the British to call something that should be called the venemous dragon plant, wild parsnip instead. If that wasn't enough, I actually couldn't find a way out of the stupid field, so I had to recrawl back under the fence into the racetrack.
Feeling like every eye in the place was staring at me and laughing, I finally found a route out, back toward Kidwelly, and decided I'd wandered around enough for the day.
So let's pretend this is the same day
Anyway. . . When I got to Cefn Sidan Sands, it turned out to be a particularly beautiful place. First of all, it's 8 miles of golden sand that slants at such a low gradient, there's never more than a few inches of water. Second, that and its Atlantic facing posture makes it a great place for wind-propelled vehicles, and so the place was covered with sailboats on wheels and kiteboarders on wheels and kite carts and other things I'm not sure what the names are for. And third, because of its position and difficult currents, it was a magnet for shipwrecks.
These days, that means there's still shipwrecks to see, which is pretty cool. Of course in the 19th century it wasn't so cool, when according to one sign the Cambrian Times reported 'Every winter, covered with wrecks, the loss of life and valuable cargoes was something terrible. The scene of fearful wrecks and human suffering. At low water, on the immense desert of sand, were to be seen the melancholy mementoes of wrecked ships, their bleached and rotted timbers and ribs obtruding above the sand.'
OK, so at the time it sounds actually awful. But nowadays walking around a wrecked ship with seaweed growing all over it seems pretty awesome.
After taking in the beauty of Cefn Sidan Sands for a few miles, the path turns inland cutting through the Coast Park. In short order I saw: a Mickey Mouse bouncey castle; a two person cart type roller coaster thing, a frisbee golf course; people skiing down an all weather ski slope; and two giant anchors pulled up from wrecks on the beach.
Back in the real world
Back outside the park, I walked through to Pembrey and Burry Port. Pembrey had been connected to coal mines by canals, and was used as a loading point for export. When the harbor started having silting problems, the sand dunes were used as an explosives factory, then became a Royal Ordinance Factory and as such suffered the first Blitz bombing in WWII.
Burry Port was also used for exporting iron and coal, and was relatively busy in the 19th and early 20th centuries. But Burry Port's current claim to fame has nothing to do with coal, but with Amelia Earhart. You see, this is where she came ashore in 1928 when she became the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean by plane. There are at least 4 memorials that I found. One further south noting where the seaplane Friendship landed. Then there's the original buoy at the head of the harbor that the seaplane was docked to. Then there's a stone memorial noting where she came ashore from the seaplane. Then of course there's a signpost in the roundabout showing the distance to New York and other points on the flight.
Really, it's not everyday you get to see a real shipwreck and Amelia Earhart memorabilia.
