Day 42
Hillend to Rhossili: 5 miles
Dedication of the day: To Edgar Evans
Reason: The first of the Captain Scott Antarctic expedition to die, he stayed in Rhossili for a time - in the Air BnB I moved into.
The weather cleared - and everything's beautiful
So today we truly got to enjoy the Rhossili Bay that gets put on the best beaches in the world and in Europe lists. The last few days of rain made way for bright blue skies, warm temperatures and only light wind.
And so I took on the not-as-strenuous-as-it-looks challenge of walking from the campsite at Hillend to Rhossili. It's not as strenuous because while in between the two is a giant hill littered with ancient cromlechs and cairns - that's not the path the Wales Coast Path takes. The WCP keeps behind the beach and is a gentle rise from Hillend, past the priory halfway to Rhossili, and then a slightly more strenuous walk for the final climb onto Rhossili, which sits on a clifftop above the bay.
It being a beautiful weekend day, there were a lot of people in the area (not that it seemed crowded as the beach is so huge). But thankfully it seemed like the majority of people either went up the larger hill or down on the beach - I only passed one group (not including horses and sheep) the whole way.
That isn't to say there were actually a ton of people there - I'd been wondering how a place so close to urban centers like Swansea and Cardiff could still be considered remote. It's only a 30 minute drive from Swansea. But somehow it manages - when you're driving out of Swansea suburbs, there's a sign noting the Gower starts here and then very suddenly there are no more suburbs and only fields, trees and vistas. To get all the way to Rhossili or Hillend takes some tiny country road driving, and there aren't many places to actually stay, which might keep the numbers down a bit. That said, even if there were a ton of people here, the beach is so huge it still might seem deserted.
Anyway, the views as I climbed between Hillend and Rhossili were sublime - I could see Burry Holms from yesterday's hike and the huge dunes slowly dwindling into a picture-postcard view at the end of the broad sweep of Rhossili Bay. And as I got closer to Worms Head that view got more and more picturesque as well. By the time I reached P in Rhossili, I had about 300 pictures on my camera - which might explain why over the next few days it decided to start to self-destruct.
Irrelevant Fun Fact: it almost took the same time for P to drive from Hillend to Rhossili as it took me to walk - North and South Gower don't aren't particularly well connected, and the road is a teeny tiny one lane one.
A Look Around Rhossili
After I got to Rhossili we made our way through the village and noticed there wasn't much there - which was great. A few dozen adorable and well landscaped stone cottages, a visitor center, a pub, a cafe, a few ice cream and knick knack shops and a well set Norman-era church were all that was perched high up overlooking the Bay and Worms Head. It was lovely.
Given the limited options and a recommendation from our AirBnB host, we went to the Bay Bistro and Coffee House - which has a back porch filled with brightly painted picnic tables and a surf rental shop overlooking the whole bay. Sometimes places with views have terrible food - not even remotely the case here. I got a peach and goats cheese salad and it was hands down the brightest salad I'd ever eaten. I wanted to paint it it was so lovely. Also, yes it was really, really good - I didn't realize before now that peaches and goats cheese even went together - but now I'm a big fan (and also edible flowers).
After relaxing a bit more, we hiked the second half of the walk directly to the backdoor of our AirBnB house in nearby Middleton. Obviously the views of Worms Head were stunning - but the cliff walk around the tip of the peninsula was equally gorgeous - lots of folded cliffs crashing into the sea over tiny sheltered beaches.
Walking through the field back to our AirBnB (incidentally, whose claim to fame is that it once played host to Antarctic explorer Edgar Evans - of Captain Scott fame), I decided Gower lived up to the hype. And I looked forward to a longer hike on the south coast in the morning.
