Day 51
Cardiff to Peterstone Wentlooge: 9 miles
Favorite part of the day: Finishing this walk
Reason: Because I would never have to do it again. Also I got to go back to Cardiff and continue to eat my face off.
Oh. My. This is horrible
OK, first to clarify what isn't horrible. Cardiff. Cardiff isn't horrible.
As I mentioned yesterday Cardiff is a lovely city. The waterfront is adorable, the lagoon is picturesque, and today I learned the Atlantic Wharf area, while not wonderfully maintained at the moment, is still a pretty nice area. In particularly there were a lot of birds I've never seen - this despite the warnings to not let animals touch the water due to algae blooms (maybe birds are immune?).
Also there's food, and shopping, and a castle, and nice people, and all kinds of other things I'm sure that are wonderful.
But oh, was this walk awful.
It was a grey day - but I truly don't think it mattered. The walk out of urban Cardiff was fine (including a traffic circle with some fun traffic sculptures), but after that, sunny or not, it was just... ick. Until I got to the east Taff River anyway.
First, it was traffic circle after traffic circle. No problem there really, though I did get lost a few times, no big deal, just a bit tedious to keep crossing roundabouts.
But then at one point the trail veered off into the brush, toward the coast and the river and it was. . . it was just so dirty. I'd been remarking to P how even when walking through all the industry of Milford Haven or Port Talbot, the walk, at least, was still comparatively litter free. The houses might be a bit sooty, and my throat might be sore, but I barely saw two stray bags of potato chips in those places.
Whereas today, on the other hand, I saw four burnt out cars left in the mud and shallow water to rust. I wondered what crimes were committed that someone thought it necessary to light a car on fire and leave it there. I saw an incredible number of old bras and underwear, piles of garbage, smashed toilets, giant burnt out areas, hundreds of food wrappers and containers, old plastic of all kinds, etc, etc, etc, I think you get the picture.
I couldn't bring myself to take any pictures because either the garbage, or the sewage treatment plant I passed, or possibly both, smelled enough and the scene bothered me enough that I felt a little nauseous and just wanted to move on. Blarrrrgh. I couldn't help but wonder if I'd started the walk from Chepstow like other people do, and saw this on day three or four, whether I would have kept going. It was that problematic.
I also walked through a travellers site which wasn't any prettier - though a nice little boy there did actually point me in the right direction when I almost mistakenly walked out onto the highway.
Anyway, I was very, very very very happy to finally leave the garbage behind, and actually very suddenly found myself in a small nature reserve, with grass and trees and birds and absolutely zero burnt out cars in sight, which is the true mark of any good nature reserve.
That quickly ended and I found myself in an industrial estate full of mechanics and body shops.
Then that passed and I was at a canal besides the Taff river that was teeming with wildlife, herons, ducks, other birds I have no idea what they were, all came together to take my mind off of the trek through the garbage.
That's what Welsh people do
Once that reached the coast itself - it turned into a lot of mud by the Rumney Great Wharf. This part of the walk wasn't unpleasant, but also there wasn't much to the scenery.
So eventually I decided I'd had enough, and that I'd go inland to Peterstone Wentlooge - a hamlet (a term I learned in Peterstone Wentlooge because I mistakenly called it a town) that according to my book had a pub and busses. Well the pub was closed on Mondays, not a great start. Then I saw the bus stop and there were no schedules in it - meaning no busses. So my guidebook really was 0 for 2.
My thoughts turned to hitch hiking, which probably would have worked because there were enough cars and Welsh people actually pick people up (probably the lack of busses) - but then I saw every female travellers salvation walking down the road. A nice looking older woman. If you're a woman and you're ever in trouble and don't know what to do, find an old lady and ask for help. Don't worry if you seem bewildered or confused or out of breath, that only makes them want to take care of you more. If you seem really out of it you might even get cookies.
And while this works for most countries in the world, the Welsh are a particular brand of people. After I told her what happened and she laughed at me for thinking there would be a bus, this woman (who really I wouldn't say was an 'old' old lady yet, really she was just 'older' than me) explained that the pub was closed on Mondays, that she would have driven me back to Cardiff herself but she'd left her car as she was walking to meet her friend at the village hall, but that she'd take me to her nieces house and they'd call me a taxi.
So that's what we did. After finding the niece in her front yard picking up children's toys, the woman instantaneously just dialled a taxi, and when the automated service didn't work she went inside got a landline and when she got through yelled to me across the lawn 'Wait, what's your name?' and said a taxi would meet me at the closed pub ASAP. And when I kept saying 'oh I'm so sorry, and thank you so much' over and over again, my older lady friend waved it off and said 'Don't worry love, we're Welsh, and Welsh people do things like this for people.'
So while I wouldn't recommend anyone who isn't trying to do the whole Coast Path take on all of today's hike, I can recommend the people of Peterstone Wentlooge very highly.
