ARCHIVE PICTURES.
Sunday 2nd March 2003.
Penmaen to Torbay.
Image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service. Image reproduced with kind
permission of Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland
It's just after nine o'clock on this fine sunny Sunday morning. The sun is still low in the sky, there is a nip in the air, and it's great to be out walking again. The car park at Penmaen from where I begin my walk is a very popular starting point for many Gower walks. Empty now, except for my car, but I'm sure it won't stay that way for very long. Soon others will arrive to take advantage of the fine weather but for now, as I walk down the path towards Penmaen Burrows, it seems I have it pretty well to myself. A little further on the path divides, one branch leads to Three Cliffs Bay and the other, which I take, leads to Tor Bay.
. The path down to the beach is narrow and steep.
Gorse bushes clothe the cliff sides, their bright yellow flowers signal the approach of Spring but alongside the path, bramble bushes, still brown and bare, await their turn to spring again into life.
Just a few yards to go to reach the beach. At first I thought it was quite deserted but then I spotted a couple of people down near the edge of the water.
I walked down over the wet sand towards the edge of the tide. It is on its way out but not yet quite far enough for me get the picture I want of the slab of limestone rock from which Tor Bay gets its name. I didn't fancy getting wet feet so wandered back up the beach where I sat on the sand and waited for the tide to recede. Returning about fifteen minutes later, I took this picture of the Great Tor<.br>
From the rocks at the foot of the Great Tor I looked down the beach towards Oxwich.
Before resuming my walk I took another photo of the Tor from a different angle.
I walked along the edge of the tide for a little way then turned back up the beach to the low sand dunes at the end of the cliffs. My route back is along the cliffs but first I must climb to the top .
It's pretty steep but fortunately, just around the side, there is a fairly easy path to the top .
It is the worth the climb for the great views of Oxwich Bay.
The path along the top weaves its way through patches of woodland and here and there clumps of snowdrops are in bloom.
Soon I reached a point where the beach at Tor Bay came into view and at the foot of the Tor where I had stood to take my pictures I can see people walking around the Tor into Three Cliffs Bay.
On the landside of the path, the fields are cultivated.
The top of the cliffs are exposed to the worst of the weather as these windswept trees show..
In the last hour or so it has become a lot cloudier over the land.....
..... but still more or less clear over the sea. I sat here awhile looking out over the bay, following the sweep of the sandy beach to Oxwich and then along the headland to the Point.
Leaving the clifftop I follow the path back to the car park.
As I passed the bare trees I noticed that many have buds forming on the ends of the twigs. .
The car park is just a few hundred yards up this track and the end of my walk. In the background is the ridge of Cefn Bryn ...... 'bye.
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