Tal-y-bont to Barmouth 1/7/2013

 

Greater quaking-grass   Barmouth harbour     Narrow-leaved everlasting-pea

We parked at the head of the beach below Tal-y-Bont station.  Where yesterday afternoon we could only see waves crashing on jumbled rocks at high tide, this morning it was low tide and a wide clear sandy beach showed below, so we set out along here again, with some of yesterday’s shells but an increase in edible cockle and the first occurrence of Macoma baltica, showing that we were approaching the large estuary of Afon Mawddach.  The edge of the tide was marked by millions of stranded moon jellyfish like previous days.  The OS map shows clear sand all the way to Barmouth, but the sea came up to beach-protection rocks at Llanaber, showing again how the topography of this coast has changed very considerably since it was last surveyed.  For this reason the coast path follows an inland route nowadays.  We had to join it by a short scramble over rocks up to a concrete ramp that enabled us to cross the railway and get to pavement beside the A496. A churchyard extended along the cliffs, with a group of martagon lilies.  A kilometre later a footpath went back down the cliffs, past a large colony of greater quaking-grass.  Across the railway again we were at the end of a seafront concrete esplanade that runs the length of Barmouth.  Although we could also have gone down on the sands below, these were crossed by close groynes that would have made progress difficult, so we followed the road.  After a break for fresh doughnuts we continued to the end by the harbour.  This is where a passenger ferry plies across the estuary, but only at 10am or 4pm.  As it was now noon we walked round the harbour to the railway viaduct which has a walkway beside it, passing narrow-leaved everlasting-pea.  When we had walked the mile of this route to Morfa Mawddach station we found the footpath was closed for repairs to an embankment and we could not continue.  It was only half an hour before a train back to Tal-y-Bont, so we had our lunch and a close view of a stonechat on the fence.  We should restart our coast walk next year from the other side of the passenger ferry.   Mawddach Estuary & railway viaduct