New Quay to Aberporth 3 July 2014

Ringlet Dolphin status, Aberporth		Leaving New Quay harbour on the west side we went uphill to a slate quarry which stood above a very smelly and noisy “fish factory”, where shellfish seemed to be clattering through chutes and on to conveyor belts.  This turned out to be a dead end and we had to return to find the path above the quarry, which continued along the top of the cliffs.  This path enters into a more remote section of cliff than heretofore, is less frequented and in places somewhat overgrown, but it is very scenic where small coves occur and rivers descend.  Unfortunately, these features also mean that the path is mostly going either up or down, especially towards the end, making it very tiring.  On top of this, the distance to the next place for services like buses (Aberporth) was overlong for these conditions, so that we did not arrive there until about 6pm, with the next bus not until 6.54.  We tried some taxi numbers provided (rather ungraciously) by the landlady of the Ship inn above the harbour, but none were willing to take us back to New Quay and we had to await the 7pm bus.  Our walk problems were exacerbated by a landslip along the central part of the walk, necessitating a long diversion at Cwmtydu inland about a mile from the coast, using minor roads parallel to the coast, and we were only able to return to the path at Pontgarreg, 3 km further on.             The sea off this coast is good for spotting bottlenose dolphins and we did glimpse some once, although we failed to see any seals.  Fulmars, choughs and peregrines flew along the cliffs, as well as herring gulls.  Just after Tresaith shags were nesting on the cliffs and sea rocks.  A flock of swifts joined house martins taking flies just above our heads as we rose from New Quay, and flocks of jackdaws were prominent in many places.  In the scrub, apart from linnets and pipits, we were treated to the striking song of a garden warbler.  Due to dull conditions and fine rain, butterflies were less active. Most of them were “browns”; the most frequent was ringlet.  Plants were similar to previous days, but there were also long uninteresting stretches of bracken.  There was much foxglove and red campion, but flowers like bell heather, slender and trailing St. John’s-wort, tutsan and betony were sparse.  A surprising find was burnet-saxifrage growing as tall as a metre high.  We noticed golden-rod and saw-wort for the first time as they were coming into bud.  Several eyebrights were seen - Euphrasia arctica, confusa and nemorosa.  Wooded areas were full of large ferns, including hart’s tongue, polypody, and lady fern, both shield-ferns and scaly male fern.  Wet areas near streams at times provided common spotted orchid, lesser marshwort, opposite-leaved golden-saxifrage and tufted forget-me-not.             Just before the path diversion we came down to Cwmtydu, which had a pleasant beach and stream with common spotted orchids.  The pebble bank featured tall stacks of balanced pebbles, yet another example of the stone-building fad.  Another stream was dominated by 2-metre tall Indian balsam that was also spreading through the bracken into the heath vegetation itself.  The peninsula of Ynys-Lochtyn, projecting north from near Llangrannog, was a prominent feature most of the day.  At its base is a steep conical hill with the remains of an Iron Age encampment on it.  Coves west from here were sandy, steep, scenic and mostly small, but we did not have to time to visit them properly.  Above that at Llangrannog was a statue of Saint Caraddog.  After the cove at Tresaith, where abundant climbing corydalis lined the path coming down and we passed the commendable Ship Inn (where we were to have lunch on a sunny day off two days later), the path was much easier because used frequently by people from the caravans that extend between there and Aberporth, and we were glad to leave steep steps and slopes behind.  Along this stretch was access to low rock-platforms from which locals regularly practice cliff-diving into the sea, as we were to witness on our revisit on Saturday.  Several retired railway-carriages had been planted as homes along this track as we neared Aberporth.  When we arrived at Aberporth we found it had a long sandy beach extending well inland and it took quite a while to get round the head of this and over a river-bridge to access the centre of the town.              Shelling was quite good on Aberporth beach when we returned with time to explore among its seaweed-covered rocks.  At the head of the beach were moored distinctive narrow Celtic longboats used for ocean racing using four rowers and a cox.  At Tresaith we also had time to climb over the quartz-veined slate rocks at the east end of the beach to see the waterfall come down the cliff, refreshed by the recent storms.
New Quay Llangrannog Quartz & rocks, Tresaith Solecurtus scopula	Tresaith Sunset, Tresaith beach Beach party, Tresaith, & waterfall		Cliff jumping, Aberporth Aberporth beach Celtic longboats, Aberporth