Llanrhystud to Aberaeron 1 July 2014

White mignonette Aberarth

From Llanrhystud we took the lane down past the south side of the caravan park that occupies the front and walked south along the coast.  We encountered a fearsome dark giant horsefly along the verge.  Wales is one of the strongholds of this species which frequents boggy moorland.  There was also white mignonette in the hedgerow.  Because of damage to this coast during the last winter the coast path had been diverted inland at times, but we found that we could progress by a combination of walking the beach and the grass top of the low boulder-clay cliff above.  As it was high tide, the beach was mostly boulders and could be tedious to walk, except for intervals of coarse sand and fine shingle, so that it was good to be able to use grassier paths on the cliff top from time to time.  The shells were winkles and limpets in the main, but a couple of less common members of the Venus family cropped up – Clausinella fasciata and Timoclea ovata.  This beach is little used and there were oyster-catchers with partially-grown chicks, flocks of curlews and ringed plovers.  We also saw more black-headed gulls than before during this session.  Eventually we reached higher, but more gently shelving cliffs than the last two days, where a path wended its way at not too high a level.  The vegetation was similar to the last days’, not so diverse, but still included bitter vetch and trailing St. John’s-wort.  Occasional streams provided further variety with tufted and creeping forget-me-nots, lesser marshwort and fool’s watercress.  As we approached Aberarth we could see and hear the main road only 100 metres away above us, but the terrain was still very rural, with occasional red kites overhead.  We gradually descended into the village itself with the river Arth (“bear”), cascading down rocky steps, while the lanes were pleasant and flowery, eventually leading back to the shore at the south end of the village.  From here it was beach and beach-head again, both mostly shingle, which we were glad to leave for paved promenade through Aberaeron, our destination.  The front was dull, rocky and unattractive and we turned inland at the central harbour and walked up Market Street, past people whose main activity seemed to be eating ice creams or strolling very slowly spreading across the entire pavement.  Many seemed very old and we met one more able resident who claimed that they were also rather odd and kept to a relaxed way of life where one could not expect time-keeping.  We checked bus-times and had time for a coffee at the post-office-cum-café, where all the customers were using tables outside on the pavement because of one old lady droning on continually in very loud Welsh to an increasingly desperate-looking companion, so loudly that no-one could stay inside the shop. The manageress said the old lady came there every day for four hours – very irksome.  The local’s time-keeping remark was borne out by the fact that our planned bus never arrived and we had to take a different service that eventually turned up half an hour later!

Grassland above shore, Llanrhystud Pebbles, Aberarthred Aberaeron harbour