Moylgrove to Newport 7 July 2014

Witches' Cauldron Razorbill beak Toad Drinker moth caterpillar

We caught the 10.31am Poppit Rocket from Newport to Moylegrove, so that we could walk back to our hotel, although this cost some time, about 1.5 hours.  We walked back down to the sea and continued the coast path along the cliffs.  These were less scenic than yesterday, but there were occasional caves, sea rocks and rock arches, one of which formed the entrance to an enclosed cove Pwll-y-Wrach ("Witches' Cauldron") and the collapsed sea-cave at Traeth Bâch, where we found the seed-heads of spring squill on a grassy slope, along with western eyebright and devil’s-bit scabious.  There was a chalybeate (iron-rich) spring here.  One cliff had a colony of razorbills, which were to be seen flying back and forth with food, and forming small rafts on the sea.  Choughs were seen occasionally, and rock doves.  Along the path in the early stages, we saw five different lizards attempting to sun themselves (although it was persistently overcast).  They remained close to the bracken and quickly dived out of sight.  We also saw four carcases of common shrew, which somehow always contrive to die in the middle of the path.  Much of the path was dominated by bracken, sometimes to head height, which became a problem when heavy rain set in, as we got wetter from brushing through dripping bracken than we did from the rain itself.  A newly emerged drinker moth was struggling to expand its wings in time in the wet conditions.  Caterpillars of the same moth were also actively seeking pupation sites.  As usual there was continual in-and-out round coves and going up and down, but the path was usually very close to the cliff edge, with good views and sometimes sea stacks and arches (e.g. Bwn Bach).  After some hours of rain the paths became rivers, stones slick and soil turned to mud.  The weather was welcome to some, such as the toad we saw crossing the path.  A brief dry interval as we were rounding Pen Cafnau into Newport Bay, with Newport Sands visible ahead of us, allowed us to examine perennial centaury, which is very rare and confined to this area.  It formed tufts of flowering stems together with decumbent non-flowering stems, while the flowers were substantially larger than those of the other centauries.  The lack of sun, unfortunately, meant that we did not see the flowers open, but we returned two days later to see them in their full glory.  The plants grew by the path in a short section (where there were also spring squill seed-heads), with wild thyme in a grassy slope above the path, where they were fenced off, and among rocks on the cliff slope the other side of the path, where it often grew with tufts of a glaucous form of fescue.  Through the last area descended a hidden spring marked by a line of hemlock water-dropwort, in which there was a good colony of southern marsh orchids.  We gradually walked downhill, past the top of Pen Pistyll waterfall as it dropped to the beach, to the shore at Newport Sands, but the tide was well up and the rain now very hard, and we continued along the coast path across the golf course which was now a mixture of lakes and sodden turf.  Eventually we gained the north bank of the River Nyfer, which separates Newport Sands from the village itself.  It is a kilometre up the river to the road bridge over it, and the trail continues along the south bank downstream.  By the river were several saltmarsh plants, including frog rush and parsley water-dropwort, while we also saw a heron and a shelduck with a brood of six chicks.  We came up Long Road into the centre of Newport and our hotel.  We had the problem of drying out all our sodden clothes and boots before we went out to dinner at the nearby Cnapan restaurant.  A postcard of Newport I had carried all day in my pouch was very soiled.  (We returned two days later at low-tide to search for shells on the extensive Newport Sands).

Perennial centaury Southern marsh orchid Newport Sands