" Nicholaston and Oxwich Bay "

Date & start time: Sunday 13th March 2011, 12.30 pm start.

Location of Start : Oxwich Hill. Penrice, Gower, West Glam, Uk ( 33 503 881 )

Places visited : Nicholaston Woods and Oxwich Beach.

Walk details : 2.5 mls, 100 ft of ascent, 2 hrs 15 mins.

Highest point : The parking area three quarters of the way down the hill, 100 ft - 33 m.

Walked with : Sandra, Jackie, Gareth, Ann and the dogs, Sally, Harry and Bethan.

Weather : A sunny and blue sky day . . . all the way.

On the Sunday the day dawned bright and clear so after a leisurely breakfast we drive down to Gower

and had a delightful walk through the woods and across the Burrows to Oxwich Bay.

Plenty to see on this sociable, Sunday lunchtime trip to the beach.

New faces to the web site, or rather new this year, as we are down on Swansea and staying with our friends Sandra and Jackie.

Our son Gareth, here on the left of course, joins us for a walk down to Oxwich Beach.

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Three parking spaces on the side track leading off Oxwich Hill

allow access onto the walk through Nicholaston Woods.

Beautiful sunshine shining through to illuminate the woods.

Almost as soon as we started we met this lady who, with her husband, had even more dogs than we did.

She recommended we put the dogs on their leads, which I though was a bit rich as her's were not,

but then she said that there was a family of six Adders (poisonous snakes) basking in the sunshine

on the side of the track ahead. Good advice all round . . . thanks.

Despite careful looking we couldn't find six on a rock,

but we did find this one sunning itself on the bank a little further on . . . can you spot it ?

A close up should reveal the slightly green zig-zag stripes of the female adder, partially hidden in the vegetation.

[For extra help hold your cursor over the picture ]

Leaving her to continue to warm herself in the midday sun

we walked on down onto Oxwich Burrows.

We crossed the first bridge, turned right to the river, crossed the second (hidden) bridge

and headed for the third one over there in the distance.

Along the way the dogs had a swim in the slightly brackish water of the salt marsh.

The bridge at the back of the beach.

Jackie comments on her site that I look as if I'm holding the bridge up with my head !

- - - o o o - - -   As it happened I was just being a bit of a "bloke" checking out the structure of the bridge which looked like a solid wood construction on the photo above but was in fact a clever space-frame design.   - - - o o o - - -   The support over there look a bit precarious where the water is starting to scour out the sand beneath the lower blocks. It could be a problem in a year or two.   - - - o o o - - -

A photo by me this time showing the rather nice and relatively new bridge.

Heads down, deep in conversation no doubt.

Our current home in Cumbria and in particular the Wasdale Valley a few miles from us, came first in the "Nation's Favourite Place" competition.

Fewer people remember that in fact it was a close run competition and the runner up on the television poll was the Gower Peninsular

with Three Cliffs Bay and Oxwich being one of the focal points of their bid for fame.

It is with weather like this that it justifiably earns its praise.

Hear no evil see no evil, speak no evil and what's the other one ?

While we sit and relax, Harry keeps on playing with a stick he found.

Jackie has brought her Gps and encourages me to explain how it works . . . no peace for the wicked !

I checked hers out with the one I used on the Brecon Trip yesterday.

We walk on, down towards the low tide shoreline.

Sunshine, sea and sand . . . a great combination.

Harry, even happier now he has found an old tennis ball left on the beach.

Sandra and Sally

Add your own caption to this one !

The shoreline is full of shells of all sorts . . . here is the skeleton of a small starfish . . .

. . . and here a exquisite whelk shell of some sort.

Close up on Jackie's hand.

Harry pauses by the river, waiting for someone to throw the ball again.

Sunshine on the river as we return to the bridge.

All that remained was to re-trace our steps back through the woods.

On the way back the adder(s) had gone, disturbed no doubt by the many Sunday visitors using the track.

Back to the car at the end of the walk.

Click here or on the photo above for more pictures of our walk down to the beach, the Adder and the rest of the day

courtesy of Jackie's Picasa web site

[ The above photo reproduced without permission . . . but you get a free mention for your photos Jackie ;o) ]

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Technical note: Pictures taken with Ann's Canon 75 digital camera.

Resized in Photoshop, and built up on a Dreamweaver web builder.

This site best viewed with . . . a fine Brooklands Terrace curry later.

Go to Top . . . © RmH.2011 . . . Email me here

Previous walk - 12th March 2011 The Brecon 10 Peaks Challenge

A previous time up here - 10th October 2010 Swansea & Gower

Next walk - 14th-17th March 2011 Swansea and Camberley