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| A Welsh Gower Pony in Rhossili |
We traveled from the Pembrokeshire coast to the Gower (Welsh: Gŵyr) Peninsula, which, in 1956 became the first area in the United Kingdom to be designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
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| Map: Contour Walking tours |
Covering about 70 square miles, Gower is known for its coastline that projects toward the Bristol Channel and is bounded by Loughor Estuary to the north and Swansea Bay to the east. The highest point is just 633 feet. The southern coast consists of a series of small, rocky or sandy bays and larger beaches. The northern coast is mainly salt marsh, has fewer beaches and is home to the cockle-beds of Penclawdd.
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| Finally, some coast! |
The interior is predominantly farmland and common land. The population mainly resides in small villages and communities with some suburban development in eastern Gower, part of the Swansea Urban Area.
It took us longer to get there than we had anticipated, so the entire afternoon was occupied with roundabouts, traffic circles and trying to find our rental house.
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| Not easy to reach |
We were using Booking.com’s GPS coordinates and failing to find the house.
After poring through all my confirmations, I found a message with specific instructions: Take a left turn over a small bridge onto Sandy Lane, follow the road up hill … on the right you will see a driveway coming down in the opposite direction. You can either reverse up or go up Sandy Lane a bit further and turn around. The top section of Sandy Lane is a bumpy unadapted road.
That driveway was steep … and narrow … and steep … No way I could reverse up it. So, I drove up to the unadapted section (a nicer way of saying so covered with potholes you had to protect your kidneys and hubcaps). Then I had to punch the accelerator to get my car to go up the hill to the house. Thank goodness I never encountered another car while driving up, although I did see some go by in the opposite direction when we were in the house.
The house, called Heyboys, was fabulous and much more than we needed. It had three bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen and a washer and dryer.
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| Too bad we were staying only one night; Photos: Booking.com |
We did laundry, but didn’t have supplies to cook dinner.
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| Delicious! Photo: Verdi's |
We drove down the steep driveway and over to Mumbles Beach, where we got our much-wanted Italian food at Verdi's, a casual Italian restaurant/ice cream parlor. The portions were huge, so we didn’t make it to ice cream.
I thought maybe the town's name, Mumbles, might have something to do with the sound of the ocean.
Nope!
The name Mumbles is derived from the French word mamelles, which means breasts, and originally referred to the two islets at the end of the promontory, which some sailors thought looked like breasts (the same origin story as the Tetons). Mumbles is now the name of the entire village.
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| The mamelles at Mumbles; Photo: OneCameraOneLens.com |
Rhossili
The next morning, we decided to go to Rhossili to see if we could find some wild Gower Ponies.
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| Wild horses on a wild beach |
After going to the wrong Rhossili (maybe an office building somewhere near where we had eaten the night before in Mumbles), we finally got on the right path and made it there after a 40-minute drive across the Peninsula.
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| Truly an area of outstanding natural beauty |
The area became famous in 1823, when archaeologists found a fairly complete Upper Paleolithic human skeleton in Paviland Cave on the Peninsula. This was the first human fossil to have been found anywhere in the world and is still the oldest ceremonial burial found in Western Europe. The scientists named the body the Red Lady of Paviland because the skeleton was dyed in red ochre. Later, investigators determined that the red lady was actually a male dated to around 33,000 years ago.
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| A rugged coastline |
Gower is home to many ancient barrows, burial chambers, tombs, flint finds related to toolmaking, a rock drawing of a Red Deer that may be the oldest cave art found in Great Britain, Bronze Age standing stones, remains of a Roman fort and six castles.
We didn’t go to any of them.
Instead, we opted for natural beauty and went to Worm’s Head (Welsh: Pen Pyrrod).
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| The furthest westerly point of the Gower Peninsula |
The name Worm's Head is derived from an Old English word wyrm for sea serpent, which refers to the limestone headland that rises out of the sea.
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| Worm's Head |
The mile-long headland comprises three islands: the Inner Head, the Middle Head that features a collapsed sea cave known as the Devil's Bridge and the Outer Head.
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| The tide was coming in |
Worm's Head is only accessible on foot for 2½ hours either side of low tide. It is dangerous (potentially fatal) to attempt to wade or swim to the causeway from the mainland any other time. We didn’t go out there because the tide was in and because we didn’t want to die.
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| Maybe someone risked it |
The poet Dylan Thomas once described the Worm's Head as "the very promontory of depression" after spending the night there when he was trapped by the tide.
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| Dylan Thomas with his wife and mother in Rhossili; Photo: Wales Online |
The morning we went was the most beautiful day of the entire trip, so there was no depression at all.
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| Gorgeous |
It was even warm. Not hot, just a pleasant breezy warmth.
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| Surfers were also enjoying the weather |
We walked the pleasant pathway (listed as "accessible" and I guess it was) …
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| A nice stroll; Photo: Caty Stevens |
We looked for birds …
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Great Black-backed Gulls
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Herring Gulls
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| Eurasian Linnets |
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| A White Wagtail |
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| Great Tits |
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| Northern Wheatears |
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| European Stonechats |
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| A Dunnock |
But, best of all were the Gower Ponies.
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| Ponies grazing by the beach |
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| Iron Age Celtic brooch; Photo: MMA |
Native ponies existed in Wales before 1600 BC, probably evolved from the prehistoric Celtic pony. Welsh ponies were primarily developed in Wales, and their ancestors existed in the British Isles prior to the arrival of the Roman Empire.
Bands of ponies roamed in a semi-feral state, climbing mountains, leaping ravines and running over rough moorland terrain.
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| A band of feral Ponies |
They developed into a hardy breed due to the harsh climate, limited shelter and sparse food sources of their native country. At some point in their development, the Welsh breeds had some Arabian blood added, although this did not take away the physical characteristics that make the breed unique.
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| I love those feet, which are feathered to stay warm |
Over time, many of the wild Ponies were domesticated. On the upland farms of Wales, Welsh Ponies would often have to do everything from plowing a field to carrying a farmer to market or driving a family to services on Sunday. When coal mining became important to the economy of the British Isles, many Ponies were harnessed for use in mines, above and below ground.
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| A "Pit Pony" in a mine; Photo: ThisIsMoney |
There are more than 250 wild Ponies on Gower (well, somewhat wild, but most likely descendants of domesticated stock). The ones we saw were small and stocky with shaggy manes and feathered feet.
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| Ruggedly beautiful |
By the way, what is the difference between a Pony and a Horse? An average Pony measures below 14.2 hands (4.7 feet at the shoulder) at maturity (around 6-7 years old) and a Horse measures above 14.2 hands at maturity (around 7-8 years old).
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| There were adults and a couple of foals right by the trail above the beach |
The Ponies we saw seemed cool with all the people passing by although one foal was very tentative about crossing the path.
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| We gave it wide berth and it finally moved and seemed to relax |
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| Don't worry, I have a long lens |
There are multiple warning signs about not approaching the Gower Ponies, especially since tourists have spooked them before, once resulting in a foal falling off a cliff and dying.
I don’t know if the Ponies got the memo; several times we saw them approaching people. And, we saw several people we felt were too close to the Ponies.
We had a marvelous time at Worm’s Head. It is absolutely stunning.
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| Caty and me enjoying the sunshine |
But, we had to get to Cardiff to turn in the rental car. Well, it turns out that we didn’t really have to hurry; the Europcar office at the extremely quiet Cardiff Airport was closed at 5:00 p.m. and we just dropped the keys in a box.
We stopped at the hotel first to drop off the luggage. That meant parallel parking, dragging luggage down the street and up two flights of stairs. But, that was the last time we had to deal with a car!
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| Fortunately, Cardiff is a good walking city |
Trip date: June 6 - 20, 2024
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