The weather looked decidely stormy on Monday 8th August - however we had planned to go camping for months and had purchased a nice new stove and stove holder. We met up at Aust services and drove over to Oxwich bay where Vicki, Holly and myself quickly put up our tents. Vicki had a large tent with a porch where I often spend hours sitting in.
The first couple of days were spend getting used to the camp site which was full and quite different from the primitive state of Llanthony camp site. The new stove worked very well.
Our first trip was to Rhossili beach were we enjoyed the rough sea and had a bit of swim. We were in there for hours and kept warm with our wet suits.
Oxwhich bay swimming in the shallower water.
On Friday we walked from Oxwhich bay to Port Eynon. It was a little grey as we set off without food planning to eat in the best fish and chip shop in south Wales. We walked along the beach road past the hotel and then up into Oxwhich bay woods. Viki saw a sign and said 'you know where you going don't you.' 'Yes I said' and I was more or less sure. The straight route was by road and about 3-4 miles. However a far more interesting route looked to go around the ancient woods, cliffs and shore line. 'Hmm said Vicki - we've been on plenty of walks before when you've said that and got lost.' However they took my word for it and we walked into the ancient woodland where the trees were nearly bent horizontal - like something out of a Harry Potter movie. The path seemed to go on for ages and I thought about those chips and the empty bags. However it proved to be a very interesting path as it wound round little inlets and eventually when we did get to the point we saw some strange tides and also some seals in the water. The path broke into a cliff walk with huge cliffs towering above us and stony beach below. Part of the cliff had broken down and we took a detour down on to the beach and into the village of Port Eynon and straight for the best fish and chip shop on the gower. At £25 they had to be good - and sure enough they were worth every penny. Our next mission was to the beach shops where Holly bought her long awaited for crocks and I bought some very expensive shorts costing £34. Viki thought I looked hillarious as I had my doctor martins on too.
We walked back looking in rock pools where Holly found some star fish. We also made our own fire using some kindling and sat round for a few hours piling it on - and it roared with the drift wood we found for it.
We eventually made our way to Oxwhich bay and decided to have tea in the hotel - cake and a drink which proved to be very expensive. however we had a great time and walked back to the tent.
Saturday spent mostly on the camp site with a short walk down to the sea and along to Oxwich green. In the evening we had a game of monopoly in the porch of the tent which went on for hours - with Holly winning easily.
On the Sunday we travelled down to Rhosllli bay - me being careful not to leave the keys in the car. We put our wet suits on - however the sea was like a mill pond and no waves at all. We had a bit of a swim and walked up to the hotel on the top of the cliffs. We had our sunday lunch with a lovely view of the bay and then walked back down on to the beach. We sat on the beach and I started work on a mega sand castle whilst Vicki and Holly were in the water. Not only did I build a huge castle and moat but I got some huge stones and built a mini stone henge! It looked quite impressive! We decided to light a fire and have tea on the beach so I had to pop off and buy some food from the garage ten miles away. When I got back we collected drift wood and made a huge fire and cooked our food on top of the fire. It became quite a big fire and we sat and watched it until late in the evening. We watched the sun go down and it felt sad to put the fire out later on.
Monday morning I walked along the cliffs and sat down and enjoyed the view across to Porteynon. IN the vening we walked down to the hotel for a drink. That night there was a monsoon and the people next to us were making a hell of a racket. It seemed that there tent had leaked.
We travelleed back in the morning after putting the tents down in the rain - sad to leave Oxwich again but no doubt will be back sometime.
