Since changing my job in June/July, I’ve developed a working rota that grants me every other Monday as a rest day, with no further questions asked. One one of these ‘happy Mondays’, I decided to make my way across the Severn Estuary and in to South Wales.
My goal was to climb ‘The Skirrid’ for the very first time and also try out a ten-to-eleven mile circular route that I’d sketched out in advance.
Less than a year after my first visit to the Berwyn mountains with three friends, I’d decided to take the walking group with me on a return to the same area, as part of a Bank Holiday weekend camping trip in Snowdonia.
What I probably didn’t make very clear is that this meant leaving the National Park boundary to begin the walk… Hence why the area is known to be far less busy than the more recognised mountains of Mid and North Wales.
A four-day Easter break had begun. No need to be up early or endure slow-moving traffic in a journey to the mundane. It was forecast to be a bright and beautiful day. I wanted to spend it outside but I didn’t want to have to travel far.
Having moved to Weston-super-Mare only a few weeks earlier, I’d decided that this would be my first proper walk from my new doorstep. Leaving the car alone, I would walk in the direction of Sand Point.
A few years ago, I walked the entire length of the West Somerset Coast Path (which also forms a completed portion of the England Coast Path) with my friend Anna. I’d been meaning to return and revisit a couple of areas but was mainly put off by the inability to plot an appealing circular route that would avoid the many roads.
Well, tarmac or not, I was prepared to revisit this lesser-travelled stretch of coast on a particularly windy day, one weekend at the beginning of 2019.
Walks With Olly 