Gower
4 :
We followed the coast road out of Mumbles, past Mumbles Pier,
Bracelet Bay and round the Mumbles Hill 
headland,
within five minutes we reached Langland Bay. The sun was shining on Langland
Bay and we decided to stay awhile.
The road leading down to Langland Bay is very steep and it is a cul-de-sac,
so parking could be a problem in the high season. We were fortunate that
it was mid October and were able to park close to the beach steps with
no problems.
We walked down a few steps to a cafe and found a pleasant "balcony"
area. There are tables and chairs set out on the balcony and if you are
lucky enough to get a table you are rewarded with great views of the Bay
and all that goes on there. We had a nice cup of tea and enjoyed
the view before deciding to take advantage of the improvement in the weather
and stretch our legs.
The coastal path runs through the cafe area and you have a choice of
heading East around the Mumbles headland via Limeslade Bay and Bracelet
Bay to Mumbles Pier, or, West via Langland Bay and round 
Newton
Cliff to Caswell Bay.
We chose to walk to Caswell Bay. The path takes you past a large number
of beach huts in Langland, with many of them being in a pretty bad state
of repair. The original beach huts were erected in the 1920's and 30's
and they are still popular to this day. The local council own them and
although they are only 3m (10ft) square and they have no facilities they
are in great demand and each year applicants names are put into a hat
with the lucky ones renting the huts for the season. I can imagine they
will be demolishing them soon and "developing" the site. Langland
beach itself is a fantastic beach and I imagine it must be packed in the
summer months. Children will love it for the rock pools and the wide expanse
of golden sands. There were a surprising number of people on Langland
beach on the day of our visit considering it was a mid October day, including
surfers, swimmers, paddlers, dog walkers, and just plain walkers. Now
that the sun was out the sea looked inviting and I would have taken a
dip in the sea myself except for the omission of the beach towel, again.
I took some pictures of the swimmers and surfers instead and we carried
on across the Bay and round the headland of Newton Cliff toward Caswell
Bay.
It is an easy, safe walk with some delightful views of the Gower coastline,
we passed several other walkers,( and a few on mountain bikes), and despite
there being one steeper section the path was fine for 
a
young mother with her child in a pram.
As is often the case the weather changes on reaching the top of a climb
and today was to prove no exception. On reaching our first sight of Caswell
Bay a big black cloud blocked out the sun. This gave us a bad impression
of the Bay but I am sure a bit of sunshine and the removal of the big
carbuncle (a block of flats) plonked right on the edge of the bay could
improve our impression of Caswell Bay.
Eira Wyn decided that we had walked far enough so we returned to the
car at Langland Bay for the short drive back to our hotel in Swansea.
Tip !
If, like ourselves, you are too late to book an hotel on the
Gower, don't worry, Swansea is so close to the Gower that you can get
the best of both worlds by booking an hotel
in Swansea.
Page 1 of the Gower : Port Eynon >
Page 2 of the Gower : Oxwich Bay >
Page 3 of the Gower : Mumbles >
Page 4 of the Gower : Langland Bay >
