The Severn tunnel being shut for its annual maintenance - and with the replacement bus service leaving Bristol too late in the morning and returning too early in the afternoon to accommodate anyone who works for a living - I've girded my lions for two weeks (Wednesday to Friday) of to-ing and fro-ing to Cardiff to drop the Northerner off and pick him up. The plan - as every year - was to stay there during the day and walk Cwtch somewhere interesting, but on Wednesday and Thursday this last week the temperature reached over 30°C, which is way too hot to be out all day with a dog.
But Friday was several degrees cooler, so after our morning chauffeuring stint ended, Cwtch and I headed for one of our favourite places, Ogmore-by-Sea.
Having parked in the beach car park, we set off along the coast in a south-easterly direction towards Southerndown. The landscape was very familiar, as Cwtch and I had walked a short way further along this part of the coast in October 2023 - in fact, the south-easternmost point of our route touched the north-westernmost point of that earlier walk.
a female stonechat
We turned away from the coast up a dry valley to a road; then, just past West Farm Coastal Retreat, our route took us up a lovely walled bridle path that was full of flowers ...
... to a lane called Heol y Mynydd, which in turn led to an area of common land, off which we diverted into a dry - and very sandy - glacial valley skirting the southern edge of Ogmore Down.
This part of the valley has the name Pant Mari Flanders, allegedly after one of several Flemish settlers who came here in the Middle Ages, having either fled religious persecution or been enticed to move here from the Low Countries with promises of rich farmland. The cowl around this well dates from this time.
Top row: thrift and bird's-foot-trefoil; red clover; bristly hawksbeard; slender thistles
Middle row: poppy; an escaped snapdragon; red campion; dog roses, one with a thick-legged flower beetle
Bottom row: spiny sowthistle; foxgloves; rough hawkbit; scurvy grass
Eventually we reached the River Ogmore, also very familiar from previous visits, and headed for the sea.
Looking back up the river ...
... and across to Merthyr Mawr warren and Porthcawl
Back on the beach, Cwtch very bravely went for a walk but only because I rolled up my trousers and went in first.
The Ride of the Valkyries
Modest treasure
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