Mid Life Crisis

So what do you do when having a mid life crisis? Sleep with Noah!
Hahahaha! Did I shock you? Well let me explain….Noah is a camper van.
My friend Sarah is, in her own words having a midlife crisis and bought a VW camper van.

Anyway weekend or so ago before Covid really hit South Wales, Noah was sleeping with two women on the Gower Peninsular.

Sarah and I have been friends for a long time and were at one time work collegues. Our lives have been running in parallel recently and we are both looking forward to new adventures.
She is an amazing athelete and runs marathons nearly every couple of weeks, making me feel pretty sloth like by comparison!

We stayed at Pitton Cross Camp site https://www.pittoncross.co.uk. I have been here before with another friend Trish when our children were small. That particular trip holds wonderful memories for me so I was looking forward to re visiting the Gower.

We took far too much stuff, every time we opened the van door we looked as though we’d been burgled!
If there was anything to spill, I spilled it! Noah was not christened with the Prosecco Sarah brought along though, he was baptized in washing up liquid which made a horrible mess! And no I wasn’t drunk!

The first full day was spent walking from the campsite in a circular walk along the coastal path to The Worms Head and Rossilli.
I’ve had a few issues this year with tendonitis and its probably due to the amount of walking I do (sometimes up to 30 miles in a week) and probably other hare brained activities too. I have found my trainers have been comfortable where my walking boots are suddenly not. I tried them again on this walk and had to swap back into my trainers almost straight away as it was so painful. Its not ideal and I’m going to have to explore boots with more cushioning I think.
The coast here is quite beautiful, made up of some sort of sedimentary rock that has folded and heaved up out of vertical (over millions of years I guess) leaving a rugged shoreline. There is sand too making lovely bays.

Although it was a week day this area is popular with walkers and we met a number of people as we made our way. I’m quite sure we were being stalked by one couple from Cheshire!
In one of the gullies going down to the sea, I heard a bird call and saw a Chough (pronounced chuff), this was confirmed by a birdwatcher also watching it. By this point Sarah was making all kinds of Chough related puns! Chuffing Hell! Anyway Choughs (Corvid family) are related to Crows and have red beaks and legs, they have a less harsh call than their relatives. I had only seen them abroad so this was wonderful for me. They are not common and only found in a few areas of the UK. Unfortunately my attempt at photographing it make it look like a black plastic bag (sorry dad!)
The weather was fine, windy with scudding clouds and great veiws of the sea and coast of Devon, Lundy Island and then of the Worms Head a spit on the headland.

This is an island at high tide.
Apparently the word Worm is a Norse word for Dragon or Serpent and the legend is that the Vikings thought the Island was the head of a sleeping dragon. I can see why and I wouldn’t argue with a Viking anyway!
Then as you come round the headland you see the most amazing stretch of sand at Rossilli Bay, three miles of it apparently!

We had our lunch on the cliff top, not overlooking the impressive three mile beach as it was too windy. I found out later the dips and hollows we shelterd in are the remains of a castle that sat on the cliffs at some time and not the cliff falling into the sea.
Then it was time for tea and cake. The village was busy but, we managed to get a table in one cafe and were followed in by the couple from Cheshire!

Heavy with cake ( well I was and its my excuse for not skipping up it like Sarah) we walked up Rossilli Down 200 meters above sea level.

The Down is a large tract of common land with various sites of historical interest with cairns and burial chambers and not that we understood what we saw, seven Scheduled Monuments. There are also the remians of a radar station.
We tried to walk back a different rout and ended up in a bog! I’m not sure wearing boots would have been much better it was all rather soggy.

We made it back to the campsite having walked about 8 miles. Back to a hot shower, Noah, dinner and sleep, ready for the next day.