Merthyr Mawr, and a walk to the sea

My friend Rachel came to visit this weekend. We had a lovely time, it was really warm, and we had planned to go into Cardiff to a knitting shop, but because the weather was so good we dropped those plans and headed to the beach. 


We found this little piece of art on the beach, someone had collected some colourful shells and arranged them on the sand, so pretty!

I'm so lucky to live so close to some really beautiful beaches. Recommended by Derek, we decided to take a walk only 20 minutes drive away, to Merthyr Mawr. It is a picture perfect village, little cottages with thatched roofs, chicken and Shetland ponies running about in the gardens. We walked through the sand dunes, starting off with one giant dune (the dipper, the second biggest dune in Europe. Hard to walk up, we took two steps forward, one step back!):

...all the way to Ogmore Beach. It took us ages, but we'd planned ahead, and ate a picnic we'd prepared sitting by the sea. This was our view:

And here's Rachel enjoying the sea breeze and amazing view:

the dunes

This fellow had been washed up by the sea

Lots of these berries growing in the dunes, not sure what they are, they looked like a cross between blackberries and sloes.

Lovely wildflowers (violas)

Look at this tree, it was growing in the sand dune, and the sand had shifted, so it's roots had become exposed:

A beautiful day, and we completed the weekend by foraging for sloes in Miskin! Lovely.