We recently took a trip to South Wales. Here is a what we did and what we saw.
It was the last long weekend of the year and of summer, we had two destinations in mind, Cornwall and Wales. However with only one eligible driver we chose Wales as Cornwall seemed too far. We wanted to see some beautiful places and also do adventurous activities. Scuba diving was in everyone's mind so Google took us to Porthcawl.
It was the last long weekend of the year and of summer, we had two destinations in mind, Cornwall and Wales. However with only one eligible driver we chose Wales as Cornwall seemed too far. We wanted to see some beautiful places and also do adventurous activities. Scuba diving was in everyone's mind so Google took us to Porthcawl.
Porthcawl is a town on the south coast of Wales in the county borough of Bridgend, 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of the capital city, Cardiff and 19 miles (30.5 kilometers) southeast of Swansea.
First things first, we had to sort out our accommodation. First few hotels turned fully booked for the weekend and we just about managed at The Fairways Hotel. A few more phone calls and we gave up the idea of scuba diving as that required over 2 weekends of training plus swimming(which most of us don't know). We ended up signing for Gorge Walking and Surfing.
Day 1 (27-Aug-2011)
Porthcawl is about 3 hours drive from Milton Keynes. Most of us are used to sleep late on Saturdays(this is not entirely true though), we started late than planned, around 11 am. We did not have much planned for Saturday(day 1) and had thought of doing sight seeing and exploring nearby places upon reaching Porthcawl.
City of Bath was a small detour in our journey path so we thought of a quick visit. We made our first stop at Lansdown Crescent. After spending few minutes and clicking few pictures we made our way deeper into the city. Finding a parking place seemed a bit of nightmare, but we finally managed near City Center. We then had a quick tour of the Roman Baths, The Circus and The Royal Crescent. After a quick lunch at the McDonald's we left Bath between 17:00-17:30.
We reached Porthcawl around 19:30 pm. We had our hotel on the sea front and we were all very excited as we entered the final stretch towards our hotel, with sea in our sight, cool breeze blowing and waves washing the shore. The Fairways turned out to be an excellent place for a weekend break with warm staff. Had minor issues but that's expected given the kind of rush at the hotel bar on a Saturday evening.
We were looking for an Indian restaurant for dinner and the lady at the reception suggested Jaipur about 10 mins walk from our hotel. Jaipur turned out to be another restaurant run by Bangladeshi's claiming to serve authentic Indian cuisine. Starters were good, but main course was a disaster. Next up we went for a short walk on the paved sea front, on our way back to the hotel. The hotel bar was open throughout the night and we had few drinks before hitting our beds. Porthcawl's promenade has a number of pubs and bars open throughout the night.
Day 2 (28-Aug-2011)
We had Gorge Walking planned for today, scheduled to start at 09:30. We could only get to our spot(Pontneathvaughn, Neath, West Glamorgan SA11 5ND, UK) by 10:30. Our instructor Lee, a very nice firendly guy, was ready with all the gear, body suits, helmets and floating jackets and we finally made our start by 11:00. This was the first time for us. We made a slow start due to the water being very cold. Walking on slippery stone surface in waist high water was fun and exciting. We crawled through a dark cave, climbed water falls and jumped into the mountain pools. This is a must do activity if visiting South Wales and the more stamina you have, more the fun.
We finished gorge walking around 14:00 and then thought of seeing few bays near Swansea and Mumbles. This was about 30-40 minutes drive from Pontneathvaughn. We were tired and hungry after this exercise and were looking forward to a good lunch. We stopped at a fuel station in Swnasea, near Mumbles and the asain guy at till suggested Mumbai restaurant, which was about 10 mins walk. The restaurant is located in a quite lane and has good ambience . It has a Mumbai style auto rickshaw parked in front! Lunch Buffet with 22 items, both veg and non-veg, for £9.99 was just the thing we were looking for. Food was great. When visiting Swanse, Mumbai restaurant is worth a visit.
We still had enough time left and I had heard a lot about the Rhossili Bay (thanks to Abhinav) so we decided to drive to Rhossili. It took us about 45 mins reach. It is a dramatic environment with Rhossili Downs towering above the vast expanse of beach that seemed stretching few miles. It was beautiful. It had a spectacular panoramic view over the bay walking up Rhossili Downs, the climb and views took our breath away, but well worth it! We spent good 2 hours enjoying the sea, the breeze and the sun.
We got back to our hotel by 20:30 and headed straight to our rooms for a quick shower. After previous experience with Jaipur, we decided not to give it any more tires and opted for Sahi Tandoori Indian Takeaway right next to Jaipur restaurant. We also took some drinks for the night and headed back to our hotel. The food was good and at half the price comapred to Jaipur. After few drinks we called it a day since we all were very tired and had surfing planned for early next day.
Day 3 (29-Aug-2011)
We had signed up with Adventure Wales for our half day surfing lesson. We headed to Adventure Wales centre for some formalities and then went to Rest Bay, a beautiful beach in Porthcawl. It's a great beach with lot of clear sand. Its about 10-15 mins walk from Porthcawl city centre and even closer from our hotel. This is one of the beaches popular for surfing. We spent about 15-20 mins with our instructor learning basics of surfing before we hit the sea. Water was cold but manageable in our body suits.
We had difficulty balancing ourselves on the surfboards initially, but being in sea water itself was exciting and fun. We played a lot with waves, though we never went beyond waist deep water. Most of us did not know swimming so found a little dificult to surf(swimming is not mandatory for surfing lessons though). We enjoyed in sea for about 3 hours, none of us managed to surf properly though, and playing with the waves was great.
We had difficulty balancing ourselves on the surfboards initially, but being in sea water itself was exciting and fun. We played a lot with waves, though we never went beyond waist deep water. Most of us did not know swimming so found a little dificult to surf(swimming is not mandatory for surfing lessons though). We enjoyed in sea for about 3 hours, none of us managed to surf properly though, and playing with the waves was great.
Resources:
Group: Vikram, Preeti, Manas, Sripati, Sudhanshu
Vauxhall Astra
Nikon D5100
TomTom Start 20
