Wales, Cardigan Bay and Mwnt Beach

We let Molly sleep on for a couple of hours or so before waking her in time to visit the beach in the late afternoon.  We gave her some time to readjust and when we were sure that she was ready we left the cottage and made for the beach.  It was a difficult little journey down single track roads with only occasional passing places which today wasn’t too hard to negotiate but I guess can be a bit of a challenge in the height of summer!

Mwnt Beach is a remote, small, horseshoe shaped sandy cove on the Ceredigion Heritage Coast.  Owned and administered by the National Trust, it is quite possibly one of the most beautiful coves on the Cardigan coast. It is sheltered by the huge headland Foel y Wynt and is reached by a stepped path from a car park near the church. There are cliff walks and seals and dolphins can sometimes be seen frolicking in the bay. Apparently, there was a battle here in 1155 when the Welsh repelled an invasion of Flemings but there were no signs of hostilities today.  For sunbathing, this is one of the best beaches on the whole coast because it acts as a natural suntrap and even late in the afternoon there were people stretched out on the sand soaking up the last rays of the sun, mindful no doubt of the the twenty-four hour weather forcast!

It was a glorious sandy beach, soft sand above the tide line and hard compacted sand below, perfect for making sand-castles and digging holes.  We ventured into the sea up to our knees but it was cold and we weren’t feeling sufficiently brave to join the half a dozen or so people foolhardy enough to go for full immersion in the cool waters.  Molly enjoyed it and raced in and out of the sea, played with her bucket and spade and found a hole that someone had previously excavated and was now being steadily filled by the sea as the tide started to race in sweeping everything away in front of it and restoring the beach to the way nature, rather than the temporary human visitors, intended it.

There was some excitement and activity out to sea as a boat slipped into the cove and the few remaining people on the beach started to gather at the shoreline and then I saw what they were looking for as the sleek black back of a bottlenose dolphin broke the waters several times as it swam across the entrance to the cove.

When we were sure that we had had enough of the beach we climbed the steps back to the top and with Molly in an excitable mood, instead of going back to the cottage we went for a walk to the top of the two hundred and fifty metre Foel y Wynt headland where there were great views over the beach and along the coast as it stretches out northwards into the far distance of Cardigan Bay.

This had been an excellent day, a real seaside holiday day, but we had been warned not to get used to it because the weather forecast was predicting a return to wet and windy weather so we were sad and reluctant to leave Mwnt beach at about seven o’clock and return to the cottage.

Tomorrow would be our last day so we used what was left of the food and I prepared an omelet and salad but tonight we ate inside because already the weather was beginning to change for the worst.

The meal reminded me of a breakfast in Santorini in 2004 when we went to a beachside taverna and my Mum ordered an omelet cooked with eggs and we laughed at her then and have teased her about it ever since and even though she denies it I swear that the story is true!  As true as the story when once on holiday with her in the Greek Islands and presented with a menu that included a cod dish she actually asked the waiter if it was served with its head still attached!  The waiter looked completely bemused because these things can be two metres long for goodness sake!