Gower Peninsula

Wednesday, 30 October 2019

This isn't the best AirBnB we have rented, but somehow we were able to sleep OK in a bed with springs popping out of the mattress.  This is the first morning in a while, so it seems, that we don't have breakfast cooked for us.  This is probably a good thing since we ate a full breakfast consisting of eggs, hash browns, sausage (veggie for me), tomatoes, mushrooms, toast, fruit, and tea; AKA...a lot of food.  It was somewhat refreshing having just a bowl of cereal for a change.

After breakfast we headed out for a 40 mile road trip around the Gower Peninsula.  The Gower Peninsula is on the south-central coast of Wales with much of it owned by the National Trust which protects and keeps nature...well, natural.

First stop on our tour is a neolithic site called Arthur's Stone, and here it is:

The setting is really cool with a great view of the sea down below.

Next stop is Rhossili Beach and Worms Head.  Check out this scenery:

 We parked the car and made our way towards the "Worms head" which got it names from the Old English word "wurm" meaning dragon.  The cool thing about the Worms Head is that you can walk to it during low tide, but during high tide it is an island.  As we made our way there, we passed horses on sheep...kind of crazy.  I don't know if the horses are wild or owned by a local farmer.  As for the sheep...why the heck do they hang out on the side of the cliff like that?!?

When we were approaching the Worms Head there was a sign telling you when you can hike out to the end based on the tide:

We happened to be here during those hours, but we didn't have the proper footwear to hike out there.  Everyone heading there had boots to walk through the puddles left behind when the tide receded.  I did walk out a little bit and collect some cool shells and rocks.

On the walk back, we noticed this sunken ship that shows through the sand during low tide.  The Helvetia sunk on 31 October 1887...wow, it will be its 132nd anniversary tomorrow.

It was a bit windy up there on the cliff above the beach:

Next stop, Oxwich Castle.  When we got there we found out that it wasn't an actually castle built for fortification, but was built by a rich family, as a 16th century Tudor mansion to resemble a castle.  Oh well...it was pretty neat.

We were now getting pretty hungry, but first another neolithic site.  The Long Cairn, a 5,500-year-old burial chamber.  40 skeletons were found here in 1869.

Just past the cairn was the Cathole Rock Cave where we found a Geocache.

It was finally time for lunch, so we stopped at a pub and enjoyed some chicken dish (Tim) and pesto pasta (me).  We then had one more place to check out, the town of Mumbles, on the southeast corner of the Gower Peninsula.  It was raining, so we just drove through without walking around, but then Tim noticed pub that said "microbrewery" on the sign, and there just happened to be a parking spot right our front, so we went on it.

Pilot Brewery, Mumbles, Wales, 30 October 2019

We then drove back to our apartment and walked to another brewery 8 minutes away.

Boss Brewery, Swansea, Wales, 30 October 2019

Oh, there is a castle here in town just outside the brewery:

We then returned to the apartment and watched some Netflix.  It is now 11:40 PM and there seems to be a party going on in the upstairs apartment.  Not cool.  We won't be sad tomorrow to be leaving this AirBnB.  Let's just hope tomorrow nights AirBnB is better.