D158: Wales Coastal Path

Day 158: NEWPORT to CARDIFF

Sunday 1st June 2025

Today miles: 18.1 Total miles: 2584.8

Once back in Newport, I was quickly on the coastal path I continued out of the town along busy roads and through several more industrial estates. Thankfully, it didn’t take too long to leave the smell and the noise behind and reach New Dairy Farm. This was where the path once again meets the estuary. There’s a decent track towards the second small lighthouse, the one that I had spotted yesterday from Goldcliff. It looks like it’s been sympathetically converted into a residential holiday property. There’s another sea defence wall for the next two miles but this one is reinforced by a concrete wall on the estuary side. As I approached Peterstone Lakes golf club I believed that I’d spotted somebody standing close to the path. At first it seemed a bit odd, they were just standing there and not walking towards me. I even thought at one point they were waving at me. As I got closer I realised that it wasn’t actually a person, only a grey coat hanging on a pole and moving around in the wind

I don’t know why but I weirdly said ‘Hello’ to the empty coat as I walked by. It began to lightly rain so I kept on walking despite the strong urge to take a break. If I got bored, which I did several times, I’d switch between the sea wall and the lower inland track. Eventually I reached Rumney Great Wharf and the Eastern edge of Cardiff. I spotted a large herd of cows spread out across the path and as I approached I realised there was no option but to walk through them. There’s no obvious mothers and calves to avoid so I just put my head down and hoped to get along the next few hundred metres without too many problems. I felt a few nudges in my back but nothing too scary. I momentarily looked up at one point and saw one particular young cow with a daisy flower sticking out of its mouth. I saw a quick image of Ermintrude flash across my mind. Only people of a certain age will understand what I mean. I then walked Northbound along a narrow strip of water until I reached a minor road and decided to finally stop and have a short break. The route should have taken me along the minor road, across the Rhymney River and then back to the estuary, however the route was closed due to roadworks and I’m forced to walk through several edge of city housing estates. I managed to rejoin the coastal path close to Atlantic Wharf and Butetown. I passed by two pubs, within about two hundred metres of each other. They both had ‘Elvis’ singers in there outdoor forecourts and they appeared to be having a strange sort of ‘Elvis’ sing off.

The sea front was very busy as I passed by the Welsh Assembly building and the Dr Who museum, which my son Ben had already told I wasn’t allowed to visit without him. The route passes the Queen Alexandra Dock and then crosses the Cardiff Bay Barrage. There’s a number of Roald Dahl character statues along the route, the world famous children’s author and WW2 fighter pilot was actually born in Wales. After crossing the barrage there’s a fairly steep climb into Penarth. I walked along the edge of the road, close to the coast and eventually decided to leave the coast path close to Penarth Pier.

It was only a short walk to the train station and I was back in Porthcawl before too long. It was a fairly long day but nice walking and no issues. There’s a small blister forming on the small toe of my right foot and this little pinky would turn out to be problematic for the rest of this trip.