D183: TRESAITH to ABERAERON
Saturday 20th September 2025
Today miles: 16.4 Total miles: 2991.8
The fear of heavy rain during the night was misplaced. There were several light showers but nothing which caused any concerns for the ground or my tent. Once again I had set off today not knowing exactly where I would be sleeping tonight. I knew the weather would eventually turn miserable and wasn’t looking forward to trying to pitch my tent in heavy rain and 60mph+ winds. This would turn out to be one of the most difficult days that I’ve ever experienced during thousands of miles of walking over the last thirty years. When I packed up this morning around 7am it was overcast but dry that would change after about twenty minutes of walking. It began to rain and it didn’t stop for the rest of the entire day. It’s actually a nice walk across the first few hills with good views and solid paths. By the time I had arrived in Penbryn I was already desperately looking for somewhere to shelter. The villages public toilets were locked and it was far too early for the cafe to be open. I ended up ducking into an old stone lime kiln situated close to the beach for a few minutes before continuing. The next section of route was easy to follow despite the low cloud and there were lots of Ceredigion coast path signs to help with navigation.
There’s a good stone path out of Penbryn which continued through the fields and across the hills until I reached the cliffs above Llangrannog. The hill top is guarded by a statue of St Crannog, a 6th century Welsh Abbot confessor who was born in Ceredigion and established a church nearby. Llangrannog is a reasonably sized town with a good selection of places to eat. I grabbed a coffee and a cheese/ham filled croissant from a cafe and tried to dry myself out. The rain had intensified a little and the next section of route zigzagged to over 100mts above sea level. There’s a great but narrow path across the side of the cliffs for the next two miles. I wished the weather had been better as there was potential for some great views. The next village on route was the unpronounceable Cwmtydu. There was no reason to linger so I just walked straight through and didn’t stop.
The path was now so wet that walking was becoming more difficult and even walking on flat ground was slippery and increasingly dangerous. My waterproof trousers and jacket were now both compromised and every few minutes I was forced to pour water out of my sleeve cuffs. Some stretches of the route were protected by high vegetation but on sections which were exposed the wind and rain was hitting me horizontally. By now I had realised that there was no way I would be able to pitch a tent in these conditions., even if I had managed to locate a proper campsite. My only hope was that I chanced across a building with a roof where I could hopefully shelter. At one point I slipped on a slight grassy slope and twisted my left leg and fell to the ground. Fortunately only my pride was injured. I then probably slipped over a dozen more times during the next couple of hours, my tiredness as well as the weather conditions adding to the frequency of these mishaps. Around 4pm I chanced upon Gilfach Holiday Village which has a pub and it’s still open. They had a huge covered area which was a perfect location to spend the night. Things then took a hugely positive turn when I met Rachel and her partner Gary. Rachel, a young lady was working behind the bar and Gary her partner was working on his laptop. We got chatting and within twenty minutes Rachel had contacted her father (a retired cop) and they had offered me a safe and more importantly a dry place to sleep. Two hours later I’ve had a wonderful hot shower, a nice hot meal and a warm bed. A truly awful day had quickly been turned around by the kindness of one generous family.
Apologies for the lack of photos but I had my phone tucked away in a dry bag for most of the day.
Werewolfandflump UK Coast Path 