Martin's Mag.

Sherston, west of Malmesbury, is a nice, peaceful, historic village on an arm of the river Avon, along which we walked, as well as some of the remoter parts of the Roman Fosse Way.

Westward along the south Wales coast, passing some spectacular natural and man-made views. The Victorians certainly knew how to build things to last. There are several disused limestone quarries near the coast, some now nature reserves, some just desolate, at least for the time being. We explored the remains of a 19th century lime kiln and were pleasantly surprised that there were no health and safety restrictions, or entrance fee, museum shop, etc. I hope I’m not speaking too soon. We walked past the decommissioned Aberthaw coal Power Station, which, after dismantling, is destined to become a “green energy hub”.

Then on, with the massive power station behind us, never seeming to get any further away, past Limpert Bay, Summerhouse Bay, Stout Bay, ending at the mouth of the Afon Col-huw to the west of Llantwit Major, and a welcome, but rather officious, beach café.

Barry Island, west of Cardiff is well-known for a number of reasons, not the least of which for being the location of “Gavin and Stacey” series. The town itself, though, is a gem of middle-class propriety. There is a lot of new house building just inland to the west. We walked from Cold Knapp Point to a little west of Rhoose Point, and back. The airport at Rhoose (“Cardiff International Airport”) seemed quiet.

New in 2006, we have had the same car for all of its life. Nineteen years and almost 155,000 miles later, still starting first, or at least second, time, the faithful Golf Plus has gone to the garage in the sky.

South of Bristol, east of Bath, Compton Dando feels like it’s miles from anywhere.

On the east of the river Severn, Aust beach is known for its rich store of fossils, a favourite place for palaeontology students from UWE to sneak off for a cigarette. It is at the east end of the “old” Severn bridge (the M48 mororway), although, before the bridge was built, a ferry ran from here to Beachley (on the other side of the estuary), Nowadays, the most famous thing about the ferry is that Bob Dylan was photographed here on the way to a gig in Cardiff in 1966 (spot the huge power pylon in the background).

Copyright Barry Feinstein Estate.

For those who feel their life experiences are still missing something there is now The Upside Down House next to the ferris wheel in central Bristol where you can, for a payment, pretend you are lying on the ceiling. What strange times we live in. They had something similar in Southend-on-Sea in the ‘fifties, called The Crooked House, in Peter Pan’s Playground – the origin of the popular childhood saying of the time, “what happens in Peter Pan’s Playground, stays in Peter Pan’s Playground”.

It had to be done. The stretch through Newport is not the loveliest part of the Welsh coast. Nor is much of it actually on the coast, as the path goes inland to avoid the commercial docks to the west of the river Usk. Although the centre of the city has many shops and historic buildings, the mood of this part of the Welsh Coast path is “seen better days”. Clearing up the litter would be a good start. Sorry Newport!

The big news in Newport (as we were informed on separate occasions) is that the famous Transporter Bridge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newport_Transporter_Bridge (built in 1906) is soon to be re-opened.