Friday 4 April 2014

South of Boredom

I went for an awesome walk at the weekend. I was hungover as shit after being out to see Pale Angels at Le pub the night before. I've been trying to tick off pieces of the Welsh Coastal Path. At the weekend I did Barry Island to Rhoose Point. 

I set off along the old harbour (the boat graveyard) saw this old wreck called Menace II Society (see movie of same name from the 90s) 



This is Watch tower bay just out towards the knap passed the old harbour, lush when the tide is out.

This is the Watchtower, my dream home, I found out this morning it went under auction last week and sold for £60k, which I would have paid in the blink of an eye, had I had it.














Some awesome distressed type at Cold Knap pumping Station, spoilt by shit graffiti.












A rather unusual but awesome plant on the path, sometimes the patterns in nature blow my tiny mind!






I love the coastal path markers too, however, sometimes they can be a bit tricky to find. This is one of my fave spots as the path climbs up from the Knap towards Porthkerry the views behind are stunning. I saw my first Dunnock on the path today.





Once you get to Porthkerry, after the golden stairs, saw my first Goldcrest on the golden stairs so it will always be a special spot for me; you drop down into Porthkerry Park a stunning park.


I stopped for lunch in Porthkerry park. I had a delicious flask of Festive Chai (note favourite Scrabble Flask) Cheese & Gherkin sangers, crisps, a granny smith apple and a cereal bar. As soon as I sat down for lunch Buzzards started circling overhead.

After Porthkerry as the path heads towards Rhoose there are some stunning views again. At one point there is a stile, leading to a small secluded pebble beach, perfect for naked wild swimming.
















There is also this amazing sign about Bulwarks Camp an ancient Iron Age encampment.

When the path reaches Rhoose point you are officially at the Southern most point of mainland Wales which is amazing. They have reclaimed an old quarry and filled it in and put in some reed beds to attract wildlife. There were Mallards, Swans and a Little Grebe there that day but you can see Linnets, Peregrine, Ravens and Oyster-catchers.

There is a Welsh slate monument in a stone circle with a Celtic symbol to mark it being the Southern most point.



The sign marking the Southern most point of Wales Rhoose Point.




















There is then a gap in the cliffs leading to another small secluded beach.


The final marker of the walk. Probably my favourite stretch so far such a nice surprise at the end.























Wednesday 2 April 2014

I LUUV Pale Ale-gels

On Friday, I met up with two of my olde butties, the enigma otherwise known as Pugs and Kev. Me and Pugs met in Cardiff straight after work, over a Barry Island IPA at the Duke of Wellington. We also sampled an Anchor Street Porter at the City Arms, which was delicious. We headed to Newport on the train I had an M&S Belgian Cherry Wheat beer which was excellent. We met Kev at the Olde Murenger House, one of the oldest and coolest pubs around. We opted firstly for a Extra Stout which is rich, thick and delicious. We also sampled an organic wheat beer and a scotch each.





Le pubs beer selection is pretty damn great now too. We had a Celt Golden Age and a Bushmill's chaser. I also over the course of the night sampled. Butty Bach from Wye Valley (See Iolo Williams State of Nature on Youtube), Welsh Pale Ale from the Kite brewery, probably my fave on the night so I stuck with that. We headed upstairs to watch the bands...

Luuv features an old friend and probably one of the best all round musicians South Wales has produced Sami Hunt. So I knew from the off, going from his previous pedigree (see Harbour, Night & the City of Broken promises..., The Keep, Bedford Falls, Blackbeard, Chain of Flowers, From This Moment on, Of Noble Blood and the list goes on) that I was probably going to "Luuv" them (pun master). 



I was not wrong they take me back to when I first got into music and first started going to Le pub actually, they have elements of Echo & the Bunnymen, Wire and Jesus and the Mary chain going on all good in my book. Bit of fuzz, grunge, indie and a bit of goth for good measure.

Pale Angels features another dear friend Jamie Morrison of The Arteries, Mike from Static Radio and on this tour, Reza from The Cutups on drums (Reza also played in Blackbeard for a while) Pale Angels play fuzzy grunge, are heavily influenced by the likes of Nirvana and Dinosaur Jnr. I've seen them twice now and they've been great both times check out their debut album Primal Play out now on Specialist Subject records, you can listen to it now on their bandcamp page.