A walk to see the little steam trains
May. 25th, 2024 05:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
heleninwalesWe didn't get a walk during the week due to Thursday being wet, so though we normally hide at home during Bank Holiday weekends, we decided to walk to Fairbourne. I can't walk all the way,
though G can and then gets the bus back, so I drove us to the little car part at Arthog and we walked from there.
After the disastrous time when we ended up climbing over rocks and then finally had to scramble up a mini-cliff into some prickly woods (holly and bramble), we now know that if the tide is high when we reach this point, then the path around the edge of the estuary is not passable. The tide was high today, so we took the path up and over the headland.
That does give you splendid views across the estuary to Barmouth.
The foxgloves were flowering everywhere. This was a nice clump of them.
Having dropped back down to sea level, we followed the path across the railway line and headed for the coast at Fairbourne. In the distance is one of the Cambrian Coast trains.
As I said, we tend to avoid the holiday crowds, but Fairbourne is not as popular as Barmouth, so even though there was a "Steam Extravaganza" this weekend, it was busy but by no means crowded. Here is one of the little narrow gauge engines that pulls trains along the Ro Wen Spit.
This is a visiting engine a long way from its usual home in Ruislip. I hope it enjoyed running by the sea instead of at the Ruislip Lido.
The Fairbourne railway is single track. There is a passing loop at the half way point. It's properly controlled by means of passing a token from one driver to the other.
We bought ice creams and then wandered back via a slightly different route. These are wild irises growing on Arthog bog.
The route back to the car park took us past the whimsical sentry boxes again. I'd love to know whether the unusual design of these sentry boxes was done to disguise the presence of troops during WWII, or whether the soldiers thought it would be amusing to decorate them.
From here it wasn't far back to the car part and then the drive home. That's the first time we've done that walk this year. Part of the route is always a bit muddy, so we knew it would be a quagmire earlier in the year after the endless wet weather. We therefore waited until we'd had enough fine weeks to dry everything out.
though G can and then gets the bus back, so I drove us to the little car part at Arthog and we walked from there.
After the disastrous time when we ended up climbing over rocks and then finally had to scramble up a mini-cliff into some prickly woods (holly and bramble), we now know that if the tide is high when we reach this point, then the path around the edge of the estuary is not passable. The tide was high today, so we took the path up and over the headland.
That does give you splendid views across the estuary to Barmouth.
The foxgloves were flowering everywhere. This was a nice clump of them.
Having dropped back down to sea level, we followed the path across the railway line and headed for the coast at Fairbourne. In the distance is one of the Cambrian Coast trains.
As I said, we tend to avoid the holiday crowds, but Fairbourne is not as popular as Barmouth, so even though there was a "Steam Extravaganza" this weekend, it was busy but by no means crowded. Here is one of the little narrow gauge engines that pulls trains along the Ro Wen Spit.
This is a visiting engine a long way from its usual home in Ruislip. I hope it enjoyed running by the sea instead of at the Ruislip Lido.
The Fairbourne railway is single track. There is a passing loop at the half way point. It's properly controlled by means of passing a token from one driver to the other.
We bought ice creams and then wandered back via a slightly different route. These are wild irises growing on Arthog bog.
The route back to the car park took us past the whimsical sentry boxes again. I'd love to know whether the unusual design of these sentry boxes was done to disguise the presence of troops during WWII, or whether the soldiers thought it would be amusing to decorate them.
From here it wasn't far back to the car part and then the drive home. That's the first time we've done that walk this year. Part of the route is always a bit muddy, so we knew it would be a quagmire earlier in the year after the endless wet weather. We therefore waited until we'd had enough fine weeks to dry everything out.
