WALK 14: EASTERN SEA WALL

Getting there from Cardiff:
by bus: Again difficult, but the 62C or 65C will get you out to the junction of Hendre Road and Wentloog Road in Rumney and from there you have a 6 kilometre walk east along the Wentloog Road to your start point.
by car: leave Cardiff by the old A48 as far as Castleton. Turn right by the church, signed for "Marshfield". In about 5 kilometres (3 miles), turn left at a T-junction along the B4239 for St. Brides Wentloog. In another 4 kilometres (2 miles), take the first right just after leaving St. Brides and follow your nose down to the pub car park, signed "Live Music"!!. The road gets quite rutted, do not go into the caravan park.

It's a "there and back to see how far it is" walk. You can decide to lengthen or shorten as you feel. Just head west along the sea wall until you have had enough and then turn back. The walk is all on the flat and definitely easy. This is a much neglected oasis of maritime calm between Cardiff and Newport. It is easy to access for children, though not suitable for buggies, and for those who are not too sure on their feet. It is completely flat and you can go as far as you like in half the time that you have available and then simply turn back.

It is a walk where nought but man is vile, so many things of interest to the eye: splendid views across the Bristol Channel and of the shipping in the estuary, lots of waders and seabirds. The walk passes alongside a new golf course which has an artificial lake on which you can often see swans, geese and ducks, but fewer "birdies" and "eagles" than the players would wish, and, of course, nary an "albatross". The lake becomes a ducks' skating rink in the right weather. The view westward is to Cardiff Docks, Penarth Head and the Holme Islands, and eastward to Newport Docks, Transporter Bridge and Power Station.

On the wall of the Six Bells pub at Peterstone, which is easily reached from the sea wall, it shows the height to which the sea rose in the floods before the present sea wall was built. Much of the area between the sea wall and the A48 is at or just below sea level and is drained by the complex network of Reens into collecting reservoirs known as 'Grouts" from which the drainage water is let out into the sea at low tide. There is usually a bracing breeze to blow away your urban cobwebs.

If you are feeling particularly energetic you can carry on towards Newport instead of going straight to the pub. The limit of easy sea wall walking is the old lighthouse at the mouth of the Usk which has now been converted into a "des. res." This extension will add about 3 kilometres, (2 miles), to your expedition.