Nothing makes you feel as fragile and aligned to natures clock like rushing to beat the tide and the sunset simultaneously while scrambling over challenging terrain in the Gower peninsula!
A wonderful 10km weekend adventure across an intriguing landscape, with a striking sunset and panoramic coastal views, which just so happened to be a fun fitness challenge!
The layered landscape offering a varying playground for the eyes, with the array of weathered pinnacles, separated by narrow crevices and wider channels, in various shades of bluish grey and black, beautifully contrasting with the white crashing waves and the orange sky of the setting sun.
Worms head is a narrow, tidal island, joined by a causeway to a headland on the south side of Rhossili Bay, and forms the westernmost point of the Gower Peninsula in Wales. Parking at Rhossili in the Gower peninsula, a 20 min walk from the car park to the coasts edge, where you see a sign indicating safe times for crossing from the Worms head causeway to the Devils Bridge, which is only accessible for 2.5 hours before and after low tide.
Keeping our eye on the horizon and the slowly setting sun, we kept moving across the terrain at a good pace to make it to the end of the land and back again before we were stranded out in the darkness and the tide comes in.
From the headland there’s a short section to scramble down over rocks and down a dirt pathways onto the causeway which links to the island, and once we made it over the crossing, climbing the land on the other side, peering over the edge we saw a happy relaxing seal laid over the rocks, who turned his head to see greet us as we smiled at him and carried on our way.
Making our way across the large jaggered rocks which looked extremely treacherous, but were quite passable as long as you move at a slow pace and carefully watch your step - the route as indicated with the red line in the image below. Partial walkable landscape and partly lined by cliffs, this small stretch of land has stunning views in all directions.
We packed with us a few essentials to include water bottles, nuts, cookies, warm gloves and a first aid kit, which thankfully we didn't need on this occasion. Stopping for a few breather sessions and to appreciate the location, you have the realisation that the only sound you hear is the crashing of waves on the cliff edges and the crunching of the ground beneath your shoes.
Access to the tidal island varies each day as the tide changes, and in our case we had limited light due to the early winter setting sun, but this only added to the dramatic beauty of the coast. As we crossed back to the mainland, legs and lungs aching from the fast pace of movement, we rested down on the raised grassy verge to catch our breath and savoured the next 10 minutes to watch the sun disappear behind the horizon and turn the sky ablaze of oranges and purples.
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