Watson Sushi: Southern Wales: Worm's Head

Saturday, April 9, 2016

Southern Wales: Worm's Head

Sometimes it is hard to go back to the same place twice, especially if it is one of your favorites, because of fear of being disappointed. One of those places for us was Rhossilli Bay. In April of 2013, during our first trip to Wales we discovered this area and fell in love with it. We were not able to make a "walk/hop/scramble" over to Worm's Head back then as it's an island that gets separated by tidal waters and we just missed the cut off of when it was safe to cross. We put it on our mental list of things to come back to and this year we made it happen!

Our house was within a fifteen minute drive from Rhossilli. That beautiful area is owned by National Trust, so we parked for free in their car park. We knew we had over an hour before we were allowed to cross over to Worm's Head so we opted to go down the path to the beach. Notice how high the tide is around 10 am.

Look at that island in the background, that's where we would be heading next.

This path is quite steep and really fun on the way DOWN. It's a great work out on the way back up.

The boys ran towards the beach and only Katya stayed with us. So she got to be in our selfie this time.

As we were walking down to the beach, we noticed this weird something sticking out of the sand.

Katya...as usual...has her own mind and decided to go down the adventurous way. Don't know how she didn't end up rolling down that hill.

Back to this wooden contraption. This was very strange. Three years ago when we visited this beach last it was not here.

As water kept receding further, a proper shape of a boat started to stand out.

Pretty amazing, right?:)

So it was still very cold. Really cold, but sunny. And this is April!

As the tide was going out, we obviously had some time to waste.

Oh, Robert!

Who knew Robert could jump that high as a cannon ball?

So after an hour or so on the beach we went back up hill. This is the view of the beach with the tide going out very quickly. I had no idea it's even possible to convince Mark to give Alex a hug.

And so we had a quick lunch/snack and headed towards the Worm's Head. It's about a mile walk from the car park to the beginning of the causeway.

This was such a beautiful place that we took a lot of pictures.

And then the crossing began.

Worm's Head was named after the word "wurm" meaning dragon by Viking invaders. It is shaped like a giant sea-serpent.

It was like hiking on another planet.

It took us about 30 minutes to get over to the island.

And finally, we crossed to the "island"!

Alex resting looking back to mainland.

Mark was one brave kid, nothing could stop him.

So he decided to take lead in our hike on top of the Worm's Head.

We did try to take a family picture... The grass turned out ok.

And now a little bit better.

That is Devil's Bridge. We originally wanted to make our way there, but soon realized it was going to be quite a challenge with the kids.

Everyone felt discouraged and started to walk back towards the causeway but Mark wanted to get to the bridge with Robert. So they tried, but didn't get too far as there was too much climbing involved.

Let's rest for a bit on top of the island.

Here is a great picture to show how amazing that causeways looks.

On the way back, it was easier to walk along the water as there was more shore exposed now.

We found a lot of amazing creatures:)

Alex and Katya decided to walk quicker than Mark and I did, so here is a picture of them sitting and waiting for us on mainland.

Here come Mama and Mark.

So glad this place didn't disappointed. The weather helped.

So to one side you see the causeway and the Worm's Head and to the other side is this beautiful countryside.

We are almost to where we started. The tide is getting lower and lower.

Our day was not quite over. We were a bit tired but a quick Welsh pastie and ice cream bought at a local shop gave us a boost so we drove to another beach nearby for some more relaxation.