Here Be Dragons

massive Bay film studios, leaving Swansea

Sandfields

Sandfields, Whales

The next bit wasn't so pleasant. A strong headwind didn't help. I mostly followed NCN 4, which squeezes in beside the newborn M4, other A roads, railways, river bridges, and industrial works. Often on pavement cycleways beside a big road, it was perfectly safe but a bit dull. It started to rain in Port Talbot, which didn't help. Only when I got near Bridgend parish, did it feel like being in the countryside again.

Port Talbot port

Port Talbot steelworks (blast furnaces)

After a very long time, I found a cafe for tea, overlooking Nest Bay, just before Porthcawl, just as it started to rain again. Sat for a while watching the surfers, and contemplating where to stay tonight. Thunderstorms are forecast, so maybe another night indoors.

Porthcawl is a biggish seaside town with a proper esplanade, seaside hotels and so on.  A bit posh, maybe?  But as you leave, there's a Canvey Island style amusement beach, at arms' length from the town.  Porthcawl probably pretends it isn't there.  Another arms length, and there's a big caravan park.

Porthcawl

East Bay, Porthcawl

It was here that my planned route began to come unstuck.  My notes say "cycle track across beach 8km, avoidable by road inland".  I was uncertain about this, but it was a bona-fide cycle route, complete with green dots on the map.

  

The map was misleading.   It was across deep sand, impossible to ride in a normal bike.  So it had to be the "road inland", which was two A roads, including maybe 6 miles on the busy A48, a dual carriageway for about half the distance.  A dreadful option for anyone cycling the coast.   After a tense ride, I was back on country lanes.  

And relax ...?

Another cycle track: a bridge across a river, and a concrete track across fields, leading to another river.

Arrgh!

View from the other side

No bridge.  Stepping stones.  Wide.  Very wide.  RideWithGPS had not mentioned this.   The water was at least a foot deep, maybe 2 feet in places.  I quickly decided against riding across.   Walking across stepping stones was dodgy in cyclung sandals with cleats, I discovered on my recce.  So I removed the panniers, put my water shoes on, and carried the bike across, then the panniers.  Scary.

Ogmore Castle

Directly across the "ford" was Ogmore Castle: "Monument closed."  I was too stressed to visit anyway.

I still had nowhere to stay, so I consulted Google.  There was an attractive place in Bridgend, a Wetherspoon hotel, but I didnt want to go inland.   The only other reasonable option was a camp site in Monknash, the Heritage Coast Campsite.  It sounded a bit hair-shirt, but turned out to have a lovely pub just up the road, the Plough and Harrow.  I pitched my tent and skedaddled to the pub, just before the kitchen closed at 7pm.  Lovely local pub, great food and beer.  There was a minor sensation when Tom Jones came up on the playlist.  And it rained while I was eating.  Another win.