One of the things that I'd set on our Summer Bucket List was to visit Rhossili beach on the Gower Peninsula with The Boy. It's something that I'd wanted to do for a while with him, having visited it with extended family around seven years ago, but despite it being one of the top three beaches in Europe, I was put off by the steps down the cliff-face. They're perfectly safe, but it's a long way down and therefore a long way back up again for a toilet break!
However, when my sister-in-law suggested at the beginning of the Summer holidays that we go to Oxwich Bay for the day that seemed like the perfect compromise; it's not as far as Rhossili and there isn't a long walk down to the beach from the car park. In fact, the car park stops at the edge of the beach and there are fairly alright shower and toilet facilities within a hundred yard walk of the beach's edge.
I've never been to Oxwich Bay before and I think it has quickly become one of my favourite beaches, because it has everything there; sand, rockpools, wildlife, facilities, decent parking, and more importantly it is sufficiently off the beaten track to not be over-run by tourists.
My sister-in-law had recently undergone some 'Beach Schools' training and guided The Boy and Fiery Cousin around the rockpools, demonstrating how to find crabs and what the difference between a limpet and a barnacle is (guides can be found here). We also learnt the phrase 'Green Is Mean' courtesy of my brother, i.e. algae is slippery, as The Boy found out when he landed on his bottom in a rockpool!
We shared a picnic lunch sprawled out over the sands with the children playing around us. Normally I'm quite cautious at keeping The Boy within a twenty yard distance of us, at Oxwich Bay it is so vast that the next family could well be over 150 yards away and therefore it allows the children a little more freedom to 'free-range' play.
After we'd finished snacking, I showed the children how to create a shell-shaker which they then pranced around with, making music.
As the tide was reaching it's lowest point, my brother was desperate to go cockle-hunting (he's a chef) and so we all waded down to the shoreline to search for the much sought after cockle. We found plenty, but we also found jellyfish, crabs, sea anemones and sea urchins!
As The Boy was beginning to get cold and exhausted, the mums and children trekked back up the beach to our beach tent while the dad continued their search for cockles. My sister-in-law and I glanced down to the shoreline and beyond to the rapidly darkening sky.
This resulted in us quickly gathering our belongings into the tent along with the children. We had three seconds to spare before the quickest rainstorm I have ever come across deluged us! We thanked our lucky stars for the tent until we realised it was vented at the bottom where the children were and they were getting soaked. My sister-in-law raced them up the beach to the shelter, then came back for me and the tent. By which time the dads had returned, drenched to the skin. They were literally dripping! We carried everything back up to the shivering children in the car park and proceeded to assess the damage and dry various bits and bobs off, while standing and laughing hysterically at how wet we all were!
I was astounded at the lack of people who were at the beach that day, even before the rain came. It must surely be one of the best beaches on the south Wales coast with such wonderful ecosystems to explore!
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Linking this up to Flashback Friday and Country Kids
Much of the Gower Peninsula falls under the protection of the National Trust, it currently cares for 157 miles of Welsh coastline. The National Trust are running a competition until the end of October 2013 to find the best loved beach location in their care.
"Tell us why you love your favourite National Trust place and you could win a day’s kayaking and/or coasteering for you and 4 of your friends with our qualified instructors at the amazing Stackpole Quay, Pembrokeshire."
Entry is simple via the I ♥ Welsh Coast app on their Facebook page and takes only a few moments. The most original and inspiring comment will be chosen on the 31st of October and the lucky winner has a year to claim their prize.
So many brilliant little big discoveries! Going down what sounds like a big cliff face would make me a bit nervous but being one of the Top 3 beaches must have made it well worth it!
That's not the one we went to, you dope. Stop speedreading and looking at the pictures!
Lovely scenery ive bn 2 oxwich bay sum wonderfull places in wales 2 enjoy
I couldn't agree more, and it's great that I'm now discovering them with my son.
What a lovely day, we love rockpooling!
Popping over from Blogs 'R' us
It's great fun, isn't it? So many wonderful things to discover.
love this so much – it is a fantastic beach and i know for a fact that my two would love to visit and search for its hidden creature gems. we enjoy visiting Appledore fo the same reasons and like you, it always amazed me why we are the only ones there!! x
I love your posts of Appledore because it looks the perfect beach, and now we've found one too!
You really did find a lovely range of creatures. Glad the rain didn't spoil your fun. Adding Oxwich Bat to my list of places to go.
Oh you must go there one day, such a wonderful place. The rain doesn't seem to stop our fun, anytime.
Rock pooling is such fantastic fun. I would love to visit the Gower Peninsula, I've seen it loads on countryfile and will definitely get there one day. Fantastic pictures, you got quite a haul out of the rock pools.
It's not too far into Wales to be honest, about an hour and a half, possibly two hours. And the M4 runs up to almost its doorstep.
Sounds and looks from the fax pix that you had an amazing day. I'd love to take my kids rock pooling some day so it's great to know of a perfect place for it.
#countrykids
it was a really amazing day, you must try it some time!
Rock pooling is so much fun – and you found lots of fab creatures. Sounds like a great day, despite the rain 🙂
I think it might have been even better *because* of the rain, it brought on mass hysterics.
thank you for linking up to Flashback Friday x
A wonderful post to read and I'm glad you all managed to laugh in spite of yourselves at the bedraggled end to you beach trip. It does sound like it was plenty of fun and learning right up to the point the rain hit. I bet you will all look back fondly on your day including the drenching! A great link up for Country Kids.
It was, without a doubt, one of the best days of the Summer holidays!
Beautiful scenery! Lots of fun x
It really was.
Wow looks amazing, 6yo would love to do something like this
It was great fun, especially trying to hide from the sudden storm.
What a fabulous day. I love the shell shakers, they are brill! Fantastic photos too 🙂
Thank you, they had great fun making them.
Love those cool creatures you discovered. Thanks for linking to the OUtdoor Play Party!