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Today it was very cold, but also sunny, so we took the dog for a run along the beach at Llanelli. At least, she went for a run. We walked.

It is a favourite place for all three of us, but we have been exercising her elsewhere for a few weeks, for various reasons

We were, of course aware of the enormous damage to the Millennium Coastal Path referred to before, but were nevertheless surprised by the erosion to the more ‘natural’ parts of the coast, between Llanelli & Loughor.

We didn’t have a camera with us today, but this picture, taken last August, shows our dog running around after her constant companion, her ‘kong’.

In the distance to the left, the sand dunes have now been eroded back by about twenty feet. The whole grassy bank is now just a heap of sand, with undercut ‘cliffs’ which will surely fall into the sea with the next spring tide…. following after the monument which fell away a couple of months ago. This used to be well back from the high water line, but was undercut and was lost. The concrete plinth on which it stood is now about twenty- five feet to seaward of the edge of the beach.

At the far end of the beach, about a quarter of a mile after the breakwater in the far distance, we usually turn left and cut back on the other side of the sand dune to let the dog enjoy playing hide and seek in the grassy paths all the way back to the carpark. Today, however, it was just a vast sandy desert, the wind-blown sand completely covering the grass.

Clearly though, somebody has been very busy along the length of the path. The flotsam and jetsam of humanity, carried up the creek on the high tides have all been collected up and stored in black plastic bags destined to be added to the the local landfill …. but thanks to their endeavours there was absolutely NO litter! Wow! Thank you, whoever you are!

We were very aware as we struggled back against the strong wind, towards the welcome shelter of the car, that it will not be many years before the walk we enjoy so much will have vanished for ever and the beach will simply join up with the inlet.

However, despite our concern at the coastal erosion, we were delighted both to see and hear our first skylark of the year, back where it always was.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 20th, 2007 at 11:57 pm and is filed under Coastal erosion, Green things, Interesting things, Sad things, Swansea, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.