out and about - 2015
09 April 2015 .............. Porthcawl
Porthcawl is a coastal town down at the bottom of Glamorgan - it has a rather mixed up identity.
Historically one aspect of it was the huge number of people who flocked here for their summer holidays from the adjoining areas of Wales.
This still goes on, but perhaps to a lesser scale, and the east end of Porthcawl is somewhat dominated by a very noisy and garish amusement park, and a huge holiday village of static caravans. Not quite my cup of tea !
Away from there, the harbour is quite interesting, but a bit run down - something a bit more to my liking is a ramp which can be used for launching a sea kayak from.
The ramp is I think maintained for the lifeboat, but if you speak nicely to the harbour master you may get permission to use it.
Parking could be a bit of a problem, you may get lucky and get on-street parking quite close, you may have to go to a car park a bit further away.
Porthcawl has big tidal ranges - up to 10 or 11 metres during Springs, so the ramp doesn`t go all the way to the sea during low tides, but I think the sand below it would be firm enough.
This is it at a lowish tide -
I am up on the seawall now, a different day, and a lower tide level - looking along the sea-wall towards the buildings - you can`t really see the ramp in this picture, but it is still there.
Sandy Bay is the bay adjacent to the harbour, and at low tide levels it dries out for a long way.
The coastline outside the sea-wall isn`t that interesting - here it is at a low tide -
At high tides, the harbour and Sandy Bay are quite different - this is looking along the esplanade towards the sea-wall -
This is looking into the harbour from the sea-wall - just the top end of the ramp is above water, and the dock gate into the inner harbour is open.
If you head north and west along the sea front through Porthcawl - quite attractive, but very touristy - you come to Rest Bay - now Rest Bay is another bit of Porthcawl worth knowing about - because it also has a slipway.
Rest Bay is again very touristy, and car parking is a bit of a problem, because the only place to park is in the car park up the hill, so a bit of a trek.
However the slipway could be useful in rough weather, if heading out of the harbour is a bit too much.
You may have to argue with the lifeguards who wave red flags when they think the sea is too rough for swimming.
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