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On the final day G was in meetings all day so our daughter picked me up from near the hotel and drove us to the Bay. We had a cup of tea and a nice catch up chat before she had to go off to do some work. Thankfully she was working from home (it's a long commute to her work), but the work still had to be done. I stayed at the bay and decided to have another go at the walk G and I had done on a previous visit in which we must have gone two or three miles further then necessary due to losing the route that ran nearer to the Bay itself.
So as to not risk falling into the same trap, I decided to do the walk anti-clockwise rather than clockwise. At first it was easy.
I did manage to follow a path to a dead end in the wetland area, but quickly retraced my steps and then found the path that lead to the main road and the bridge across the River Taff.
Of course after all the weeks of hot dry weather, it decided to rain. I had a light raincoat, but wearing it was hot and clammy. Not wearing the coat was not an option because the drizzle was too heavy to ignore.
On the other side of the bridge was a strange shiny sphere. I did a double-take as I approached, but the figure turned out to be a statue, not a person. Unfortunately I was too small to look through the hole in the back of his head to see what he was looking at. It was only later that I realised I could have tried taking a photo through the hole.
Doing the walk the other way round meant it was easier to find the shortest route. I also found where we'd gone wrong last time. Part of the board walk running at the water's edge was closed because it had rotted and become unsafe. I managed to find a route around some new apartments, but coming from the other direction, there was no indication that you could get through and so we'd ended up going much further out of our way. This meant that we didn't see the white water centre with an artificial swift flowing river.
From here, after crossing a footbridge, plodding through some new housing, and walking beside a marina, I finally reached the barrage and locks. This allows boats in and out of the Bay.
Nearly back now. I'm not really a fan of Roald Dahl, but he was born in Cardiff so considered a local writer and this very long crocodile is rather cute. I have another photo of it from a previous visit, but this one is better because there's now a funfair in the background.
And so back to the area of the bay where there are places to visit and to eat. Preparations for the National Eisteddfod were in full swing. The former Doctor Who experience will be the Maes B for the duration. (The Maes B is where the young people hang out and there are bands playing modern Welsh music.)
