I have just gotten back from a week's break in South Wales, where I finally got to meet the other half's family (for those who want to know, it went fine thank goodness!). During my week there, we decided to go camping as I had never been before (well festival camping does not count). This fact has always shocked people when I tell them as my degree in Environmental Sciences suggest that I am the super outdoorsy type (which I am). However, growing up with three other siblings, and then without a father throughout my teenager years never brought about the opportunity to go.
I have always enjoyed the idea of rolling out of a tent in the morning to the blazing sunshine and smell of fresh air. I find that as the years go by and technology advances, less and less people are embracing the countryside and the opportunity to holiday at home. Therefore when it was suggested to go Camping for a night, I jumped at the chance.
We packed the car early and headed to Three Cliff Bay Campsite in the Gower. The Gower is a site of designated beauty, or something like that. The night cost us around £36, quite expensive, but the site proved popular, had all the facilities you need while camping and had the most amazing view.
 |
| Our little tent |
On arrival, we set up the tent and then walked a bit down a steep cliff to the Three Cliff Bay, a blue flag beach. We sat on the beach a bit, and played catch before deciding to go for a dip in the evening sunset. It was high tide as well as the time and therefore the waves were crashing into shore, my favourite conditions to swim in.
 |
| Three Cliffs Beach |
We then headed back up the cliff to have some dinner as it was quite late by the time we left the beach, and then decided to go to sleep. I must say when I awoke in the morning, I felt fully refreshed, had one of the best night sleeps in ages, even with the hard floor and chill of the night.
 |
| Views from the campsite at Sunset |
 |
Feeling refreshed we decided to head to Southgate on foot (quite treacherous and steep in flip flops) to grab some breakfast. After breakfast I decided to go a bit of course and go scrambling along the rock pools, that underlined the cliffs all the way back to Three Cliffs Bay. This was probably not the wisest ideas. We were racing against the tide turning, and the 2 hour scramble, that included treacherous under footing of sharp root and slippery seaweed, nearly defeated us as we came to the very last 100 meters. We stopped and found several large lagoons to cross. This would not normally be a problem, but because we were originally going on a dry walk, we both had our phones on us and a backpack too. Therefore this because a very good teamwork exercise. We succeeded in getting back to the bay just in time before the rocks were nearly swept under the crashing waves. However, we did come off with a couple of cuts and bruises after one treacherous leap.
 |
| One of the many rock pools along our scramble |
Exhausted after our adventure, we headed back to the campsite and packed up to go home. It was an awesome adventure overall and I cannot wait to hopefully go to the Lake District in September. I now have the camping bug.
Zoe
x
