4 out of 5 stars

The publisher provided a copy of this, free of charge, in return for an honest review.

It is kind of fitting that at the beginning of Matthew Yeomans’ walk around Wales, it begins in a rainy gloom. He is in Cas-Gwent (Chepstow) in his friend, Andy’s, kitchen, drinking coffee and peering out the window at the rain.

They decide that waiting for fine weather might take a while, they don their waterproofs, and step out of the warm house into the rain. At the start of the trail, there is a stone monolith and a metal sculpture that Yeoman describes as being similar to a baked potato in foil. The other odd this about this coastal path is that they are two miles from the coast. Details…
This part of the coast is not renowned for its beauty, however, it is rich in history. It is rich in historic sites, and finds there have been artefacts discovered all the way back to the Neolithic.
They get wet again. They pass some guys from Bristol who are fishing, who, from what they tell them, have not had any luck catching anything. It is not long before they pass some of the locals, who are also fishing, who tell them that the other guys are fishing in completely the wrong place…

Yeoman and his friend, Jeff, are now walking in a gale (this isn’t selling a walking holiday in Wales to me!!). Approaching Cardiff, they come across a note saying that the path is closed for emergency flood defence work. A reminder that climate change is upon us and not going away. They take an inland detour, and it means that they can stop at the Royal Oak pub, one of Jeff’s old haunts.

Whilst they are in Cardiff, he explores the coastal areas and looks at what the authorities are doing to stop flooding. He walks along the canal that was built to transport bulk materials to the port for export and ends up at the enormous Bute East Dock. The barrage they have built seems to be helping, but how it will cop in the future is anyone’s guess.
It was at Lavernock Point that Marconi demonstrated to the world his radio transmission invention. They take a path with a dead end on a sign and inevitably end up walking back. Amusingly, on the back of that sign is another that says ‘told you so’. They walk through an area called The Bendricks; turns out to be a section of prehistoric cliffs dating back to the Triassic period. They are soon walking through Barry Island, best known for the sitcom Gavin and Stacey, something that I have never watched, before they head onto the Glamorgan Heritage Coast. Known for smuggling in the past it is now suffering from coastal erosion.

Port Talbot is not a place that conjures up picturesque scenes with it ominous steel works looming over the town. There are two possible routes that they can take, and they decide on the lower route. It is as grim as they are expecting, but they are assured by other walkers that it does improve. And it does.
Revisiting Rotherslade Rock brings back childhood memories. It is a place that he brought his own kids back to and watches them climb the same rock that he did as a kid. This part of Wales has a strong Anglican feel to it. This was because the Welsh often rebelled and the Norman invaders imposed a strong control on the area. Returning to Pobbles Bay Beach reminded him just how awful it was for playing cricket.

He picks his way across a salt marsh and passes Tinopolis or Llanelli as it is more commonly known. His walking companion for this stage is his son, and they embark on a very personal pilgrimage to see where his grandparents were married. They walk as far as they are able through the Castlemartin firing rang,e where the wildlife flourishes amongst the ordinance.
Pembrokeshire is a wild and beautiful place. Or it was when I visited a couple of years ago. Yeomans is there to walk part of the path conceived by Ronald Lockley, who was a guy who ended up on Skokholm and became an expert in the birds that were there. Milford Haven is the location of an oil refinery, and it was where a tanker spilt 72,000 tonnes of crude oil in the mid-1990s. Wildlife was devastated at the time, but then recovered enough to then suffer water temperatures that were 5 °C higher because of climate change. They then walk through the last place that a foreign power tried to invade.

Living by the sea brings forth stories that are, in essence, true, but are steeped in the folklore of the sea. This part of Wales is no different. There are stories of giants, lost lands, mermaids and old magic. Golf links are found by the shore, and it is thought that these will go as the sea level rises, a problem brought home when he is asked to map a new route for the Wales Coast path. The next stage of his walk passes Portmeirion and onto Port Madoc, where the cliffs are battered constantly by the waves. We will have to see how Wales and the UK cope and adapt in the coming years.
It was a fire at an RAF site that began Welsh nationalism and marked the start of the pushback against English domination. Like the West Country, Wales also has a big problem with second home ownership and locals are priced out of the market. Second homes are now being taxed more, but if this will have the desired effect and money is fed back into the local economy, only time will tell. People who want to live there now can’t, as a £20k salary isn’t going to buy a £1m house.

Yeomans is now in hill country, as he discovers as he walks up the road to Trefor; it nearly kills his legs! He is fast approaching the island of Ynys Mon. He can cross a bridge to get there now; previously, he would have had to cross by boat, and the tides are treacherous. It is the place where one of the first environmental protection laws was passed. Elizabeth the First ordered the dunes to be replanted with marram grass and to punish those who were caught stealing it.

Smuggling was rife back in the 18th century; illicit goods would be shipped from the Isle of Man. It was lucrative and dangerous and could be deadly. One group of smugglers used the power of their women, who were believed to be witches; a curse from them would deter most people. It was a shipwreck here that gave us the Met Office and the beginnings of weather prediction.
Yeomans has finally reached the last leg of his walk. He thinks about the parts that he has enjoyed walking through, even though he has only covered about half of the full 870 miles. It is enough to see the havoc that climate change will bring to this coastline.

This was an enjoyable book in lots of ways. His account of the places that he walks through and descriptions of the things he sees are really good. He brings to life the richly layered history of the country. The other focus of the book is the grim realities of climate change, rising sea levels and coastal erosion, which, while we need to know about it, makes for less enjoyable reading. I live fairly close to the coast and it makes for sobering reading. I like Yeomans’ writing, it feels like a conversation in a pub garden, overlooking the sea whilst the sun goes down. He is not confrontational about climate change, just exasperated that governments are still dithering while it accelerates. Well worth reading.

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