Aberystwyth is so bracing

Walking along the cliffs in Ceredigion tempts one to tackle Wales's entire coastal path

- Fiona Reynolds

THE ridge, like a great whaleback, rises ahead of me. It’s softly green and swelling, a sharp contrast to the black, jagged cliffs below. Simply being by the sea is intoxicating: I’m revelling in the distant crash of the waves and heady scent of sea air.

It’s a gloomy morning after a few days of scintillating weather and my brain memory is still filled with last night’s dramatic sunset, viewed from Aberystwyth University’s Arts Centre. The bright light is all gone this morning, but I’m phlegmatic—you take the weather that comes and the chance to walk along the coast is a rare one in my landlocked life.

Especially here, as it’s been years since I was in this part of mid Wales. Since then, the Welsh Government has put in an all-Wales Coastal Path, all 870 miles of it, completed in 2012 at a cost of £14.6 million. That was truly money well spent, as it’s been calculated that the path generates enough income to pay back those costs in a single year— sustainable, green income, too. What’s not to like about that?