Week 2: New boots!

                                           

Hello everyone :) We had a really busy week last week so we didn't have much time to write our blog.  We went back to school this week so we did lots of walking up and down the hills to school and then on Saturday we went to Camarthan to buy new walking boots so that we have plenty of time to wear them in before we climb up Snowdon. They are proper walking boots and we got walking sticks too so now we feel like proper walkers :) 

We were really excited about our new walking boots and we wanted to try them out straight away so on Sunday we went for a long walk along Three Cliffs Bay which on the Gower. It's one of our favourite beaches and it has three cliffs that stick up out of the sea which look like a dragon's back when its lying down.

Three Cliffs Bay is the only place in Wales where the really pretty yellow flower the Draba aizoides grows. It makes the cliffs look yellow.

We parked in Parkmill and walked through the path in the woods.

The woods were really pretty. It was freezing cold but we wrapped up really warm.






We found frozen puddles - we smashed the ice with
our new walking sticks. 

When we came out of the woods we had to climb up a really steep sandy bank. We were really glad that we had walking sticks because it was really difficult climbing up sand.

At the top of the hill is a castle in ruins. It's called Pennard castle and it's nearly fallen down because it been blasted by the wind and sand for nearly 1000 years.  It wasn't a very good place to build a castle! 

When we were home-schooled we learned a lot about history and castles so we like to go and see them. 

Pennard castle was built by Henry de Beaumont, the Earl of Warwick, who was a Norman knight who invaded England with William the Conqueror in 1066.

 He was quite an important man because he was a friend of William the Conqueror & his sons William 11 and Henry 1 and he was given lots of land in England and Wales as presents. Henry 1 'gave' Henry de Beaumont the whole of Gower & Swansea in 1107 as a present for supporting him when the Norman Barons wanted Henry I's brother Robert to be king. He became a Marcher lord and he built loads of small castles in Swansea to show how powerful he was and to  defend 'his' land against the Welsh. We don't think the Welsh people were very happy that their land was just given away because they constantly fought to get it back!

We played at the castle for a bit and then we climbed down to the beach and saw rock climbers. We LOVE rock climbing but this was a bit high for us!

 In the middle of the beach  is Pennard Pill which is a really big stream which  flows into the sea and looks like a smiley mouth.

We crossed the beach and the climbed up ANOTHER hill and this one was full of thorny bushes OUCH!!! We were looking for a geocache but we couldn't find it so climbed down again. Geocaching is brilliant, it's like looking for treasure which makes walking more fun. Because we couldn't find it we headed back to the castle and to the shop in Parkmill. We had Joe's ice cream as a treat for all that walking. We walked so far our feet ached but we felt great that we did it! We walked 6 miles in 4 hours!

If you would like to sponsor our climb up Mount Snowdon we have a JustGiving page and all the money we raise will be spent on books and lessons for the children in Kitende, Uganda.
http://www.justgiving.com/CarionedsChallenge

To find out more about the the Uganda Child Education Trust charity we are raising money for you can join their FaceBook page here

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Uganda-Child-Education-Trust-Kitende/216146361792463?ref=hl

Thank you for reading our blog <3