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hiking trails, interesting geologic forma- Dylan Thomas, who grew up in nearby I had struck a traveler’s bargain here –
tions and a profusion of birds and other Swansea, described the enduring scene finding a poet’s lair in this setting that
animals as well as historical sites dat- some years before his death in 1953: is as much a part of the territory as
ing back thousands of years. There are the protected bays and buffeted coastal
Bronze and Stone Age ritual and burial “Laughing on the cliff above the very long headlands that mark the Gower.
sites and hints of smugglers' roosts. golden beach, we pointed out to each
other, as though the other were blind, Now, it was time for a conversion – tak-
Turning around from my beach overlook, the great rock of the Worms Head. The ing a half-hour ride to Mumbles, a sea-
I took in Worms Head, a mile-long rocky sea was out. We crossed over on slipping front community in the city of Swansea
outcrop jutting into the sea that is acces- stones and stood, at last, triumphantly with trendy hotels, bars and an old-style
sible to hikers by a causeway only during on the windy top. There was monstrous, pier. You can base yourself in the many
low tide. When the tide is in, all that can thick grass there that made us spring- rustic B&Bs of the rural Gower but, for
be seen is the “head and humped coils” heeled and we laughed and bounced on the action, Mumbles is the place.
of what looks to be a worm. it, scaring the sheep who ran up and
down the battered sides like goats.” “The infamous ‘Mumbles Mile’ seems
The late Welsh poet and playwright to have as many pubs, nightclubs and

80 Wine Dine & Travel 2016