Another early morning alarm, then a wander through the pretty village of Clifton, including the delightful tree lined path through St. Andrews cemetery, to Clifton Down railway station.  Sainsbury’s is conveniently right beside the station, perfect to gather provisions, which today includes a bottle of bubbly to celebrate ten years of coast walking as well as crossing into Wales.

Disembark at the end of the line and wander the short distance back to the Severn estuary. The weather couldn’t be more perfect for today’s walk – crisp and cold with clear blue skies, fading, ombre style to the horizon.  Stop to snap a photo of the Prince of Wales bridge snaking across the still and very quiet waters of the River Severn, although we can hear the distance hum of traffic flowing along the M4 to Wales.

Just before the bridge a sign reminds us that there is also a tunnel under the river – the Severn railway tunnel was completed in 1887 and was the longest railway tunnel, at 7 km long, in the British Isles. Until 2007.

The coast path runs right under the bridge, and it’s only when you look back over the river from the other side that you realise quite how much the bridge curves. We pass a rather cute looking dwelling – symmetrical right down to the chimneys, with a wrought iron canopy.  Formerly known as the New Passage Hotel, it served as a place to stay from the railway station ehrn waiting to cross the river on the ferry.

Next its time for breakfast and we find the most delightful spot on a bench with a view up the estuary, at a place called New Passage. This area is known as the Northwick Warth waterbird refuge, and the birds certainly seem to be enjoying swimming in the shallow waters.  I’m not a twitcher, but I know plenty of people who would relish in counting the numbers of geese and wading birds. It’s too cold to linger for long so we are soon continuing along the new path, through new metal gates.  It seems a lot of money has been spent on this area on landscaping, paths, tree planting and what looks like a very fancy bird hide currently in construction.  There was no signage to say what it was and I can find nothing on-line, so watch this space, I guess. We stop to watch a bird hovering above us – I think a sparrowhawk but as I said I’m not a twitcher.

We pass over the next little stream with the rather interesting name of Cake Pill, then along a quiet straight road with space for car parking both sides and lots of associated litter strewn in the hedges. We pass more newly built flood defences then a big sign about the ecology mitigation and flood defence work that has been carried out by the Avonmouth Severnside Enterprise Area. A six-year project now coming to its end which we have certainly seen evidence of these two days.

Old Ferry View, a small cabin like dwelling at Old Passage, has a herd of unusual farm animals, recycled from old cans and other metal artefacts, as well as the old turnstile for the ferries. I’m guessing the names New Passage and Old Passage refer to previous ferry crossing sites? We pass a cluster of stone houses, head up the road for a bit towards the village of Aust, then take a left towards the Severn Road Bridge.

A footpath runs both sides of the M48 across both the River Severn and Wye.  A sign says its 4 miles to Chepstow. With just a low metal railing to our left and an even lower crash barrier to our right we make our way across the magnificent bridge, snapping plenty of photos as we go.

Two thirds of the way over we find ourselves a peninsula of land known as Beachley.  It is so obviously barracks from the set up, then we spot signs saying 1^st Battalion, the Rifles.  Then part way over the River Wye we nearly miss a tiny sign written on the crash barrier saying Wales. Yay, we did it!

Haha Wales looks pretty similar to the England we left behind, but I must admit there are an awful lot of coast path signs. We take the right turn under the bridge – incredible colourful graffiti adorning the walls. At the far end artists have writing Severn Bridge Parkrun – we must have just missed that this morning.

We are following the coast path anti-clockwise for a short into Chepstow to get to the beginning of the Wales Coast Path.  It runs through sports fields, woodlands, housing estates, through the old stone Port Wall to the town.

The start point of the Wales Coast Path, known in Welsh as Llwybr Arfordir Cymru, is at a delightful grassy spot on the bank of the river Wye by the Old Wye bridge.  Now closed to traffic but it’s a short walk back over to England, if you wish.

We stop here for our celebratory bottle of fizz and picnic.

We then take a wander through the quaint town back to the railway station for a train to Newport, where we change trains to head back to Bristol for one more night.  Then its back to work tomorrow after a two week Christmas break.