It is rare for me to visit the same place twice within a couple of weeks, but my walk in the Teifi Marshes recently was curtailed by heavy rain, and I feel that I have unfinished business. Last time I started from the Cilgerran end of the marsh, so today begin at the seaward side – crossing the bridge over the Teifi and heading upstream past the site of the old, sadly long-departed Cardigan railway station.
My route follows the former course of the railway line, but I briefly divert along a boardwalk into the broad reedbeds at the heart of the marsh. Here, I am surrounded by the ambient sound of the wind in the reeds, which ebbs and flows with an almost animate organic static – pushing back the distant sounds of traffic on the main road. Scrub and small trees interact with the reeds at the margins, their autumn bounty of fruits already well advanced. The blackberries are almost over, but the sloes are plump and mature with the promise of a warming winter spirit to come.
