Fieldwork in the Cefni estuary

After the fieldwork in the Dee history, it was time to visit its counterpart: the Cefni. That was more relaxed! I know the estuary, and it is not very far away. Low tide was quite late in the day, so I didn't pick up Alexander until 3 pm.

When we got to the parking spot, we changed into our mud shoes and headed for where Alexander had decided we should go into the actual field. There was no path there; there isn't much in the way of paths. So it started a bit awkward, as usual; hostile vegetation, treacherous dents in the underground that were difficult to spot under said vegetation, overenthusiastic insects, et cetera. We also noticed we were in a vegetation zone we had not encountered in the Dee. And that the elevation was a lot lower here. No direct comparison would be possible! But that's fine; we can deal with that. We took a sample anyway.

The high marsh

Soon we were in a much more comfortable part of the marsh, with much lower vegetation and much more even ground. And we did find vegetation zones that were quite similar to what we had seen before. So things weren't looking so bad! And the marsh was quite beautiful. So was the weather! 

Lower down in the marsh

Beautiful red sandy channel

Wider channel with school of fish passing

As this marsh is a lot smaller, we reached the low marsh  and then the sand flat quite soon. And once we were there, things got more comfortable still. The sampling is easy, the walking is easy, the insects are a lot less abundant. I suggested we walk back towards the parking lot over the sand, and Alexander agreed.

Reliably photogenic samphire

We walked back while discussing politics. And by the time we got back to the car we had only spent three hours in total. Not bad!

Dramatic skies

There was a bit of logistics to deal with still; we drove back to Ocean Sciences, transferred the data from the GPS to my laptop, put the GPS back where it belongs, deposited the samples in the fridge, and gave back the keys of the Hilux. Then we were done. I gave Alexander a lift to main campus in my own car; he was very scrunched up as because of my logistic challenges earlier in the week, my bike was in the back. Additionally, I had filled up the rest of the boot with my bags, so poor Alexander had to fit (with his own bag and all) on the passenger's seat. It didn't look comfortable, but it did save him having to walk home. And I decidedly preferred that over having to drive to Bangor in the Hilux, then back to Menai Bridge, and then back to Bethesda past Bangor in my own car!

I was home just before 8 PM. And the next day we would make a start with foraminifera analysis! Exciting stuff!