From my vantage point on the southern side of the Dyfi estuary it was clear that my plan for the day had been compromised. The salt marsh, with its almost fractally complex pattern of creeks, pools and drains, is often host in late autumn to large groups of geese grazing contentedly within easy reach of the seawall.
On this visit those few geese visible through the pervasive anticyclonic murk were strung out along the seaward edge of the marsh, distant and difficult to approach. As if by compensation a single egret, starkly white against the muted greys and browns of the saltings, flapped slowly up from the bed of a creek just in front of me.
Hoping for a break in the gloomy weather I moved on to Dovey Junction, one of the more remote railway stations in the UK. Perched by the river Dyfi and reachable only on foot or by bike along a gravel track, it gives access to a dramatic rail route along the north side of the estuary.
Across the river bridge, with its lonely cottage, the line follows a rocky foreshore edged with current-sculpted sandbanks where the main channel cuts close to the shore. On this day scattered groups of large jellyfish lay stranded near the high-water mark, oystercatchers scavenged and probed at the edge of the rising tide, and ducks formed sociable rafts midstream. But no more geese were visible.
The village of Aberdyfi marks the boundary between the river and sea, and even stepping from the train on to its single station platform I could hear the roar of the surf breaking on the sandbar at the mouth of the Dyfi.
Warm sunshine broke through briefly and from the jetty behind the lifeboat station children fished for crabs – dropping them into buckets of seaweed and water as generations have done before them.
As the sea breeze began to pick up and the shadows lost their definition I looked inland. Fresh masses of grey cloud were starting to drag across the hills of Ceredigion while a solitary cormorant dived repeatedly and with limited success among the moored fishing boats.
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