Estuary

The local area is dominated by 2 estuaries. The poke a relatively long way inland, which makes travelling up the coast a bit of a pain, because there are no road bridges over them until a long way up. Those estuaries used to be really important. They provided a route to the sea, so were ideal for getting goods out of Wales. 
It was a sign of the priorities of infrastructure during the Victorian era that both these estuaries are crossed by rail bridges. A trip along the Cambrian Coast Rail Line is a beautiful way to see this part of the world. 

Dyfi Osprey Project wrote a lovely post on Facebook earlier this week about the bridge that crosses over the Dyfi below Machynlleth. In order to keep local ship builders happy the bridge featured a draw bridge, allowing masted ships to sail out to sea. 
Yesterday I was up at the Mawddach estuary, the next river mouth along the coast, which features a similar bridge. ​

You can walk across this  150 year old wooden bridge (or ride a bike along it). 

We were there geocache hunting... and had to wait for the tide to go out. Leaving us some lovely warm pools to splash about in.