Walk 29. Saturday 24th May
Left home VERY early...6 which is early for me!
Decided to go for the 9 am bus replacement for the train(remember the line is closed until the bridge is mended back at Maentwrog) in the hope of avoiding the threatened
afternoon rain. Quite a bright morning as we approached Dolgellau once more,
and the bluebells are still an amazing sight on the slopes here. So arrived in
Pwllheli in plenty of time even to have a coffee at the station cafe. Bus was
there in the bus station across the road with very chatty driver, a Wrexham
supporter. Arrived Criccieth and set off walking by about 9.20.
Lovely walk
along the seafront...we like Criccieth. Great views of the castle and it's
Dinas and across to the rest of the Lleyn and back to Porthmadog, Harlech and
Barmouth. The mountains of Snowdonia and the Rhinogs to the south not too clear
this morning...all had their cloudy hats on. We walked quite close to the sea for a while..
At the river Dwyfor...meaning big water...we had
to go inland at Llanystumdwy, home to Lloyd George, quite a big estuary with
lots of flotsam and jetsam along it, complete with its boardwalk.
Then just
footpath pounding along roadside, A 497, for about 4 miles. This is a
relatively new road, we could see the narrow old road alongside us from time to
time and its old toll house and at least the hedgerows are pretty just now!
At Afonwen we dropped down to the coast
again...great views in all directions and oyster catchers making their
noise.
Caravans alongside the sewage works seemed a bit strange..but the views
were lovely....
...so we headed out to Pen-chain point with all its thrift flowers
and had lunch
beside an old gun emplacement...
with good views across to Pwllheli along the
beach, Morfa Abererch,
which we proceeded to cross after lunch to beat the
clouds coming in....would we?....It was a lovely beach walk once more...mostly
shingle and stones rather than shells...the dunes had been bashed about by the storms
..and behind them were caravans and the railway. Tide was out so it was preferable to stay on
the beach rather than the official path which would have taken us inland. Someone had done a brilliant picture of Homer on the sand!
Good
views across to Crochan Berw at the harbour entrance and the marina entrance...a flotilla of little
sailing boats had set out to sea as we found a path across the dunes to rejoin
the road into the town...and the rain started, not too bad though and still
warm.
We headed on the very nice marina path back to the car, first finding a cafe for a
coffee, before heading off to Aberdaron and the holiday house, Cyll y Felin
Fawr, the big hazel mill...or my preferred version hazel tree by the big mill (neither of which we in fact saw...), to await our holiday friends, the Beatties our daughter and son-in-law and 2 lovely granddaughters, who had
been enduring a long, slow journey from Kent!
11 miles done! Mostly flat so quite
quick...finished by 2.15!
Walk 30. Monday 26th May
Wow! What a wonderful day yesterday,
on the beach with the Beatties all day, first at lovely Porth Ysgol
with its rocks and island and then at Aberdaron..with a lovely crab ciabatta to
finish. We visited the ancient church on the beach, St Hywyn’s – R S Thomas, the Welsh
poet was vicar here from 1967 to 1978.
A really tranquil place we thought. Then
today off we set at 9 to Pwllheli to resume the walk this time with Jane.
Set
off by 10 from the marina and headed out to the coast first along a path by a
golf club with stunning views in all directions.....ahead to Abersoch and St Tudwal's Islands..
...back down the beach to Pwllheli and its harbour..
....and across the sun glistening sea to the mainland, dimly seen through the heat haze...
Soon we were heading over the dunes and onto the beach, Traeth Crugan as the tide was out once more....
We headed around a headland Carreg y Defaid with
nice views and pretty foxgloves....
and it was getting very warm!
We soon were on our next beach of the day at Llanbedrog....with its lovely beach chalets
...and soon headed steeply uphill here to see
the tin man...apparently he replaced an earlier tin or iron man who had replaced a much earlier wooden man who had been on a stern of a ship...
Wow what views!
We walked along the tops here for a while and soon got
views of Abersoch and the 2 St. Tudwal's
Islands. Steeply back down dropping a bit inland as the cliffs were steep and
rocky facing the sea, as we saw once we were down there!
Lunch on beach before we headed over
beach, the Warren, where we were very pleased to see more ancient forest
revealed...
By now we had recognised
Snowdon and the Glyders and could even see the top of Cadair Idris...magical! We
could have headed around the headland to Abersoch's south beach but the river was in the way....
So headed into town around the RNLI station open day and the river!
Soon back down by the harbour and with a bit of scrambling under the bridge at the
yacht club,
...arrived on the south beach headed to Machroes. It was busy on this beach, passing more beach huts before seeing
breakwaters heading down to the end of the beach, our meeting place with Arthur and the
girls.
Finished about 3.30
10 and a half miles glorious!
Walk 31. Tuesday 27th May
Forecast last night showed that today and
tomorrow may be showery and first thing it was indeed wet. Off we set about 10, this time Arthur, Chris and I back to Machroes...much quieter here than yesterday, bank
holiday Monday in the sun!
We headed up and over the headland, low clouds over
the mountains today with a still, grey sea, very ethereal! Had to go up a road that had been severely washed away thanks to those storms but we did think the Road Closed sign seemed to have been ignored....
We passed some old
shafts which we later discovered were
mines for lead. The huge old building which we assumed had been a winding house
for the shaft was in fact a pumping station to keep water out of the mine(thank
you, Jane – you are a good researcher!).
Other strange buildings we couldn't imagine what their purpose was...then or now...
And then back along the coast. The islands of st Tudwal's came into view...
and
we met a family watching dolphins,,,,,at last there they were, we had walked all up Cardigan Bay and not seen one! There really were some playing just beneath us here - I know you'll have to take my word for it....but you can at least see how still and glassy the sea was!
The family
donated too - thank you! We stood and watched for a while and then off again with the islands now falling behind us...
and very soon saw Porth
Ceiriad come into view, a lovely beach ....
with an Iron Age hill fort on the other side falling into the sea once
more! We had to head inland then for a while as we met a detour around a
holiday village of some sort....got a bit lost finding its new route but made
it in the end and then back to the coast. The sea was so still!
Around the headland we went with some steep
uphills where we could see both sides of the peninsula and St Tudwal's Islands ahead and now even Bardesy Island appeared!
This was around where
we had stopped on our last walk here 2 years ago. Heading now towards Hell's
mouth beach, Porth Neigwl, which came into view once over the last incline at
the trig point ....
and inland we could see Carn Fadrun, the hill with one of the largest hill forts in the country!
Then we had to head inland a little with a strange path under a hawthorn, passing a
badger sett and steeply downhill! Not such a great Coastal Path here....Soon now going towards the beach and trying
to see Jane and the girls.
They soon started to walk towards us, we had done 8 miles to here!
We sat together for lunch but it was a bit chilly in the wind so Susannah
preferred to be on car duty now. Jane, Abigail and I set off to cover the last
3 miles of the beach whilst the others sorted out the cars!
Coastal path
actually goes inland along lanes here but hey, the tide's out, the beach
beckons! Abigail did a great job, energised with a packet of mints!
The sand
dunes gave way to sandy cliffs, very eroded. Saw a few sanderlings and tiny
crabs here and there.
The beach had been pretty stripped of the soft sand we'd
seen last time here. Here and there were sinking sands which was slightly
alarming, good job we were following a tiny pirate! Did we need a beach guide?
At the edge of the beach near where we were to take our leave, the beach was
covered in plenty of stones and boulders. We were again to find out on our return that there had been a jetty here to take away the quarried manganese as there had been at Porth Ysgo. all organised from Rhiw and Benrallt on the headland above. Amazing!!
We saw the rest of our party coming
to meet us and soon had to make our way up the now collapsed footpath!
And so
back to the cars, parked neatly on the coast path route!
Finished about half
past 4. 11 miles! Through the 600 now and Abigail had walked a magnificent 3 miles on the beach! She's a star! And she and Susannah were given more donations in the shop and car park - thank you!!
Walk 32. Wednesday 28th May
Well we had a surprise today as we expected a
rainy day after the forecast last night. It was in fact a bright morning so off
Jane, Chris and I set, back to the base of Rhiw hill..lovely ethereal views of
Snowdonia, that means a bit hazy! Off up the hill by 10 which Jane had
wanted us to stop at the top of....
walked through Plas en Rhiw, a 17th century
national trust house but somewhere here we lost path signs so just headed up
the road to where we met the path again. The path headed to the coast passing Mynydd y Graig, with its fort on top and lots to see!
Was that a collapsed dolmen?....we could live here with its lovely views and history!
Passing the stony outcrops....the Lleyn is just a mass of volcanic outcrops,
perfect for hill forts!, and as we discovered, very much quarrying!
We saw a pair of very yellow birds near these rocks....yellowhammers or
budgies? I'm in favour of yellow hammers....
Chris was very excited to spot the sewage works...Jane and I more
interested in possible burial mounds in a field! Soon heading down towards the coast again
but we went too far so had to retrace..uphill of course! But we did get great views towards Porth Ysgo and beyond to Bardsey....
Turned through a farm
with its enormous pig
and out across fields with their Dexter cows..nice ladies
gave us a donation here and were very interested in our walk, thank you! Lovely hedgerows full of campion and cow parsley.
Then we turned back to
the coast through Nant Gwaden passing the levels....
to where the manganese quarries would have despatched their finds out to the little boats...the old winding houses were here too....
Our researcher on return home, once again informed us that these
mines were for manganese in the stainless steel industry....
So strange to think that so many beautiful places we have visited were
once, not so very long ago, scenes of so much industry – good to see that
nature has its way and turns it all back to a beautiful place. Porth Ysgo is such a lovely cove...especially in this bright sunshine!
Not quite as
sunny as on our "free" day", Sunday, but the morning had been fine! Just a brief look down to where we had spent those lovely hours....
and then along the coast with
lots of nettles.....then across fields, one with rams and cows! And so to the
coast road and down into Aberdaron.
We spotted lots of old enclosure / boundary
earthworks in the fields - all now fenced off and protected which you will see more of later. Certainly a protected species on the Lleyn.. We should have
headed to the river to head into town but we stayed on the road as we had a
meeting to keep with Arthur and the girls for lunch...It was lovely dropping into the
pretty town passing the church overlooking the beach and a house having its
new thatch! Lovely lunch at Ty Newydd, the pub with a terrace overlooking the beach, crab sandwiches! Then
back on the path....over the cliffs once we'd got up the steep steps. Lovely
views as we went along the path...
....out to Porth Meudwy....
with quite a few people walking the path for a little while...and
then no-one, pretty much like most of our route has been so far! A young man with
his dog were inspired by us to carry on walking but of course he had things to get back for....So
many people we have stopped to chat to have said they too would love to do a
long walk – just do it I say! Soon we were out on open land again Llanllawen I think, a lot of the land here is National trust land....and more of those protected ditches, here with lovely thrift growing on it..
Crossing fields we had to bravely pass quite closely to a
cow and her calf! Jane and I were brave! It was a lovely bracing walk heading out to Pen
y Cil, the headland,
and great views to
Bardsey Island.
Spotted a few choughs but no dolphins today...see the chough on the fence...really it was!
Past St Mary's well, we
headed up to the car park to meet our companions
....
11.25 miles..up to 1500 feet elevation gain today
Walk 33. Thursday 29th May
Arthur, Chris and I set off and parked at Pen y
Cil to set off just before 10 and what a hilly start!
Passing St Mary's Well and up
and over Mynydd Mawr with views of Bardsey, passing an old observation point
and it's concrete standing and then onward over to Anelog...
....we thought we
wouldn't go so high today! A challenge! Lovely views across the headland to the little Aberdaron islands...Ynys Gwylan Fawr and Ynys Gwylan Bach.
Saw some choughs and plenty of flowers.
Soon after we met Mona and Dave from Canada....they are also walking the coast path, the other way round, for Velindre and for other charities too. lovely to meet them and best of luck! They'll finish before us....see them at: www.madwalking.com.......
Still lovely views behind and ahead...here the lovely coastline..
and then the patterns and smell of newly cut grass...early sileage this year, it's been a good growing year!
....we had
a meet planned for 12.30 on Porth Oer, Whistling sands. Jane and Abigail had so
looked forward to it and this section of the walk was planned so that they could join us....and there they were flying their kite!
Had another kind donation
just as we dropped onto beach, thank you. And the sands are still whistling....not quite as much as before the storms apparently but Abigail and Susannah loved making the noise as they rushed along the sands. Off again after lunch...
...leaving our walking companions and the beach behind...
We had expected to go inland
but we stayed on the coast, the coastal path must have just opened here so we went past
Porth Iago...
and Ferin. I was very excited to see these secret beaches! Another donation here too followed by another from 2
families who were very chatty and friendly, thank you. Still lots of flora - here once more lots of pretty thrift....
The path was a bit difficult here and
there but with quite stunning cliff views and more ups and downs.
Saw the quite rare
Spring Squill here – had seen it here and there over the past few days, what a
treat!
Around to Porth Widlin and views up to Penrhyn Colmon now.
The cliffs
here were quite low and not as spectacular but soon we saw Traeth
Penllech.....a stunning stretch of beach.
Even saw some wild orchids here. We
walked some on the beach where a family were building a spectacular dam where the river came down, complete with seaweed to add to its strength...further along the cliffs were of boulder clay complete with yellow flag irises which we saw a lot this week here and there...
But some walking was on the cliff top too...quite hard going!
Lovely sun
came out for a while...it had been a warm day with just a little wind now and
then. Soon came to Porth Ysgaden...a lovely sight with a natural harbour using
the rocks and this had been the home of herring fishing – Sgaden is Welsh for
herring. It also had had a lime kiln here and had seen lots of imports and
exports. The gable end of a house still stands proud where once the harbour
master had lived who was paid extra for catching smugglers!
The house had been
last lived in in the 1930’s by brothers who were coal merchants. Quite soon we
could see Towyn coming into view...phew! First across Porth Ysgaig....pretty
bay with canoes and a little village of caravans, crossing a river with a
waterfall.
Then we looked out for our companions waiting for us on the pretty
beach at Towyn, Abigail climbing the rocks...what a relief to see them! Had a
chat with a lady here and she was very impressed with
our walk – if you read this I would like to say a big thank you for your kind
donation on JustGiving– it is really appreciated. The support we get really
does help when we sometimes find the going tough!
Never lost sight of the sea
at all today...and 2 fishermen on the beach at the end! First of the
week....somewhere along the way we saw a duck family on a swimming lesson..
......13.5 miles later!
Walk
34. Friday 30th May
Wow! What a beautiful morning! Bit achey after
yesterday but off Chris and I set to Towyn to set off once more by
10....
apparently only 6-7 miles today.....such a lovely morning, blue sea and
sky....
...a bit hazy so the hills of Yr Eifl not clear yet...absolutely lovely views, bay and
beach after beach and bay
.....Walking first over the clifftops, we saw many lambs, some quite big now....
...another duck family, Mum with her 7 ducklings floating about the rocks,
many cormorants and even a seal bobbing about...there he is just to the right of the top rock....you may have to take my word for it, but who could blame him on a day like today!
Another pretty little cove...
..which was simply idyllic...
....could have stayed here all day...and then found yet another one...
as we went out to Penrhyn Cwmistir point and passed more coves on the way to Aber Geirch, really pretty with cliffs and yellow flag irises
by the marsh. Up then to the Nefyn golf club...what a place for a golf club with beautiful Borth Wen at the bottom of the Porth Dinllaen peninsula,
Up
and around the peninsula of Porth Dinllaen, with its Iron Age hill fort on its
end...a lovely place for lunch overlooking the bay of Porth Dinllaen with the Nefyn beaches...the famous, and very busy, pub on the beach at Morfa Nefyn, the Ty Coch, the red building...
....and the Yr
Eifl hills behind...wondrous...still an ethereal mist at the foot of the hills
in the sea.
After lunch we dropped down between the old gateway of the hill fort....
We skirted round the beach...marvelling at the view..
.....it was very busy here as we made our way across the sands...
The path went then up to the top of the cliffs
around to Penrhyn Nefyn......stupendous blue sea....and soon we dropped down to the beach
at Nefyn
....just as our companions arrived around 3.....they had been on
Whistling Sands all morning, sailing the boat and playing boules. We played a
while longer, except Susannah who was asleep in the tent...it was too lovely to
leave just yet...what a splendid day!
8.26 miles in the end!!
Maybe a bit less floriferous today...not so much
campion and cow parsley going over, a bit less blousy...plenty of oyster
catchers today and gulls and cormorants....and I even saw a peacock at Towyn when I was on car duty...
Walk 35. Saturday 31st May
Bit sad this morning as we had to leave the
holiday house and it had been such a lovely week. Our holiday companions set
off by 10 to head for Kent....whilst
Chris and I set off to Trefor, with its little harbour..and fisherman...
the other side of Yr Eifl, our destination for
the day...Jane said we had to do as many miles as we could! We called a cab
Nefyn Taxis which arrived soon after with the driver's 2 little girls too, 6
and 2 year olds so a bit like our granddaughters! Arriving back in Nefyn on the
beach road, the sun began to appear..and it got hotter and hotter all day! We
couldn't find the path for a while...it was hidden down a side street but once
there it was a pleasant path to the right of the road, not quite coastal but
with good views nevertheless and pretty tropical gardens even with a picnic
decking over one of the ponds.
Gunnera was great! The Nefyns and Porth Dinllaen were already
disappearing.
We climbed a little passing an old quarry, on the hill Gwlywyr,
Apparently the granite
still being quarried at the other side of Yr Eifl is used to make curling stones. Soon we had to negotiate manic dogs...luckily
they were tied up otherwise I wouldn't have made it past them. We then crossed
the road which also became the Pilgrims Way, the path to Bardesy...
and then dropped coastward once more. Passed above Pistyll here and
crossed a track with a surfeit of path signs for a change.........
made me
laugh as we've been so many places where there were no signs when you needed one! Slight incline then crossing fields toward Porth y Nant and views of Yr
Eifl looming ahead!
A group of boys and girls from
Liverpool
were ahead and then following us here before dropping onto the beach – they
were headed for Trefor too. We lunched overlooking the beach, Porth y Nant, and could see some
buildings down by the sea expecting them to be a private house of some
sort....
....we walked then above the stony beach some 600 feet below us..I know
that because my GPS told me so. Passing through an old oak wood where we saw
some amazing trees shaped by the wind
and some pretty butterflies, a tiny
yellow one which I got a picture of and a really small dark blue one which I
couldn't catch, we started to descend...oh my! And so down to the
beachside....the old quarry workings and buildings were quite a sight here
...and
it's astonishing to see how high up the cliffs the buildings were and to try to appreciate
what hard work those quarrymen must have done. We had passed a couple with a
young boy and the man had told us there was a cafe ahead. I kind of thought he
was joking but thank goodness once we had walked up the steep track to a car
park, there was a cafe!
How we enjoyed a drink...and the aircon! The buildings
we had seen way back...well about 4 miles away...were in fact renovated quarry men's
houses and very nice they looked too.
This settlement is Nant Gwrtheyrn, Vortigern's Valley.
This was also the home and then the burial place of Vortigern, a king of the Ancient Britons who had tried to beat those Romans! Easy to see why he chose it - impossible to access really and even today, it is so remote.
It
seems that the quarry here was used to make setts, all those industrial towns
to be cobbled must have been good business.
Even a lovely church which is
obviously used a lot...it had a sign outside, “I will” on one side and “We did”
on the other side - and indeed a wedding
was being celebrated today in the village.. This is also the centre for Welsh language teaching. Courses are held throughout the year. Then it was a really steep zigzag path up to the next car park
.....but luckily it was new tarmac so not the mountain track we had been expecting. But it was now VERY hot. The track now became a quarrymen track
heading up over the shoulder between the hills of Yr Eifl which means The Rivals. The 3 main hills of the range are Garn For, the seaward hill with the quarry, Garn Ganol in the middle and Tre'r Ceiri the most inland one with its huge hill fort on top. We went up there on our last visit 2 years ago. Fascinating place. The path leads between Garn For on the left of the picture below and Garn Ganol on the right.
Great views back as
far as Porth Oer, although a bit misty and difficult to photograph I'm afraid...
....and then soon views to the other side, Moel Pen Llechog, one
of whose 3 summits also had signs of an earlier settlement. And so across to
Anglesey and its beaches....
...not far to get there now. And
so we dropped down to the harbour at Trefor.....the old knees were a bit weary on the way down!
So ended a really
lovely day...
A bit sad to say goodbye to the Lleyn, it had been much
fun......and beautiful weather with good walking companions!
9 and a half miles today....think around 75 this week with an elevation gain of around 6,500 feet overall!! Time for a little rest!
Thank you all so much for the support. Don't forget to contact me if you would like to add anything pamelamallpress@btinternet.com.
