Abersoch Adventure – 15th November 2012

Ok a trip to the ‘sea-side’ isn’t really that much of an adventure, but walking on the beach, scrambling over the rocks and looking in rock pools felt quite adventurous – so hey, it’s my blog and I can type what I want … lol

Weather-wise today was by far the best day of the week with lovely blue skies and warm sunshine; however in the shade there was still a distinct reminder that it was winter. In fact, when we left the cottage this morning around 10:30am it felt very cold so we made sure that we’d packed our jackets and gloves, and the heated seats were switch on as soon as we got in the car. In hindsight maybe we should have taken advantage of the weather and gone walking, but we stuck with our original plan to go along the stunning Llyn Peninsula to Abersoch.

Another advantage of heading over in that general direction was that we could pay a visit to Outdoor World on the western side of Porthmadog; it sells various brands of outdoor gear but predominantly Gelert – it is situated about 400m from the Gelert Head Office / Factory so I assume it is a Gelert outlet. When we came to Snowdonia in March I picked up some fantastic ‘stretchy’ Gelert walking trousers from the shop – you can hardly tell that you have them on so it would have been a shame not to pick up another pair.

Thankfully they had the same trousers in the same size so they were straight in the basket, and as an added bonus I picked up a Gelert fleece lined ‘jumper’ – and Donna took a liking to a hooded base layer which was also added to our basket. We mentioned to the lady in the shop that we were heading to Abersoch and she recommended the Abersoch garden centre for a bite to eat – it turned out to be good advice.

Just before reaching Abersoch we came upon the garden centre, and we had a beautiful lunch – all home made there and then when you order. A little wait but when you’re getting your food made fresh and when it’s such good quality you don’t mind – Donna had a Pork & Leek Sausage sandwich with various trimmings, and the Welsh Rarebit I had was stunning. Also the first time we’ve had Strawberries in a side-salad and they were stunning. Well worth a visit if you’re ever over that way.

We headed up the hill into the town and parked on the main road before heading down towards the ‘harbour’ area. On the way down we could tell that Abersoch is a little more upmarket that your regular coastal resort by looking at the variety of shops and bars / café’s / restaurants – no Primark and ‘greasy spoon’ café to be seen. In the local estate-agents there was one house for £499,999 – and that was for a quarter-share!!!

We spent around 4hrs walking around the beach areas and into the small town; I must have taken well over 100 photos – we also had a lovely hot chocolate with all the trimmings at a lovely bar called Zinc, sat outside in comfortable chairs overlooking the small harbour – and all as the sun was starting to go down. Coats were certainly needed now as a chill in the air started to frost our extremities.

Now just the steady 40 mile journey back to Dolwyddelan, and the end of a most enjoyable day by the sea. Only one full day left, and then we head back home to sunny South Yorkshire.