North Wales- October 2024

I suppose that North Wales sounds a little like Nor Way.....doesn't it?

Well, we know where we were supposed to be at the moment, and why we aren't there, but at least we could get away somewhere. We were here at the same place in Morfa Bychan, where we came back a day early due to the pains I was having with my non-knee issues, and also because the last day was a little warmer than we like. We were here in May. Although I experienced a few health issues over the summer, we always have a break from around May to October so that we can keep away from the hot weather with neither of us appreciating it.

So the route over, we came the same way as we normally do for the first half of the journey, over towards Chester, but then it would be across rural Wales all the way. The main aim was to spend a couple of hours in Llangollen, but as we neared the town, instead of visiting it we made the decision to take a canal ride over the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, a few miles outside the town.

It's a world heritage site, where the aquaduct crosses over the River Dee, you can walk over it but the main feature is the canalway that runs beside the path. There are longer routes you can take, but due to time constraints, we took the 45-minute ride over the valley, turning around and then back across. It is a great feat of engineering, and stood the test of time, unlike many things that have been built in the recent past.

Our drive over to where we were staying was another 90 minutes or so, across some stunning countryside where the car sat nav was reading 1,600RsUNDAYft above sea level at its peak. And more sheep on the roads than cars. By around 4:30pm, we arrived, unpacked, and settled down for a sandwich before I decided to have a short walk to the beach. Nothing doing though, despite mainly clear skies, the sky where the sunset would have been, was covered with a bank of clouds. A sign of Storm Ashley making its way to the UK for a Sunday battering.

Due to the forecast, we didn't really make any plans for Sunday, we just didn't know whether it would be fit to even go out. However, once we found out that high tide was just after 10:30am, and given the strength of the wind, after breakfast, we headed the short drive along the coast to Criccieth.

And boy it didn't disappoint. We experienced possibly the biggest waves we had ever seen crashing against the esplanade, rolling along the coastal wall. It was a great sight to see, and funnily enough, it had stopped raining so we didn't even get soaked!

We also paid and went up into the castle, which sits on a high outcrop overlooking the sea on one side, and protecting the town on the other. The views from up here were great, as we looked down at the crashing waves. As we left the castle we stopped off in the ice-cream parlour, not bad, but not a patch on the Harbour Bar in Scarborough. After a short walk back to the front, we left and headed back to the house and started to prepare a Sunday lunch.

For most of the rest of the day we stayed inside, watched a little TV, read the newspaper and just chilled out. That said, we did venture out for about 30 minutes at tea-time, down to the beach just to experience the high winds. The sea was around low tide now, so almost too far out to see, but it was nice just to stretch our legs.

Well, what a lovely day Monday was. Just a few clouds crossing the sky, but in the main lots of blue. And at around 15c, not a cold day for October. Yes, we both prefer it much colder, but we can't really complain.

Last night we decided to head along the Llyn Peninsula today, right to the end and then back along the southern coast. We drove up to the high point near Mynydd Mawr, where we could see Bardsey Island just across the water, an island well known for its wildlife. There were lots of paths around here, so we meandered around for about 30 minutes just enjoying the views.

It was then back in the car for the short drive to Whistling Sands beach. It's a lovely bay, which, although quite remote it probably gets very busy in the summer as it has a lovely beach and is quite protected. It's also clearly popular for surfers as there were a few around. After a quick coffee, we set off in the car for Aberdaron.

No sooner had we left, than we arrived and were driving down the slop into the small village. We didn't spend a great deal of time there, we just sat in the sun on a bench in the churchyard and had our packed lunch. It was just nice watching the waves roll in over the beach.

We took the smaller road closer to the coast to our next stop, Llanbedrog. Having looked at photos of the place, I noticed that it was a nice beach with a long line of colourful beach huts along the treeline. However, when we arrived the car-park was full of beach huts, clearly, they moved them off the beach for winter; which was not what I was expecting!

Never mind though, we still spent 30 minutes or so having a walk on the beach, it was a nice beach with a long sandy bay and a large cliff at one end. We had planned to have a final stop in Phwelli, but having driven to the outer harbour, it didn't look like the prettiest town so we decided just to head back to the house. It had been a fairly busy day.

After tea, we just settled down for the night, and amongst other things, we watched the first episode of Ludwig....rather enjoyable.

As the weather forecast looked good again for Tuesday, well it depended on which one you looked at, we decided to head over to Beddgelert, and then find a walk in the area. We had been down the river on a couple of occasions in the past, including in May this year, so we fancied something different. So Donna went into the visitor centre and asked the guy behind the counter, and not only did he suggest one, he provided us with a print-off.

We had to wait around 40 minutes to get the bus to Rhydd Du, from where we would walk the 5 miles back. So we popped to a cafe for a hot chocolate each, which was nice but could have been called tepid chocolate, unfortunately.

After taking the S3 bus for about 15 minutes, we alighted at Rhydd Du train station; it's for the Welsh Highland Railway, so don't think it's anything grand. Then for the next 3 or so hours we took the well-marked trail back through Beddgelert Forest and arrived back at the car-park with just 15 minutes left on our ticket. I must admit that my knee was really feeling it today, only my second real walk and this time it was quite sore.

So to fill another couple of hours, we took a bit of a tour to get a view of Snowdon, and take the Pen-Y-Pass route down to Llanberis, it's always an enjoyable trip so well worth the extra 30 miles or so. Then a short stop at Tesco, and back to the bungalow to rest up. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?

Well onto Wednesday, and with another decent weather day ahead we chose to take a 3hr+ round-trip into the heart of Wales, in fact almost back over to the border with England, to see the Pistyll Rhaeadr waterfall, which is Britain’s biggest single drop waterfall at over 240ft. It was a pleasant drive over there, but the last few miles were a challenge as it was a single-track road and given that the spot is relatively popular even this time of year, you were glad of the passing places! 

The waterfall is quite stunning in the autumn-coloured surroundings and does sound quite powerful even this time of year. It’s always difficult to be amazed when you have visited so many powerful waterfalls in Iceland, but it was certainly charming. We hadn’t just come all that way to look at the waterfall, we planned to take the walk to the top. Now there are two routes, one very steep and one a more steady route - we decided to take the latter. It was quite a long way up, taking around 45 minutes. And to be honest, you could argue that maybe it’s not worth it as you can’t see a great deal from up there, unless of course, you have a drone.

The one negative point about the visit, was a few feet from getting back to the car-park, as Donna slipped on the wet slate path, and I went with her. I wasn’t injured but Donna took a right blow to her side and back, so would be in pain for the rest of the week. It was now time for the long drive back, but we added a few miles on as we first went to Criccieth to pick up a couple of kebabs to take back to the house. The chicken, lamb and kofta were very nice, but the doner meat, of which there was loads, just ended up in the bin. 

And on to Thursday, and a steadier day planned due to Donna having some pain from her fall yesterday. We drove around 40 minutes to visit Betws-Y-Coed, where we spent a couple of hours walking around the small town, and visiting Swallow Falls, as it was only a few miles outside the town. There was nothing else in our plans for the day, so we headed back towards Morfa Bychan, but stopped off in Borth-Y-Gest to enjoy our packed lunch on a bench overlooking the small bay. Then, back to the house where I sat outside in the sun reading the newspaper (yes in late October), whilst Donna rested up. And that was it for the Thursday.

On Thursday evening we made the decision to set off home a day early. As Donna was struggling after her fall a couple of days ago, we wouldn't be doing much so better to get home so she could rest up.