Wednesday 29th June 2022

Day 9 … walking from Trefor to Nefyn

And then there were two …. this morning we said our farewells to David as he headed back to the city of Milton Keynes. Steve and I got away from our accommodation in Amlwch at 9ish and drove to our new home for the next three days in Nefyn. David has been giving us some good guidance in Welsh matters while we’ve been together and one thing we’ve learnt is that if a word has one ‘f’ then that letter is pronounced as ‘v.’ So Steve as shortened Nefyn to ‘Nev.’

It was too early to check into our new accommodation so we parked up and planned our bus route to Trefor (now affectionately known as ‘Trev’). This involved two bus rides – one to Pwllheli and then another to Trefor. When Steve was paying for the bus tickets, asking for two singles to Pwllheli, the bus driver jokingly asked him to say it properly! We’d been practising at the bus stop, putting our tongue behind our teeth, just like David taught us!!

On reaching the village of Trefor we found the coastal path signs and headed out … uphill.

We’d been informed that there was a rather large hill at the beginning of this walk but nothing could have prepared us for the whopper of an ascent we were about to embark on – it was steep and never ending. It was almost a mile and a half of torturous uphill and it took us 45 minutes – hell. We were accompanied by goats with particularly long pointed horns – as they lingered near us I kept my walking pole handy and was willing to use it if necessary. To be honest, it was the least of my problems, getting to the top of this unforgiving hill was the major issue. It was such a relief to reach the brow – we felt on top of the world – and the views were spectacular.

Someone had mentioned that there would just be the one hill so we relished in the steady descent and even the steep gradient pathway that ran through the forest at Nant Gwrtheyrn – calf muscles and knees taking the strain.

It was perfect walking weather today – no rain, not too hot and not too cold. Lots of giant ferns lined the path and in some parts where it was overgrown it became quite a tripping hazard. Had to really watch our feet today, tricky underfoot in places.

And sadly there were more hills – not quite the ‘mountain’ we faced at the beginning but high enough and plenty enough to make it a really tough day overall. All day we were rewarded with ‘out of this world’ views so there’s always a positive.

It was almost 8 and a half miles and an elevation gain of 2,000 feet, taking us 4 hours to reach Nefyn. Checked into our new accommodation which is marvellous – going to enjoy 3 nights here.

Today’s funny story:

We worked out our airbnb accommodation from the picture and the online information explained that there was a key safe behind the house. Having retrieved the key there was another door just to the right so we decided to gain access at the back. The key felt a bit stiff but we discovered the door was open anyway so we unloaded all our luggage from the car and piled our gear in. I said to Steve how beautiful it was but strange that there were loads of personal items around like photos and what looked like a very expensive display of antique china. We were just about to settle ourselves in when we came to realise that we were in the owner’s place and that our airbnb accommodation was at the front!! We quickly unloaded all our bags (and there’s loads of it as we’re away for a month) and re-deposit it in the right place. Hope they didn’t notice!!!