6 July 2022

Day 16

We caught the train today … just to mix it up a little!

Our stop was Minffordd from where we picked up a coastal path sign and headed off in the drizzle. We missed a right turn and had to retrace our steps – think we confused the sheep. We found ourselves on a long country road that was so prettily adorned with hydrangea but on checking the app we appeared to have missed another turn! No problem – we found ourselves at the entrance to Portmeirion (the village where Italian Riviera meets rural Wales) and a friendly chap guided us back onto the path.

Some fabulous walking, quite a lot through woodland with glimpses of the sea here and there. Lots of farmland too with a diverse selection of cattle. A fair few hills it has to be said, but none of the scrabbling on all fours type, for which I am thankful.

Steve was interested in the Ffestiniog narrow gauge railway – an ex colleague of his used to volunteer on it. When we walked across the causeway into Porthmadog, he opted for us to walk along the path directly beside the track, literally one meter away. I was dreading one of the steam engines chugging by and making that loud steam noise – I would have jumped out of my skin. Disappointingly for Steve, no train passed us. We did however, stop at the Porthmadog railway station and had a delicious cup of coffee.

We walked through the pretty town of Porthmadog and then the path took us uphill (again) with some stunning properties set into the cliffs, then down and up for a while through woodland area. We stopped at one point to have lunch and rest our weary legs.

Eventually we found ourselves on Criccieth Beach – an extraordinarily long and wide expanse once again – these Welsh beaches are something else. We walked a few miles on hard sand with fabulous views, all the way to Criccieth. Once off the beach there was still a couple of miles to cover … and guess what, some of it was uphill.

We had to cross the railway line at two different points during the day – always a thrill.

And after 11 miles of walking (and mostly in drizzle and grey skies) we reached the town of Criccieth and treated ourselves to gelato before heading up another hill to the train station. Felt bad about not visiting the castle … but it was just a hill too far!!