walks

The lovely Llyn Peninsula

/ Dee and Steve / Leave a comment

Monday 15th April 2024

Tudweiliog to Penllech Beach

A great start x

We’re back where we belong – on our beloved Coast Path and on the gorgeous Llyn Peninsula in North Wales. The sky was blue today and the coastline was spectacular, the sea dramatic with the wild winds. So atmospheric that I wish I could say it was a wonderful walk … however it just wasn’t, it was grim. It was only 5 miles but each mile was either a muddy farm field or a boggy cliff path – from beginning to end we were up to our ankles in squelchy mud.

This sort of sums up the walk today!!

It all started off in promising fashion – we drove to Penllech and found a parking spot down near the beach. We started with a two mile uphill climb to the bus stop on the main road and there we had ourselves a little picnic while waiting for the bus. The timing was perfect, the bus arrived exactly on time and I congratulated Steve on his logistical planning as we confidently rode along, admiring what appeared to be a nice easy terrain for today’s ramble. The only difficult bit so far was pronouncing ‘Tudweiliog’ to the bus driver in our awkward tongue rolling attempt at the Welsh accent … but he kindly said we did well.

As soon as we hit the coastal path we were squelching, the farm fields were SO wet, quite unbelievable. We trudged on, amongst the sheep and young lambs, thinking things could only get better once we reached the cliff paths. Sadly it didn’t, the grassy areas were a mass of bogs and there was no way of avoiding wading through thick, sticky gunk.

Having said all that, there were definitely some gorgeous parts to the day:

We could tolerate the strong winds and even the occasional downpour but the state of the ground just made it a miserable exercise – not our usual exhilarating hike … this was an endurance test. And I’d stupidly left my walking poles in the car again (after having said I would never walk without them again)!! Maybe if I’d had them it would have been better – although Steve found no pleasure in today either.

I just seem to have become a wobbly, whiney walker – not that I whine externally (because I hate the thought of this thing beating me) but inside I’m whining big time. My confidence has taken a knock from recent muddy walks and slips (another slip added to the list today) so sadly I’m going to hang up my hat for a while, hoping to return when the paths are drier or there’s a nice stretch of promenade. Steve will soldier on and keep the blog going.

On a cheerier note, we’ve settled into our super smart accommodation in Abersoch and have been joined by the lovely David Rose who is here to walk some of the Peninsula too. Looking forward to a few days here – the men will be walking while I have some leisure-time … bring it on.

A heartwarming reunion

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Monday 19th February 2024

Watchet to Minehead – 8 miles

Today was so special meeting up with these lovely people. Our walk was taking us through Blue Anchor Bay – in July 2017 we stayed there, at the Langbury Hotel for a couple of nights, before nervously starting off on our retirement project of walking the UK Coastline. Nigel and Paula were our wonderful hosts. So we couldn’t just walk by without seeing if they were still there and letting them know that we were still rambling. Imagine our surprise when they greeted us so warmly, remembering who we were as they’d been following our adventures through the blog. That is why I say ‘heartwarming’ in the title because it warmed our hearts that they had done that. We had a fabulous hour exchanging our stories – Nigel and Paula too are great travellers and wildlife photographers. https://www.langbury.co.uk/ They now run their stunning residence as self-catering accommodation – if you’re down this way, we would highly recommend.

The day started off with the most wonderful breakfast, served up by Keith, the owner of this fabulous hotel we’re staying in – http://the-georgian-house.somersethotels24.com/en/ Watchet is great, the hotel is great – life is good.

The sumptuous dining room where we enjoy breakfast.

We’d been pre-informed that there was a diversion off the Coastal Path as you leave Watchet – we just needed to follow the yellow signs. This was really helpful although we still got a little lost … we diverted off the diversion somehow!! But once we were back on it again the path was fairly straightforward, largely walking through woodland but with coastal views too. A fair amount of uphill, a fair amount of mud and water and this meant a fair amount of slippery downhill slopes – I took it very slow, I mean literally inching my way down, I must have looked ridiculous!!

An excellent bar we’ve found in Watchet

There are lots of these little men around in Watchet – possibly connected to the Arty community here and the town’s history of tin mining

Nothing like walking through muddy puddles – wet feet again!!

Half way along the route we reached Blue Anchor Bay – a place that holds fond memories for us and where we enjoyed our meet up with Nigel and Paula.

Blue Anchor Bay

And then on to Minehead via Dunster Beach. A gloriously flat walk, quite a lot of water around but plenty of chances to divert and stay dry. The white peaks of Butlins loomed ahead as we entered the town but if felt good to be walking along the promenade again. It was amazing looking up at the hill where our walking first started – how it didn’t put us off I’ll never know.

I guess we should have saved this bit to the very end but it’s just seemed silly not to do it while we were down this way. We reckon we have ‘rambled’ 2/3 of England and Wales now – we still have bits and pieces to do here and there. Scotland is probably out of the question now – we may do that in a different style of transport.

Looking back on our very first climb!!

The white peaks of Butlins

The very start of the South West Coastal Path – on Minehead promenade.

But today’s meet up with Nigel and Paula summed up the beauty of creating memories – we all said what fabulously interesting people we had met on our journeys and how they had enriched our lives … and there’s always room for more.

And this is a link to the blog where our rambling days started:

https://wordpress.com/post/deestevetravels.blog/71

Coastal path or mud bath?

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Sunday 11th February 2024

Checked out of the Travelodge first thing this morning and drove to Fishponds, a suburb of Bristol, where we are doing a house-sit for the next 7 days. Jess and her two children, Nico and Eleanor, are flying out to Tenerife – before they went they introduced us to all the gang who are now in our charge. We have 2 cats, Dave and Gathina, 2 guinea pigs, Guinness and Scraps and 2 quails who remain nameless! We’ve been warned about foxes so hoping to still have 6 pets on the register when the family return next Sunday. 

Once we were settled and the fridge and pantry were stocked up, we caught a bus into the city of Bristol. Neither of us have been here for a long long time so we were interested to explore. Took in all the sights, visited the M Shed, Brunel’s SS Great Britain, the cathedral, took a ferry – we loved it. So many cafes, bars and restaurants – I hear it’s a great place for a Stag Weekend.

It’s a Banksy y’know!

Monday 12th February 2024

Today’s walk – Clevedon to Pill (11 miles)

Drove to Pill and parked up, planning to catch the two necessary buses to get us to Clevedon. A little bit of a mix up with bus timings resulted in us taking an Uber instead. Lovely driver though who takes us right to the seafront and recommended a place for breakfast. So ‘Tiffens’ it was … and I can highly recommend the bacon bap. Clevedon is a pretty Victorian seaside town but it was just a short stop for us before we set off to find the Coastal Path. 

Steve’s breakfast at Tiffen’s – a posh full English

Clevedon Pier

It was a wonderful path today, cliffside, walking alongside the estuary, uphill and downhill through woodland, sounds of the seabirds and waves making us feel coastal, the sun was shining and there was a cool breeze … the only downside was the mud … 6 miles of it. It took all our concentration and balance to stay upright – there were many slips and slides and grabbing on to whatever was available. We passed many other walkers and we all exchanged our mud tales. But I’m proud to say we both made it through without a complete tumble – thank God for walking boots – today they well and truly met the mud. 

This was a dry patch

The two River Severn bridges into Wales

We passed ‘Sugar Loaf Beach’ which sounded like a Caribbean paradise … it was pretty but not quite at that level.

At Portishead, another very attractive resort with stunning houses, we stopped for refreshment at the Lido – Steve tucked into a huge slab of Victoria sponge. I stupidly abstained but immediately regretted it. And they didn’t frown at our oh so muddy boots!

After Portishead, there was a bit more woodland walking, then some country lanes and bridle paths to lead us all the way back to Pill, where our trusty car awaited. The terrain improved although there were still some muddy patches and deep puddles lurking. We couldn’t help but be fascinated by the miles and miles of car storage facilities in this area – brand new shiny cars all lined up waiting to go somewhere – wish they could spare us one. 

Pick a car … any car!!

In May 2023, the England Coast Path was renamed The King Charles III England Coast Path, to mark the coronation. I think I might be writing to Charlie boy to get some of this mud cleared up before someone goes over the edge!