Lodge Life :: May 2024

Hi there everyone 😀

After having to cut short our early May break at the lodge because of car trouble … we managed to sneak in a long weekend later in the month, which just happened to tie in nicely with a forecast for glorious weather

After a week of appointments and jobs needing to be done at home we managed to get away on the Thursday afternoon and, after a good drive over, we were soon settled in.

Friday morning and the weather was perfect. We didn’t go far … just Llanbedrog, where we ended up at The Beach Bar for lunch with the most fabulous of views …

… followed by a short walk along the most beautiful beach …

It was good to see the beach huts all back in situ …

… and to remind ourselves of the time we took the steps from the beach with mum and dad to visit the tin man. We certainly have no plans to repeat that climb …

We finished our visit with a very welcome ice cream before heading back for a relaxing afternoon just reading and generally chilling out …

On Saturday the weather was looking good again so we decided to head a bit further afield … to Penmaenmawr. It’s about an hour’s drive and the plan was for a walk on the beach, maybe a paddle, a pit stop at the cafe along the prom and a picnic lunch.

It started well. We were up, sandwiches made, and out reasonably early. The sun was shining the skies were blue … that’s until we got about two miles up the road … where we hit thick fog. 

It will burn off we thought … or we will drive through it. But no … this was the view of the beach at Penmaenmawr. We decided to just do an about turn and try it again another day …

It wasn’t a totally wasted drive … we ended up calling in at the Treborth Botanical Gardens in Bangor … just by the Menai Bridge, where we were quite surprised with what we found. We had a nice walk …

… and found a nice spot for our picnic lunch …

It’s definitely worth a visit … it’s not a massive garden but there is a fair bit to see and plenty of nice walking to be had. On certain days the glasshouses are open for viewing too …

On Sunday we woke up to more blue skies and sunshine and we decided we would give Penmaenmawr another go.

Well … at exactly the same spot as on Saturday we hit low cloud and fog again. This time we decided not to risk it and did an about turn to head south. 

As we were driving back in the opposite direction I noticed the view in the wing mirror and got Martin to stop so I could take photos. The cloud inversion was amazing something that neither of us have ever seen before …

We ended up heading south … but it was a long old way before we got through the fog. We had a quick stop at Aberdaron …

… making our way back, via the pretty green lanes …just bursting with wildflowers …

… towards Abersoch where we had another bit of a wander …

We ended up back in Pwllheli … pretty much just down the road from where we started out … where we had lunch at Plas Heli with a clear view of the sea …

It was then another afternoon lazing around the lodge enjoying the sunshine. 

Monday was our last full day and we were determined to get to Penmaenmawr. This time we decided we would not be deterred, no matter what, and although it was not as bright and sunny as it had been, the weather was still good … be it a little cloudy. 

Our visit was only really taking in the promenade, which is really just a little strip of land between the beach and the carriageway of the A55 … with the village on the other side of the carriageway. 

There is plenty of parking very close to the beach and, when the tide is out, on a warm and sunny day, it would be a lovely spot for a paddle and a wander along the beach …

I took this photo as we arrived and you can see the tide is quite well in and it all looks very pebbly. By the time we walked back to the car you can see the tide was a lot further out and the shoreline is lovely and sandy …

It’s a decent walk along the promenade … passing the remains of the old pier …

… and high up in the hills above … if you zoom in close … you can see the old Penmaemawr quarry clock …

The end of the prom that we parked at was looking a little forlorn, with a closed toilet block and lots of flower beds looking very sorry for themselves. There were plenty of bright spots though …

Towards the cafe end of the prom things are very different and there was plenty to draw the eye … including these beach huts built into the side of the A55 …

… plenty of well worn groynes …

… the children’s paddling pool, with its colourful mural …

… the ‘shoal’ beach sculpture …

… and our final destination … the Penmaenmawr Beach Cafe …

After a very nice lunch we had a slow wander back … glad that we had finally managed to visit. We’d had a lovely couple of hours just having a wander. 

Is it somewhere we would go back to? I’m not sure that it is … but if we happened to be just passing, then we may well call in again. 

The following day we were heading for home but there was still one more thing I really wanted to see before we headed off …

I think this just might be my favourite Criccieth post box topper yet … hot sausage rolls in the sunshine went down well too …

Three hours or so later we were back home and it was pouring with rain. It was hard to believe we’d been soaking up the sunshine such a short time ago ☔️☀️☔️☀️

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