Walk with us :: To Gimblet Rock

Hi there everyone 😀

I certainly seem to be on a bit of a roll with my ‘Walk with us’ posts at the moment … this being our third walk in as many days.

It’s hard to believe that we’ve been coming over to the lodge now for four years, very regularly, and still keep finding new things to see and do.

Martin’s new knee, and us both losing a bit of weight and feeling more mobile, has certainly opened up a wealth of new opportunities.

Having already done a lovely mountain walk and a nice short woodland walk over the last few days … this walk finds us on the coast.

Pwllheli is the closest small town to our lodge park and, whilst quite charming, it is a funny place … with everything very spread out. There is a very busy marina and harbour area, which is quite separate from the town … which is also very separate from the beach and coast area.

We have explored all … driving from one area to another as we haven’t felt up to a lot of walking.

This walk found us parking up in town, by the station, and walking down past the inner harbour area towards the coast.

Towards the right of the next picture, looking across the harbour, you can see Yr Wyddfa, with its distinctive twin peaked summit just obscured by cloud cover. It is the highest mountain in the Eryri National Park and in Wales … and I think we have viewed it from afar from every angle …

Our walk took us down Embankment Road to Caffi Largo, which had been as far as we had intended to walk. After we’d had a quick drink in there we decided to head left up into the dunes just have a look and see what we could see.

It was lovely up there and it was interesting looking back across town from a completely new perspective …

It was an absolutely glorious day and the sea looked so sparkly … it was magical …

It was so nice that we just kept walking …

… and before we knew it we were at Gimblet Rock …

We had a really good scramble about … taking in the views, which were fabulous …

… especially looking back towards Pwllheli across the beach …

We retraced our steps …

… until we were back at the harbour, where Yr Wyddfa was a lot more visible … in the centre of the photo this time …

It was another lovely walk and I’m sure we will do it again … perhaps making it a bit of a circular … rather than a there and back next time 😀

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Walk with us :: In search of Bluebells

Hi there everyone 😀

For the second walk of our April visit to North Wales I was on a mission to find bluebells. On a whim … I’d searched the mighty Google for ‘bluebell woods near me’, and it was very much a surprise to find that it threw up something very close by.

It was a little bit of woodland, managed by the Woodland Trust, called Coed Elernion. It was literally just a few miles up the road … on the way to Trefor, somewhere we visit regularly for a beach walk … so this would be very different.

We were lucky enough to find space to park on the roadside next to the entrance to the woodland and … expecting mud … we booted up …

We soon realised that we were a little bit early for bluebells but there would certainly be carpets of them appearing over the next week or too …

It was still a lovely day for a walk though so we decided to just wander randomly and see what we could find …

Whilst we were early for bluebells … the same couldn’t be said about wood anemones, of which there were an abundance …

We followed the path downhill and soon found ourselves in the loveliest of spots …

We crossed the wooden bridge over the crystal clear babbling stream … and opted for the right hand path … which soon petered out … but did take us to a spot that would be amazing for paddling or picnicking …

We retraced our steps and took the path that led us upwards and away from the stream. We found the mud that we had been expecting and tentatively made our way through it …

We found ourselves in a bit of open space … with a very handy bench and a view of Yr Eifl and the radio mast … which is where we had been walking a few days earlier …

We headed back into the woodland … finding lots more signs of wildflowers and ferns bursting back into life. There was certainly lots more to come …

We navigated more mud and the odd fallen tree … finding more bluebells along the way …

We found ourselves back at the stream … which seemed the perfect spot to wash some of the mud off our boots …

… before crossing another wooden bridge …

We had the option here of heading left or right and we decided to head left and wander alongside the stream …

… where we found lots more wildflowers …

… before ending up back at the first bridge we’d crossed …

We weren’t really ready to head back to the car and we wanted to know what we would have found had we decided to head right … so we retraced our steps back alongside the stream.

We found that the path basically took us up through the woodland …

… and back to where we’d begun our walk.

We’d really enjoyed it and I’m certain it will become a favourite short walk and I hope we can get back to see the bluebells in full bloom.

From here we decided to head down to the beach at Trefor and couldn’t resist stopping here for a better view of Yr Eifl and the radio mast …

It really felt like time to head back for lunch so we didn’t spend long at Trefor … just long enough for a sit and a snack …

… and to take a closer photograph of the pier that we’d seen from the top of the hill on our previous walk …

We really do seem to be getting back into this walking lark and it’s taking us to some lovely places that we have always driven by before.

Long may it continue 😜

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Walk with us :: Above The Nant

Hi there everyone 😀

We are back at the lodge for a couple of weeks and we thought we’d just have a gentle local wander for our first day … though it did end up actually not being that gentle at all.

Now that we’re starting to feel more enthusiastic and optimistic about tackling some more challenging walks, I’ve been trying to come up with a catchy title to bring them all together.

In the interests of full disclosure … when I say ‘more challenging’ I mean ‘more challenging’ for us. For others they may well be not that challenging at all … so please don’t expect anything too dramatic 😜

‘Walk with us’ is what I’ve come up with so far and I do quite like it so it will more than do for now.

Our first walk of the series took us along the North Wales coastal path, above Nant Gwrtheryn, heading towards Trefor, somewhere that has been recommended to us as a nice walk, but that we’ve never felt up to trying before …

There is good parking just before the start of the downhill switchbacks to the language school and we were soon booted up and ready for the off …

We were heading for Yr Eifl and the old quarry works to see what we could find … you all know how we love a quarry …

It was a well defined path … snaking away into the distance …

… with the most fabulous views of the old quarrymen’s village and out to sea …

Looking back along the coast we could see as far as the coastguard hut on the golf course at Morfa Nefyn …

It was a steady walk uphill and I soon warmed up and confined my hat and gloves to the rucksack 

Finally we got to the point where we had planned to take the path to the left … towards the radio mast and some abandoned buildings …

As this looked pretty steep and we were both flagging a bit we opted for a pitstop on this very well positioned rock … where I decided I didn’t need my coat any longer either …

We opted to follow the path onwards first … to see where it would take us … as it looked far less challenging for our tired legs …

I think we ended up making a very good choice as there was plenty to see …

The views across to Trefor were fabulous and we could clearly see where we normally walked out along the pier in the distance. Many a time we’ve looked up at the zig zag route going up the hill … never imagining that we would get to see it from above …

The remains of the quarry were pretty photogenic too …

We were both very intrigued to see what we would find in this pit … we were both expecting water …

We were both wrong … and Martin couldn’t resist a closer look …

The digger was sooooo huge … it could even be seen on the satellite view on Google maps 😲

It was pretty exposed and blowy on that side of the hill and the coat was back on …

Martin was thrilled to find a rusty old railway track nail … which he just couldn’t leave behind. This was very much to my chagrin … as we’ve not long confined one from the shed at home to the bin. He said he wishes he’d kept it now 🙈

Having looped around the old quarry workings we started to make our way back …

We could see the car park in the distance and it didn’t half look a long old way …

We just took it one step at a time, stopping to take in the views …

… and saying we must come back when the heather is in bloom as it will look completely different.

Finally we were back at the car … with aching knees, windswept and weary … we were more than ready for visit to one of our favourite Caffis for some well earned refreshment …

We were both feeling quite proud of our efforts. Just need to decide where our next walk will take us now 😜

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