Walk with us :: Coastal Path to Llanbedrog

Hi there everyone 😀

After a few days of rain we had a bit of sunshine and we were just itching to get back out and about for another short walk.

This time our plan was to park on the road at Careg-y-Defaid and walk along the coastal path to Llanbedrog … stopping for a drink in the Aqua beach bar before making our way back. 

There’s not a lot of parking in the lane but we were very lucky and bagged a space and were soon on our way …

Before we headed right towards Llanbedrog we couldn’t resist a look at the beach and back along the coast towards Pwllheli … it was glorious …

It’s a decent path … not much mud … and relatively flat(ish) …

It seemed we were following in the footsteps of the SheUltra runners from the weekend … be it in the opposite direction and at a far gentler pace … and with better weather by far …

The path took us round the headland …

… passing plenty of bluebells and other wild flowers …

… towards the beach at Llanbedrog …

We did have a bit of a Geocaching pitstop along the way where we found this little chap …

… but were soon on our way again …

We took the steps down to the beach … the first time on the beach for this visit …

… and it was just a short walk to the beach bar … 

… which was nice and quiet so we managed to get a table overlooking the beach in the sunshine …

We had contemplated continuing up the road to the gallery but decided to just retrace our steps for this time … so it was back down onto the beach …

… back up the steps …

… and back along the coastal path …

… taking it all in from the opposite direction …

It was another really nice little walk … about a mile either way … which was just right for us for this time 😀

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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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