I'm writing this post on a Friday and it has been raining pretty non stop since Monday. All plans of gardening and days out have been thrown by the wayside and, whilst we have made the most of a really lazy week, I am really starting to crave some sunshine 🌞and I know just the place to find it ...
For today's post we are back on The Llyn Peninsular and picking up on our week's stay back at the beginning of May. So far I've shared our very lovely Porthdinllaen walk, our visit to Plas yn Rhiw and our big day out at Llanberis, inclulding our trip on the Snowdon Mountain Railway.
This time we are exploring a bit more of the coast ... starting with the beach at Llanbedrog, where the draw for me was definitely the beach huts, but I have to say we all ended up getting just a bit more than any of us bargained for.
We parked up easily on the National Trust car park, where I was surprised to find a row of beach huts ... now, that wasn't what I had been expecting at all ...
I mean ... they were colourful enough and great to photograph, but who wants beach huts on the car park? All did become clear though, after we'd had a look at the National Trust information provided in another beach hut on the other side of the car park.
The view to the right was pretty impressive too ...
And ... there were my beach huts ...
... every bit as lovely as I'd hoped.We had a bit of a wander on the beach and that was really all we had planned to do here but Martin had been looking at the GPS to see if there were any Geocaches around. Oh yes ... there was one at the tin man, which I'd read about but forgotten about. We decided we couldn't leave without seeing the tin man, after all ... we love an outdoor sculpture.
The path leading to the tin man leads up from the beach, just to the left of the house on the left of this picture ...
If we'd really thought it through, I'm not sure we would have attempted this walk. We didn't realise it when we set out ... but the tin man is actually situated pretty much directly above the house on the left. When I really zoom in on this photo I can actually just about see his head.
It's certainly not for the faint hearted and there were times when we regretted starting out, but it was a case of once we'd started, that was it, there was no going back ...
We all just took it steady and had plenty of breaks for a bit of a breather ...
On this break we met up with some other walkers coming in from the path you can see behind mum. We were so pleased when they told us that we were nearly there. Not only that, there was another, far easier way back. Well that spurred us on for one last push ...
The view looking back down across the beach was just stunning. We were all pretty impressed with ourselves ... after all, mum and dad are both over 70 and Martin and I are both totally unfit. Now, just to find the tin man ... we didn't have to look far ...
The path brought us out in the grounds of Plas Glyn-y-Weddw, which is an arts and heritage centre. It is in a truly beautiful and very tranquil spot, with some interesting things to look at outside ...
They do have a cafe and do afternoon teas, which I'm sure would be absolutely lovely, but we had other plans. We were heading back to the Aqua Beach Cafe, for a quick refreshment break looking out over the sea.We were all just a bit surprised to realise where we were when we came out of the grounds of the art centre ... we were pretty much opposite the entrance to our car park!
It was just a short wander back down the road towards the beach, before we had chance to make the most of our rest stop, where we finally realised that we could actually see the tin man at the top of the cliffs, though only just ...
With our legs rested and refreshed it was time to move on. We were heading further down the peninsular and across to the north coast where we were hoping to find Porthor beach, or ... 'The Whistling Sands'. Apparently named because you can hear a 'whistling' sound when sliding your feet on the dry sand at the beach ... well we just needed to test this out.We parked up at the National Trust car park and were hoping for a bit of a wander down to the beach, along the coast and back up into the car park.
It was one heck of a hill down to the beach, we seriously hoped we would not have to walk back this way ...
We also really hoped that the cafe would be open as we were all ready for lunch.I was walking in front and I was actually stopped in my tracks by the view that I got as the beach came into view. It was most definitely a wow! moment, which did literally take my breath away ...
It only got better ...
This was the view looking the other way ...
And ...
... result!! Cafe was most definitely open for business, so first stop was lunch. It was our 10th wedding anniversary and I couldn't have imagined a better spot to sit and eat ...
Fully refreshed it was time to get on the beach and test out that 'whistling' ... and yes, we most definitely could hear it. It was really weird.
We headed left on the path that led around the headland ...
We clambered over broken stiles ...
It wasn't long before the path petered out and we were left with two options ... either retrace our steps, or ...
... and I have to say ... walking back up the road was an absolute killer. I did keep expecting Martin to bring the car down to pick us up, but no ... so we just took it slow and steady and eventually the car park was in sight!What a day ... glorious weather, fabulous beaches, lunch by the sea, a good walk ... what more could you ask for 💜💜💜
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