Exploring :: The last of the sunshine

Hi there everyone 😃

After our day out at the Nefyn Show on the early May Bank Holiday Monday we had another lovely day of sunshine forecast for Tuesday and we decided we’d have another bash at finding Penllech beach. 

On the map it looked a beautiful long stretch of golden sand and we’d seen it from a distance when parked up at Porth Colmon on a previous meander. 

As far as we could see the only way to access the beach was by walking across the fields from a car park conveniently placed on the road. It looked like it was about a 10 minute walk along the Penllech Beach path and it looked like the path finished with a gentle slope down into the beach, which all felt eminently doable … even with Martin on his crutches. 

We'd passed the car park before and knew there were no facilities so we had a sneaky quick pitstop at the Towyn Farm camp site as we were passing. The car park was quiet and we were soon parked up with this as the view ...

It looked stunning, but yes ... there were cows. From the car park it looked like the footpath was in a different field and they all looked very quiet and peaceful anyway so we decided to give it a go ...

It is a lovely footpath but we were a little nervous as the path did go right through the field of cows ... be it that when we started out they were on the other side of the stream ...

We were soon through the cow field and through a gate into a field of sheep ... which give us no worries at all and the stream soon fell away into a waterfall down towards the beach ...

It was a glorious day and a really lovely walk. With stopping to take photos and Martin on his crutches it only took about 15 minutes, so definitely easily doable. The path down to the beach was, as we hoped, a nice gentle slope ...

We couldn't see a single soul and decided to head left, towards Porth Colmon as there were lots of interesting looking rocks, which looked like they would do well to perch on ... but first we had to negotiate the stream via one of the handily placed 'bridges' ...

We had a mooch along the beach through the rocks ...

... before finding a good perching spot ...

... where we just sat awhile taking in the view ...

It was an absolutely stunning beach and would be perfect for paddling or rock pooling ...

We decided to head back the way we had come and were soon back at the cow field ... they weren't on the opposite side of the stream now so we made our way very tentatively through ...

... and back to the car park ...

We'd been very good and took a picnic with us so decided to drive a bit further along to Porth Colmon, hoping to find a nice spot to eat and we got very lucky in finding a bench with the most fabulous of views ...

We had definitely a few more favourite spots to add to the list and will definitely be back again ... hopefully next time it will be warm enough for a paddle 😀

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Exploring :: More Sunshine for Sioe Nefyn

Bora Da! 😀

After our lovely day out on Saturday we had a good few more days of sunshine forecast. We spent Sunday hanging around the lodge … we even put the cushions out on the decking furniture and had a sit outside 😜

Monday was the first of the three May Bank Holidays and we decided to head to Sioe Nefyn … or Nefyn show. It was literally just up the road and we were looking forward to having a good mooch round and maybe some lunch if something took our fancy.

We went mid morning and got parked no problem and joined the queue of people waiting to get in with this as our view …

Once inside there was a real buzz with all sorts going on. We decided to head left and just generally work our way round the field to see what was going on. 

First there were sheep … of all kinds of breed …

Then there was this handsome fellow …

… these real beauties …

… and this cheeky coo …

There were stalls selling all kinds of stuff …

… plenty of tractors …

… and farm machinery …

There was a small fairground with the usual hook a duck to win a prize …

… and a scary looking big wheel …

There were plenty of classic cars …

… and lots going on in the horse riding arena …

Then there were trade stands and craft stalls, where we were very tempted by the art on the Swaledale wool stall, owned funnily enough by a lady who was born in Tamworth … 

By now we were more than ready for lunch and opted for something a little different, which gave us chance for a very welcome sit down …

Once we’d eaten we were ready to call it a day … though it would be very easy to while away the day watching all the activity. 

Once back in the car park things looked very different to how they were when we arrived … with a long queue of people waiting to get in snaking around the car park, which was absolutely packed and the roads all around pretty much gridlocked … we’d definitely made the right choice to come early. 

Now … where did we park the car?

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Exploring :: Making the most of the Sunshine

Hi there everyone 😀

We have been at our home away from home in North Wales for the last week and we have been blessed with a run of a few days of fabulous weather. 

Saturday ended up being one of those days that was near perfect. Glorious sunshine, clear blue skies, temperatures the warmest so far this year … and we found a couple of absolutely beautiful new spots to add to our list of favourites.

We were heading for Porth Penllech, but decided to call at Towyn beach on the way, with a quick stop for a cuppa at Cwt Tatws … which I understand translates as potato hut. 

We had actually been to have a look at Towyn beach before … 

… but it certainly looked better this time … from a bench with the most fabulous view …

… in either direction …

In the above photo … if you look closely … you can see a small building in the distance … at the tip of the most distant promontory. We really wanted to try and find out what it was. 

I had a short wander whilst Martin sat in the sunshine to take in the view from a little further along and it was just the most beautiful beach …

From here we meandered along the narrow lanes along the coast southward …

Before we reached the parking spot for Penllech beach we came to a right turn which didn’t really look like a road … more like a potholey footpath come bridleway. We decided to chance it and yes it was pretty lumpy and bumpy … but it was definitely a right of way for cars and we soon came upon a bit of a parking area where people were parked up sitting in the sunshine picnicking and some were even getting ready for some scuba diving.

It was another absolutely beautiful spot with more fabulous views along the coast …

… and down into the pretty little cove of Porth Ysgaden … with the remains of the old customs officer’s house up on the hill and the dive boat waiting for the scuba divers down below …

We sat a while on some very conveniently placed benches … watching boat owners getting stuck in the sand whilst trying to tow their boats up the beach … before having a bit of a short wander along the rocks to the left. There were so many coastal flowers … and we even saw a tiny lizard scuttling across the path …

We hadn’t particularly intended on walking down to the beach but it wasn’t far and we did head down to watch the scuba divers head off …

… and we couldn’t resist picking up plenty of bits of seaglass in all kinds of colours …

We made our way back up off the beach and decided to head for the old customs officer’s house on the hill and a couple sat in the sun told us that if we walked a short way over the cliff we would find some old fishing huts so we decided to investigate further. 

On the gate to the headland was a QR code which when scanned told us lots about the history of the spot, which was really interesting.

We could see a hut at the end of the cliffs and headed straight for it …

We sat for a fair while round the back of the hut on the grass just taking it all in …

We could see right across back to Towyn, where we’d sat earlier on …

And down below was Porth Y Cychod with clear blue seas and lots of old fishing huts and paraphernalia …

It was the perfect spot for sitting in the sunshine and we lingered a fair while on our grassy perch before tearing ourselves away …

… and making our way back to the remaining gable end of the old customs officer’s house …

As time had run away with us we had to abandon our search for Penllech beach for another day. It was time to head for home 😀

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