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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Lodge Life :: April 2023

Hi there everyone 😀

It was Saturday the 1st of April and day 5 of our Easter break in North Wales. It was lovely to have a full day with no rain forecast. In fact we actually had lots of blue sky and sunshine and it was warm enough to spend the day with pretty much all the doors and windows thrown open to let in lots of lovely fresh air.

We spent the day around the lodge. There was a load of washing done and two lots of batch cooking ready for our Easter visitors.

A beef ragu … just needing a macaroni cheese topping …

… and a spicy Turkey burrito mix ready for serving with salad, grated cheese, tortilla chips, sour cream, avocado and jalepeno chillis …

Martin got the jet washing bug again and did the skirt of the lodge while I did a bit of blogging …

We had an unusual event for us for a Saturday night. We went out. Yes … out, out.

We met up with some of my old school friends who live over this way and it’s been lovely to reconnect after many years of losing touch. 

They recommended a local curry house, Bombay Joes in Nefyn, literally just down the road from our lodge and it did not disappoint. The food was good the chat so good that I forgot to take photos of the food but we did take a few photos of our drive to meet them … not our normal view when going out for a curry I can tell you …

On Sunday the weather was good again but we were both feeling lazy so we just went for a bit of a drive back into Nefyn to have a look at the old ‘herring tower’, which our friends had pointed out to us on Saturday night …

We were also aiming for a look in the local maritime museum but were disappointed to find it all locked up.

We decided to try and capture some photos of sheep with their spring lambs and managed a couple, though they were all very shy …

We then had a Geocache on the cards called two bays view. We didn’t have much luck with finding it, even with Martin battling through the very prickly gorse. it was worth it for the view though … As you can see it was pretty impressive looking across to Nefyn and Morfa Nefyn …

On Monday we felt it was time for a bit of ‘a big day out’ and there had been somewhere that we had been wanting to see for a while so we headed over to Anglesey but this time, instead of taking the Menai Bridge and heading right towards Beaumaris we took the Britannia Bridge and headed left down to the Newborough Nature Reserve.

The place we really wanted to visit was Ynys Llanddwyn. It looked beautiful with old ruined chapels, ancient crosses and lighthouses. We didn’t really think that we’d be able to get that far as it’s about a four mile walk there and back, which is a fair way further than we’d normally attempt, but I was hopeful we may be able to walk part way and get some photos from a distance.

It didn’t disappoint and you will know from my previous post that we did manage to surprise ourselves and complete the walk … we didn’t half feel it for the next couple of days though …

Tuesday was very much a rest day but Wednesday we had cleaning on the cards, ready for Jackie and Phil, who were coming over for the first time for the Easter weekend … though we did decide to head out to a new Cafe to try out their breakfast first …

The weather was pretty rubbish and the lanes were pretty narrow but things were looking promising for some sunshine for Jackie and Phil at the weekend …

Thursday was a trip to the supermarket to stock up for the weekend … not the most pleasant experience as the supermarket was heaving ahead of the Bank Holiday weekend, but we were soon sorted and back home and awaiting our guests arrival.

They arrived safe and sound and were soon settled in and we were all looking forward to the promise of sunshine for the weekend, which did not disappoint. 

We had a lovely day out on Anglesey … this time with a visit to Beaumaris and the lighthouse at Penmon … 

On Monday our guests headed for home and we holed up in the warm against the weather … which was pretty much what we did on Tuesday too. Listening to the 60 mile an hour winds kept us occupied for most of the day. The only time Martin ventured outside was to rescue the decking furniture as it blew across the width of the deck. We ended up bringing the BBQ in before it toppled over.

And I know it’s beginning to feel a bit repetitive but Wednesday was very much the same, though we did have the excitement of the heating engineer coming to do the annual gas safety check. 

On Thursday we were so happy to see the return of the sunshine. It always seems to be the case that once the sun comes out it’s like we are seeing everything for the first time again. It is such a beautiful part of the country, especially in the spring with bright yellow gorse and frothy white hawthorn and cheerful daffs lining the narrow lanes. 

We opted for a lunchtime visit to The Gallery Cafe in Llanbedrog where we had a lovely lunch and bit of a wander in the sunshine …

Friday, the rain was back, and it was time to come home … we weren’t really ready but then we couldn’t really complain … we’d stayed about three weeks and it’s only a couple of weeks before we are back 😁

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