June 14, 2017: Church Bay to Llanfachraeth
As we leave Church Bay on the last day of our walk we encounter some unusual seaside vegetation.
This morning we really did have to spend some time with our suitcases – since they were to be ferried forward when our taxi arrived at 9:00 to carry us to the starting point for our last day on the Anglesey Coastal Path. It was a cloudy bright day as I paid our meal and lunches bill at the counter of the Woburn Hill Hotel and we were soon off. I noted that today was a wedding anniversary day for me – a fact adding to the momentous nature of this final step.
We adjusted our daypacks on the tables of the beach café at Church Bay as our driver took off to deliver our bags to the b&b in Holyhead. I decided to swathe my face in sun-blocker – much of which Naomi had to wipe off – but this was a mistake anyway since perspiration melted much of this and it ran into my eyes, causing considerable irritation. Today, also, I was bothered by several moments of lightheadedness – but I have learned just to stand still for a minute if I want everything to return to normal. This was the only day of this week on which I had such problems. We began our walk at 9:20.
Compared to yesterday’s struggles we expected a much shorter day (listed at seven miles) and neither up and down problems nor many route-finding ambiguities. All we had to do was head south, following the coastline, with distant views of Holyhead and its maritime activity already available ahead of us.
Of course there were new wildflowers to contemplate, including a flowering ice plant, as we made our way to Porth Crugmore, across a footbridge, and onto National Trust territory at Plas Gwynt and then to the next inlet at Porth Trwyn. More National Trust territory beckoned as we used paths over grassy headlands. At a caravan camp we stopped to see if its store was open. It was not but Naomi managed to sneak in and use the adjacent loos as workmen hammered away nearby. A few houses dotted the horizon and we used access lanes before stopping for some lunch on a low stone wall and then continuing down to a sandy beach at Porth Trefadog. I was hoping for a rest hereabouts and Adrian succeeded in finding a bench for us to sit on. We had a nice rest.
Foxgloves line the coastal path.
Walking along a beach can be fun, with all that marvelous array of abstract sea-polished stonework, but only if surfaces are congenial. For a mile or so we had hard-packed sand, which was just fine, but shortly after Adrian said something about a junction in 350 meters, we encountered uncomfortable shingle. It was hard to know where to step next and I even tried to make progress on dried kelp. And to make matters worse there seemed to be no end in sight, no turnoff onto paths that would take us to our final inland destination.
We walked so far in a southerly direction that we eventually turned away from the coast with the Afon Alew estuary on our right. I was increasingly alarmed at this development and even more so when a bespectacled chap in a kayak pulled over near the shoreline and said, “Are you looking for the coast path?” He then said that there was no footpath ahead, that we had come much too far to the south, that we would have to backtrack some distance and he also provided some clues on what to look for at the escape point.
Naomi was now trying to call Adrian back as I turned around and began the unpleasant shingle challenge all over again. Eventually Adrian caught up, muttering to himself about not taking the 350 meters clue literally and this time we did discover a well-hidden finger post, one we had missed earlier. There should have been something down on the beach itself.
We were now able to turn our backs on the coast and follow grassy trods into cattle country, climbing several stiles and conferring on the way forward at a number of ambiguous junctions. At last we reached a familiar bridge, one we had used at the start of the Llanfachraeth to Holyhead section only a year ago. Adrian noted that this meant we had now completed our circuit of the Isle of Anglesey but I wished to reserve my moment of triumph for our actual arrival at the village ahead of us. In the meantime we met a woman with a handsome Schnauzer. She said he loved this country walk because there was always a chance to bark at the horses.
You would think that on the last day of our walk we couldn’t possibly go astray – but so we did. Here, at the Holland Hotel in Llanfachraeth, I enjoy a celebratory pint after sixteen days on the Isle of Anglesey Coastal Path.
I hadn’t remembered that we needed to ascend a small hill on our approach to Llanfachraeth but, once conquered, only a few steps were needed to reach the Holland Hotel and the end of this walk. I had my photo taken outside and, once seated in a damp heap, on the inside as well– holding up my celebratory pint. Today we had walked nine (not seven) miles. I reminded the others that it had been many years since I had undertaken a walk with sixteen stages, nor one requiring four separate visits.
Our cab was summoned and we were soon travelling among well-remembered sights on our way to Holyhead. Our b&b was again Yr Hendre and our hostess Mrs. Lipman. I told her that in all my days as a walker I had never before stayed at the same b&b on three separate occasions.
We were shown to our comfortable rooms and I had a shower. Then it was steeply downhill for a third meal at the Boathouse Hotel – I had the fish and chips. There was still a lot of daylight when we returned and I needed to spend some time with all the curtain folds before it was finally time to go to bed. In the morning we began a long day of transit to St. Dogmaels in Pembrokeshire – where we intended to get in three days of walking as well. But that is a different story.
If you want to follow the Anglesey route on to Holyhead you need to return to the last day of our 2016 venture: