Abersoch to Pwllheli

Day 4 – Abersoch to Pwllheli

The shortest day of walking. And the first day on which I was accompanied – by my friend Phil. It did make transport considerably easier. He arrived in Pwllheli at about 9 o'clock and from there drove to Abersoch, allowing me to pick up where I left off yesterday. It's necessary to leave the town by road, but we were soon able to drop down onto the beach. In fact, the whole walk is beach all the way, but there are 2 exceptions. The first is quite a prominent headland that has no easy way round it. The beach turns to large boulders, which are passable with care at low tide, but it is easier and probably safer to climb up and walk round the top. It's not an easy climb, not only is it steep, but it's quite dense with gorse and brambles – not kind on the legs if you're wearing shorts. However, it is worth it. The views are pretty good – not quite as good as they were on day 1, but all the same, well worth taking a moment to take it all in, and also, at the top of the headland, there is a statue “The Iron Man”. It's interesting, there's probably more of a story behind it than I am fully aware of, but as Phil pointed out, I would rather have the Iron Lady!

Back onto the beach at Llanbedrog via a steep descent – happily marked by stairs for most of the way to the next, smaller headland at Carreg y Defaid. This is easier to negotiate – it only requires climbing about half-way up it before a path leads the way again.

It is also worth noticing that there is going to have to be a right turn at some point – not just yet, but looking to the horizon, the land leads off to the right as the coast goes south. There's a few stages of the walk to go yet – the turn will come at Porthmadog – but it's encouraging to see that you are making progress.

In what seems like no time, you have reached the outskirts of Pwllheli and the road by the beach looks to be a nice promenade. Phil and I followed this into the town centre, where a baked potato was called for. It was also my first and only proper chance to have a look round Pwllheli – since arriving here last Sunday night, I have either been leaving before the place has properly opened up or arrived back after it has shut up shop for the night. I'm not sure that I'd use it as a base for a holiday just for the sake of it, but as a place pretty central to the Lleyn Peninsula as a whole, it does have its uses.

So that brought the 4 days walking to an end. I drove Phil back to Abersoch to meet up with his car, then it was time to head home.

In the car, the Heavens opened. I had been so lucky with the weather. Only one heavy shower, which didn't last. Now it was coming on and would stay for the rest of the day – but as we were back in our cars, that didn't seem to matter.

There will be more to come, but that concludes 4 days in August spent walking the coast of the Lleyn Peninsula from Caernarfon through Nefyn, Aberdaron and Abersoch to finish at Pwllheli.

Bye for now.

Aberdaron to Abersoch

Day 3 – Aberdaron to Abersoch

Day 1 was the steepest, day 2 was the longest, today, day 3, offered the best beach.

To be honest, I am not sorry that the 2 longest days of the walk are over. After averaging 25 miles a day for the last 2 days, today's 15-miler was a doddle by comparison. It wasn't without its moments, but life is definitely getting easier.

First of all, the bus back to Aberdaron. One day I will return to this delightful place and have a proper look around, but that was not what I was here for today. Abersoch was calling.

Again, as the cliffs are unsafe to walk, the official path heads inland, and I found myself heading towards Rhiw. A pretty uneventful route other than to say that it is steep. However, what goes up must come down, and what a down it is. Not only is it through some stunning scenery, but the beach at Porth Neigwl comes more and more into view. It is 4 miles long and just as deserted as Traeth Penllech was yesterday. It's not the official path, but it is marked as a recognised alternative, and that will do for me.

As with yesterday, the water looked inviting, and I had a paddle, but carrying my stuff this time in order to keep moving and make progress. After a moment of that, I decided to walk along the beach would be better than keep dodging the water, and it was walking on the beach that I turned back to see where I had come so far, noticed a cloud, and noticed that any second now, this place was going to live up to its English name, Hell's Mouth.

Basically, what happened next was that Hell's Mouth unleashed its fury. Before I had time to get my waterproofs on, I was soaked. The downpour came from nowhere and was merciless in its attack. It must have made one of the strangest sights ever, me on the beach, in full waterproofs, coat and trousers – and bare feet! Well, it's one way of keeping the trainers dry!

Fortunately, the cloudburst was over as soon as it arrived. Having seen the cloud make its way along the beach, I now watched the blue sky make its way overhead – it was all over in 5 mins, but wow, what a surreal experience! Happily, everything dried out quickly!

The rest of the walk along Porth Neigwl was uneventful, though I turned off just before the end. There was a fast food van close to the car-park, and although I didn't buy any fast food, a cup of coffee was most welcome! From there, it was down a country lane into Llanengan.

What a beautiful village Llanengan is. It was a particular pleasure to discover that the church was open – it was a bit sparse inside, but non the worse for that.

Lovely though it is, it's a bit of a detour and is a little way away from the coast. That said, this is another place where there is no obvious right of way along the headland, so a brief excursion inland does have to be made. Eventually, I arrived on the beach to the south of Abersoch, and, arriving in that town, had plenty of time for a very welcome scone and peppermint tea before the bus back to Pwllheli.

Nefyn to Aberdaron

Day 2 – Nefyn to Aberdaron

The day with the most miles. The day with some stunning scenery (though any day spent walking on the Lleyn Peninsula could be described as that!), and also a day when it is worth bearing in mind before setting out that there are no villages between Morfa Nefyn and Aberdaron, so stopping for a quick coffee or sandwich is not possible unless you have brought your own in the first place.

Navigating could hardly be easier. Basically, keep the sea on your right and, so far as is possible, stay on the cliff tops. Certainly, after passing the golf course at Morfa Nefyn, it is cliff tops for mile after mile. With the weather today far better than was originally forecast, it was a glorious day for walking, and the waterproofs stayed in the bag, to be replaced by sun screen and hat!

Whilst the navigation is easy, there are areas to watch out for. At times, the path seems dangerously near the cliff edge. I'm sure it's quite safe really, but all the same, be aware that this is not necessarily a walk for sufferers of vertigo. Also, there are places where the path drops down onto the beach. Make sure that you drop at the correct point, otherwise it can be very hard to get back up without having to retrace your steps. The beach where you do need to head down onto is Traeth Penllech. This was reached after a good morning's walking, and it made a perfect place for a bite of lunch. To say it was a nice day in August in the middle of the school holidays, the place was virtually deserted. I don't want to spoil the secret, but, dear reader, if you want un-crowded beaches, head to the Lleyn Peninsula. You'll be spoilt for choice.

The sea looked so inviting that after the sandwich I decided to have a paddle and refresh the tired feet before heading on. It was glorious. Only in the water up to the ankles, but it did the trick nicely. Also, as the beach was deserted, it was perfectly safe to leave my bag and other stuff on the beach whilst paddling – there was no-one else around, nobody there to nick anything.

The walk in the afternoon was a bit more complicated, after getting back onto the cliffs, the path heads onto the road at Porth Widlin. Unfortunately, the cliff tops are no longer safe from this point on, hence the excursion inland. There are still some spectacular views to be had though as the route takes you to the Welsh Lands End. At the end of the peninsula, the next stop is Ireland. It is quite significant that in this coastal walk, whilst still keeping the sea on my right, I had now turned round and the sea was to the south of me for the first time. In some ways it felt like being on the home run, but it's not. The next couple of stages might take me a little nearer home, but then it really begins to get to the stage where a lot more advance planning is required.

Aberdaron is a lovely little place near the end of the peninsula. I am only sorry that after walking 25+ miles I was too tired to appreciate it, and also that I didn't really have long enough to spend any time there before the bus took me back to Pwllheli.

That night I visited friends from Birmingham who were having a holiday on Anglesey. It was my first time on the island for 23 years – it will not be that long before I go back.