Thursday 25 August 2011

Day Seven - Tudweiliog to Nefyn, 11.3 miles.

"Th-Th-Th-That that don't kill me, will only make me stronger". At last a breakthrough, though I had to constantly make myself think of songs that weren't by Cher Lloyd to keep her at bay. So Kanye West featured strongly, as did Wild Horses by the Stones, though I hadn't seen any today. What I did see were seals, lots of them basking in the sun in various places during the day. And there was a seal fight which was quite exciting. Unfortunately I then had Seal songs lodged in my head.

Still no dolphins.

I saw the first batch of seals soon after starting out, and shortly a group of five people wandered along the path. I wanted to share my seal experience with them but they were underwhelmed. "Oh they're here all the time", said the grumpiest. I was incensed. Then she said, "What we'd really like to see is a chough (or chuff, no idea how it's spelt)." I blurted out, "Oh I've seen quite a few choughs.", at which she became quite excited and called ahead to the others, "He's seen choughs you know! Choughs!" Then they all got excited so I added, "and two red kites.", which wasn't true either but I'd been told that they can be seen in these parts now. At this point I made a quick exit, as I could see that they were on the verge of some sort of OAP cliff edge twitcher orgy.

The path followed the coast along low cliffs for all but the final mile. It was very peaceful and the weather was again excellent, if not quite as glorious as yesterday, and it was very warm. The stretch around Tudweiliog does have a large number of camp and caravan sites though, so early on there were quite a few people about, and I was glad to get past Porth Towyn to shake them off.

The three main north facing beaches along this stretch (Whistling Sands, Traeth Penllech and Traeth Towyn) are all very attractive, but I'd have to opt for Traeth Penllech as the standout. For a start it's harder to get to so it's quieter, but it also has the most attractive cliff backdrop and huge rocks sticking out of the sand, which make it look surreal in parts.

I found another grassy lump for lunch, then made my way back into familiar territory at Porth Dinllaen.

Porth Dinllaen is the pointy headland on all the postcards, but in my opinion it's really not a patch on others further down the peninsula. My main reason is the bloody golf course that covers the top of it and much of the land around it. It takes quite a while to walk round and it's not very relaxing, especially judging from the standard of golf on offer today. Before I even reached the course I found a man looking for his ball on a beach. A pebble beach. Even if he did find it his next shot required him to hit it 20 metres upwards.

Porth Dinllaen does though have one very good reason to visit, and possibly the reason why it's so popular - The Ty Coch. It's brilliant and right on the beach. I stopped for a pint of Purple Moose Glaslyn Ale, then another. I still had four miles to go but it didn't matter. It clouded over but that didn't matter either. The beach was crowded but that mattered even less.

Eventually I got going again and sauntered along the beach, then the cliff edge to Nefyn. Of all the beachy villages on the Lleyn, Nefyn appears to be the least interested in tourists. There is virtually nothing there bar a couple of pubs, a chippy and an Indian restaurant, where I had jaipuri chicken earlier. Meal rating 6/10.

The last mile swung inland before rejoining the coast and was a pain, on piddly little unkept paths. The campsite is almost empty which surprised me, especially as last night's was full. Both have been very basic with old fashioned metered showers that just stop when more money is needed. No queues for the loo tonight though!

-- Posted from my iPhone

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