Day 24: Caernarfon to Dinas Dinlle
Running away from the castle
I don’t know where you went hiking today. But I can almost guarantee that you didn’t start by walking through the door of an 800-year-old castle.
We did it. We then crossed a footbridge over Afon Seiont onto a narrow tree-lined road (curiously named «Coed Helen Lane»), rounded a bend and left the town behind. I woke up to the sound of traffic, street sweepers, garbage cans and seagulls. One hundred meters after crossing the walkway, only the seagulls remained.
Tidal flats and marshes
Our path followed the edge of the Menai Strait around a tidal inlet called Y Fiord Natural Area. The marsh bird refuge reminded us of the best parts of the estuary trail below Chester, where we started walking over three weeks ago. Like the early days, today’s trail was flat, wide, and mostly paved.
We had gone a mile when Kate looked at her feet and realized she had forgotten to change out of the fluffy slippers she wears in and out of town. Her hiking shoes were waiting for her at the Caernarfon B&B where we would return this afternoon. But since we were walking on asphalt most of the day and his soft shoes treated his feet better on pavement, he accidentally made the right decision.
We took our morning rest at a birding structure and duck blind. In addition to views of the marsh, it provided a bench, shade and a windbreak. Win, win, win.
Detours inland
The path stayed close to the Strait coast, except for two two-kilometre-long detours around pastures bounded by bridgeless canals, and where the path cut off the end of a small peninsula to avoid crossing Caernarfon Airport. The detours were well marked, lined with flowers and trees, and led through green pastures with enough lambs to entertain Kate. It was a lovely walk.
The next adventure
But not a particularly interesting one. It’s not boring, but it’s not the amazing scenery we expected. So we walk and talk, listen to the birds, cut new flowers and count the miles.
At some point, I asked Kate what she wanted to do on our next adventure. I have a river running buddy who has a lot of catchphrases, one of which is, «You’re always on a trip or planning a trip.» Today we were both.
We have one more section of the Wales Coast Path left that we would like to finish after this one. Probably next spring. As we were walking along the highway today, I wondered aloud what it would be like to walk across America, remembering Peter Jenkins’ book, A walk through America.
I’m not a big fan of walking on the highway, but I’m drawn to the idea of crossing the United States on foot. We discussed whether that would be fun or exhausting. Finding water would be a problem in the West. And, apart from a few seconds at the beginning and end, we wouldn’t walk much along the coast. But the dogs could come.
We’ve been talking about doing the Oregon Coast Trail. Maybe this fall. That one is about 400 miles away and within our attack zone. Kate then suggested cycling along the Oregon coast, which led him to think about cycling the East Coast Greenway across the United States or redoing the Pacific Coast Highway. So many options. And only for a limited time.
We finished the airport detour, got distracted by the sight of open water in Caernarfon Bay and the town of Dinas Dinlle in the distance, and lost the thread of our conversation.
Dinas Dinlle beach town
Dinas Dinlle is not a big city. It has around 15 houses, 3 restaurants (two closed and one only with junk food) and a long, straight stretch of cobblestone coast. But there was a nice picnic table sheltered from the wind where we could wait for our taxi to take us back to Caernarfon for another night.
Direct return to Caernarfon
It was our third night at Caer Menai B&B, a very pretty historic house within the stone walls of the old town. We liked being close to the castle and enjoyed the selection of nearby restaurants and well-stocked grocery stores, but we really loved not having to pack our bags for three mornings in a row. Tomorrow we would have to pack our bags again and move on.
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