A short walk on the beach

Day 20: Moelfre to Pentraeth Beach

An almost perfect small town

Moelfre is a charming little coastal town. But when we walked in yesterday afternoon, we discovered it had a little problem. At least for us.

Our B&B was located 3/4 mile outside of town. It’s not a long distance, but it’s long enough that walking back and forth adds extra mileage that our sore feet would rather not endure. And our B&B didn’t offer any dining options.

Which meant we had to eat in town before heading to the B&B. Or we had to walk back to dinner. And then go back again.

We decided to grab a lupper when we arrived and then pick up something light at the grocery store that we could take to our B&B on our way out of town. Problem solved.

Unsolved problem

We arrived in Moelfre at 15:05 and discovered that there are three restaurants in town. A bar that didn’t offer gluten-free options for Kate. A cafe that only served cakes and tea after 3:00 pm. And a chippy that didn’t open until 4:30 and probably wouldn’t have gluten free food. Many don’t, we have discovered

And there was no grocery store.

We were both a little tired and hungry, except Kate, which complicated decision making. But we finally decided to go to the B&B and plead our case to the host. Maybe he’d sell us some cold cereal or bread for a peanut butter and cheese sandwich (our only remaining food).

She would do it. Problem solved. But she forgot to tell her husband, which led to a nasty little confrontation when I went to put the milk back in the fridge. Yeah.

A late start

The point of all that background information about last night’s dinner was to set up decisions about today’s itinerary.

We only had 6 miles of hiking scheduled for today, not including the hike back to the trail from our B&B. Our taxi was scheduled to meet us around 4:00, which would leave us back in Moelfre during the non-dinner hour. But we only needed two to three hours to walk six miles. We could leave at 1:00 and still meet our taxi.

So we decided to hang out at the B&B all morning, have lunch at the cafe before starting the hike, and drop off at the chippy around 4:30. Another guest had told us that they serve roast potatoes (baked potatoes with cheese etc, but NOT sour cream, which seems to be typical in Wales) which are gluten free.

I’m not the type of person who starts late. Normally. But I loved this one.

After our 8:00am breakfast, we lounged in the guest area, caught up on our blogs, played with the owners’ adorable doodles, and relaxed. We then walked to the cafeteria for lunch, where they reluctantly agreed to give us a table on the condition that we leave in time to reset it for a 1:00 pm reservation. We left at 12:30.

a short one

Our six-mile hike had no big climbs, no confusing trail signs, no unmarked turns, no mud, no aggressive cows, no cute lambs (well, some that demanded stops), no flowers, bugs or spiders we hadn’t seen before. We didn’t see any of our hiking friends. In short, nothing stopped us.

Beach day on Anglesey

We walked quite a bit on the beach. The tide was very low, so we walked on hard-packed sand or along narrow, well-worn paths between high hedges and fences on the headland just above the beach.

It was an unusually warm day (60+F), with no wind. The bays were calm, almost placid, so all the beaches with road access were full of families, kayakers and paddlers. And by «busy» I mean there were other people there. The bays were dotted with a few motorboats, jet skis, and one or two listless sailboats.

The beaches in the United Kingdom are very different from those in the United States. We are always amazed at how uncrowded the beaches of Wales are and how undeveloped its coastline is. It’s wonderful.

‘Kill me

We have become accustomed to the diatribe between Canada, the United States and Trump. Fun and boring at the same time, it is what it is and it is unlikely to change.

But today we passed a trailer park, separated from residents’ backyards by a thick 8-foot-high hedge, and heard the American National Anthem blaring on a television. It looked like the beginning of some kind of sporting event.

Kate stopped dead and looked at me. We both laugh. We stood and listened all the way «…the home of the brave!» As we turned to leave, Kate let out a friendly little «Woo-hoo! America!» The voices immediately responded: «We love America!» With a Welsh accent!

We couldn’t see each other through the hedge, but when we walked a little further, the path climbed far enough that we could see over it. Family and friends were sitting on their patio, smiling and waving at us. It was very funny.

The tidal flat

Our short walk ended at Pentraeth Beach, a vast expanse of flat sand at low tide or a shallow bay when the tide is high. When we arrived, the tide was VERY low, leaving over a mile of sand exposed. So instead of following the marked trail around the perimeter of the bay, I set course along a direct line toward the parking lot we could barely see on the other side.

We almost made it across without getting our feet wet. There remained a small channel of the Afon Nodwydd. Too wide to jump and too deep to stay dry. Kate’s shoes had almost dried out after being soaked three days earlier. I got used to walking in wet shoes on the AT. So, I javelin-threw our trekking poles across the 20-foot-wide, 1.5-foot-deep canal and prepared to carry her on my back.

That’s when he saw a dry road a hundred meters to our left. So we walked there. Only to discover a hidden channel as deep and wider than our first place. We walked back and completed the piggyback crossing. Kate laughed so hard at what we must have seen that she almost fell off my back.

Taxi ride home

Our taxi driver David, the same one we had for two days when we first arrived in Anglesey, was waiting when we arrived 45 minutes early. On the way back to the B&B, he told us about a new restaurant that had just opened about a quarter mile from our accommodation.

Problem solved. And a short day completed.

Tomorrow we will finish our tour of the island. As we walk we’ll be able to take in the views of Great Orme, Llandudno and Conwy from our walk along the North Wales coast two weeks ago.

We captured distant views of the Great Orme throughout the day like the one below.