Day 7: Conwy to Llanfair date
Waking up the seagulls
A seagull woke me up at 6:30 am, which is late for me. I had not slept this late any morning on this trip. Even at home, I rarely sleep that late. Maybe you’ve finally gotten over the jet lag. Then I realized that the hip pain had gone away overnight, enough for me to know I would be hiking today. We got dressed, I took another Advil and we went down to breakfast.
We will continue with plan A, thank you.
During breakfast, our host tried to convince us to take the alternative inland route to our destination instead of the coastal route. He didn’t say why he didn’t like the coastal route. But he said the inland route offered thousands of feet of climbing, a rougher trail and two additional miles. He is a great host, but not a great salesman.
With the hip we chose to take the low route following the coast. After all, we are taking a coastal walk. How bad could it be?
another day in paradise
Our first kilometers were lovely. We walked to the path that ran along the old city walls, then followed the estuary past a harbor full of sailboats and finally emerged onto another wide sandy beach. But when the trail remained in the deep, loose sand of the low dunes, we noticed that the tide was low and escaped to walk on the hard, packed sand along the shoreline.
When the sandy beach disappeared into a cliff, we hopped back on the bike path for the rest of our trip. Then we discovered what our host had hinted at. The bike path was located right next to or between the highway and a railroad line. They put it there out of necessity. It was that, swimming or climbing the vertical cliffs.
An engineering marvel
The road noise was somewhat unpleasant, but easy to forget if you looked over the highway at the stunning views of the ocean. Additionally, the trail itself was a minor engineering marvel, with multiple pedestrian bridges, stairs, road and rail tunnels, challenging rights-of-way, geotechnical slope protection, safety fencing, and signage.
It must have cost millions of pounds to build and maintain. Just for us and the few walkers and cyclists we saw. If nothing else, it demonstrated Wales’ commitment to public footpaths.
We will never get tired of the coast
Between the road, the railway and the wind, talking was difficult but we did it. And the sea gave us the best. It was beautiful. Green water, white caps and rough waves. Puffy clouds in a blue sky. The rain washed away the views of the Great Orme and the Isle of Anglesey, our next destination.
We stopped at a cafe in Penmaenmawr for tea around 11:00. We then had a late lunch at Llanfairfechen, our destination. Once again the taxi company agreed to come pick us up early to take us back to Castlebank for another night.
Gotta love the signs
I always chuckle at the unintended meanings of traffic signs on the road. Like these:
Without bans, there is no telling what drivers might do.
In the United States, this type of no parking sign would have the image of a gun. Here they are firm, but polite. And not violent, except maybe in Ryhl.
a nuisance
What happens to some dog owners? Why do they bother bagging Fido’s poop and then leaving the loaded plastic bag on the trail? If you’re going to leave it behind, why wrap it in a non-biodegradable bag? What do you think is going to happen to him? Do you think the poop fairy comes every night to pick it up? We see a dozen of them along the trail near each town every day.
Today I saw the best one so far. Someone threw their bag over the railing into the trees, where it got caught on a branch within sight of the trail.
Kate imagined it landing on the ground and a tree growing under the bag to slowly lift it up in protest. I imagined the full-grown tree catching the bag and waiting for a wind strong enough to toss it to a passing dog owner.
Concluding
My hip was very good. Stretching and Advil worked. We arrived at our inn full of energy and ready to finish the segment of our North Wales Trail walk tomorrow. Life is good.
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