Author Topic: Walking  (Read 821093 times)

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Offline Yorkie

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Re: Walking
« Reply #1290 on: March 25, 2014, 09:43:59 am »
Hugo, it really is about time that you committed all these interesting walks to print, in the form of a nice book!   I am sure what you have to say would be well worthy of the effort, and of interest to many others.
 ZXZ

Please can I have the first signed copy?    :D
Wise men have something to say.
Fools have to say something.
Cicero

Offline Hugo

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Re: Walking
« Reply #1291 on: March 25, 2014, 02:30:33 pm »
Thanks for your kind comments Dave & Yorkie,  I'm just glad that I can do the walks and share them with others.

There won't be any book coming out Yorkie as I'm too busy enjoying the walking and I'm lucky enough to have friends with a depth of knowledge on the local areas.
I'm planning to go on another interesting walk soon, so be prepared for something to pop up on the out of area quiz questions      ;D


Offline hollins

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Re: Walking
« Reply #1292 on: April 15, 2014, 10:36:08 pm »
We are recently back from a short visit to the Llyn Peninsula. We enjoyed this walk around the headland at Llanbedrog. We parked in the National Trust car park and walked down to the beach. There were lots of families on their Easter holidays enjoying playing in the sand and rock pools.
We decided to walk up the very steep stepped path up the cliff passing by Foxhole Cottage as we went. This cottage dates from the 17th century and has Gothic windows.
When we reached the top we were not only rewarded with a spectacular view but also came across the sculpture called the Tin Man which is the work of a local artist Simon Van de Put. (see quiz question for photos).
There is a lovely view from here down to Glyn y Weddw Hall and the beach with coloured beach huts.
Further around the headland more gorgeous views of the Tudwalds Islands and across to Abersoch.
When we reached a cottage called Mount Pleasant we turned inland and made our way across the top where there was a useful plaque giving the names of the hills and mountains in the distance.
From here we walked back through the woods to Oriel Plas Glyn Weddw where we had a cup of tea on the lawn and a look around the various exhibitions inside.

Offline hollins

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Re: Walking
« Reply #1293 on: April 15, 2014, 10:41:33 pm »
Part two.

Offline hollins

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Re: Walking
« Reply #1294 on: April 15, 2014, 10:52:44 pm »
We did a second headland walk while visiting the Llyn Peninsula. This one was to see the village of Porthdinllaen. We parked in the National Trust car park at Morfa Nefyn and walked up to the golf course and then along the road which led down to the village and the Ty Coch Inn. What an amazing location. neither of us had been there before. It was really busy with people enjoying an old fashioned seaside holiday in gorgeous weather.
From the village we walked along a path which closely followed the shoreline and on turning the corner we found to our surprise a brand new lifeboat station being built. The contractors had had to erect a huge scaffold staircase to make a diversion for pedestrians. It was quite a climb up it and at the top there was a sign saying, "We won't be here for long but the improvements to the area will be." It reminded me of BigMurph!
Turning another corner we found a nice bench seat and watched the seals for a while.  Then over the hill and past a coast lookout building and back down to the village. From here we walked back to the car along the beach as the tide had recently gone out.

Offline hollins

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Re: Walking
« Reply #1295 on: April 15, 2014, 11:00:06 pm »
Part two.

Offline Pendragon

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Re: Walking
« Reply #1296 on: April 16, 2014, 11:29:10 pm »
As you may be aware Elaine and I (A and E tours) are walking the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path June 6th - 21st this year.  In addition to this fund raising effort we have also organised a walk for everyone else on the Sunday 22nd June called the Port to Port which starts in Porth Penrhyn and finishes on the Conwy Quay.  We recently walked from Porth Penrhyn to Llanfair (I'll post photos later).  Yesterday we walked Llanfair to Conwy along the coast path and the cycle path, it's approx 8 and a half miles.  We started on Llanfair beach the weather was lovely.
To be honest it's not very picturesque until you reach Penmaenmawr as the path takes you along the express way.  The actual Coast Path gets to Llanfair and then it's up and onto the mountain but we think that having walked nearly 12 miles from Bangor on the day it would be a bit tight to expect people to go this way which is why we decided the rest could be done on the cycle path. 
Armed with plenty of coffee and chilli chicken rolls oh and some ham for my darling little Jj we set off along the prom.  I'm quite surprised at Jj she loves walking and doesn't seem to tire until she gets home then she's knackered hehe.  She's as bad as Sox with her ball though, she looks at you like that Puss in Boots from Shrek so you'll throw it. :roll:
We walked over the bridges on the express way and down under the road bridge in Penmaenan onto the beach.  There was a young girl there desperately trying to control 3 Alsatians, what looked like a Husky and a Rottweiler we could hear her shouting "Lunar, calm down Lunar" to one of the Alsatians hehe I just looked at Elaine and said I hope that's not short for Lunatic!
We sat at the end of Pen beach and ate our sarnies and fed and watered Jj.  It was very busy down there and I'm not surprised the weather was cracking.  We walked along the path that joins the road and made a detour down to what we have always as kids called Dead Mans Beach as Elaine has never been there.  It's always quiet here and I wanted to show her some rocks I'd noticed.......they're interesting I promise  :P you can see from the photos the rocks are large and one has a cross carved intio it and another has been tooled.  You can see my pen in the corner to give you a perspective of the size.  I like to think these rocks and stones are what's left of Heligs Castle.
We went back up onto the road and continued on and into Conwy cutting down the cycle path and along to the Mulberry, where we had a well deserved pint.

   
Only hindsight has 20/20 vision
Angiegram - A romantic notion derived from the more mundane truth.

Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for." -Bob Marley

Offline Pendragon

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Re: Walking
« Reply #1297 on: April 16, 2014, 11:30:43 pm »
We are so lucky to have all these beautiful places on our door step Hollins.   D)
Only hindsight has 20/20 vision
Angiegram - A romantic notion derived from the more mundane truth.

Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for." -Bob Marley

Offline hollins

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Re: Walking
« Reply #1298 on: April 17, 2014, 07:47:09 am »
We are so lucky to have all these beautiful places on our door step Hollins.   D)

Yes, you are so right there Pendragon and I love reading your walk reports. They are always so entertaining. Good luck with the Pembrokeshire coastal path walk. I have done a lot of it but not all in one go like you.

















Offline Hugo

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Re: Walking
« Reply #1299 on: April 21, 2014, 03:25:28 pm »
It was great seeing those lovely photos and reading your comments about the two walks you did on the Llyn Peninsula Hollins.  The weather looked perfect and you can understand why so many people go there on holiday. 
I haven't done a lot of walking in that area but must do it sometime soon.   The photo of the Ty Coch brought some nice memories back as I sailed there with some friends in a 6 berth yacht many years ago and enjoyed many a pint in the bar there!     

Offline Hugo

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Re: Walking
« Reply #1300 on: April 21, 2014, 03:41:03 pm »
I've missed seeing your photos and reading your very entertaining reports of your walks so it's nice to see that you are back walking again Pendragon.   $good$
I'll look forward to reading about your walk on the Pembroke Path in June.


Offline Hugo

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Re: Walking
« Reply #1301 on: April 22, 2014, 09:59:16 pm »
Our walk today was going to be on the Carneddau but when we met in Caerhun it had started to rain and the clouds were very low on the surrounding hills and that coupled with a forecast for heavy rain made us decide to go to Betws Y Coed to try a walk there instead.
Parking by the railway station we made our way to Pont Y Pair and walked alongside the river to the Miners Bridge. 
It was rather ironic with the heavy rain forecast that the water in the  River Llugwy was the lowest that I have ever seen it as it flowed very slowly downstream.
We then crossed over the Miner's Bridge and then the A5 to head uphill up the loose rocky path to Rhiwddolion, a village that was finally abandoned in the 1940's.   We had our refreshments on the steps of the ruined terraced cottages and noted how the ruins have deteriorated from our previous visit.  I don't know the age of the buildings but a date in the 1600's was carved into one of the massive fireplace lintels in one of the cottages.
Before long it was time to head on to Llyn Elsi and to see the bird life that was on the other side of the lake and then to take the path down to Betws.   In the village we had a pot of tea and a cake before going to our cars and back home.   It only rained for about 10 minutes on our walk and that was very light so next time we might not take too much notice of the weather forecast. 


















Offline Hugo

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Re: Walking
« Reply #1302 on: April 22, 2014, 10:03:25 pm »
Rhiwddolion

Offline Pendragon

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Re: Walking
« Reply #1303 on: April 24, 2014, 02:31:06 pm »
Hugo the walk up to Llyn Elsi is really nice.  I've just bought a book "Walks in the Conwy Vally" We caught the bus from Conwy which in itself was a nightmare as the  bus driver was foreign and he must have misheard me when I said "Betws please" he sold me the ticket and then made his way to piggin' Llandudno  :o.  Luckily the bus changed drivers to one that understood english.  He let me use the same ticket for Betws and we arrived there an hour late.
Jj and I started the walk from the Minors bridge in Betws.  We crossed the road and took the footpath up and into the forest.  We stopped at the old quarry buildings and had our sandwiches, I say ours as Jj always shares my butties as well as her little bag of fridge raider sausages (I love that little dog) We carried on up through the woods following the guide book.  It wasn't a very good day so the photos aren't very good either.  Passing a small water fall and derelict barn, the views were amazing.
We were looking for a stile to cross, I'm not sure what happened but I couldn't find it anywhere however we arrived albeit on a different approach from the book.  We finished our food and coffee and as the walk was a circular one I read the guide book.  It was quite funny really as it said "with the monument behind you and facing the path you arrived on turn to 2 o'clock and take this path back down into Betws"  hehe first problem was the monument is square so which side is behind you? second problem was we had arrived via a different route and there was 3 paths.  So for safety reasons as I'm a bit of a calamity we decided to return the way we had come up.  It was now knocking on so I didn't want to go through the forest so we followed the quarry road down and into Betws. 
By now it was around half 5 and the bus wasn't for another hour so we went to a coffee shop and chippy.  As I walked in  a woman was at the counter complaining she hadn't asked for mushy peas.  I asked for a sausage for Jj and a small chips, the girl said why don't you have this fish and chips free of charge....well it would be rude not to so Jj and I shared the spoils....bonus.
Only hindsight has 20/20 vision
Angiegram - A romantic notion derived from the more mundane truth.

Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for." -Bob Marley

Offline Hugo

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Re: Walking
« Reply #1304 on: April 26, 2014, 06:46:22 pm »
That's quite an adventure before you even started the walk Pendragon!       I've a few books on walks in the Conwy Valley, one  is by Carl Rogers and his walks are good, even if the directions are not always clear.
Another by Chris Draper has walks with history attached and is great to read even if you don't do the walk itself.
We did part of the walk you did from the Miner's Bridge but went straight up the valley to the abandoned village of Rhiwddolion instead of going left to the quarry.
We then stopped at the Monument by Llyn Elsi and then took the path down to the Royal Oak Hotel but some how we took a tricky and very steep path down and ended up by the  Pont Y Pair Bridge area.
Tonto, our route finder for the day (name changed to protect his embarrassment) has been rested as a guide until further notice.      ;)