Welsh Boundary Walk - Criccieth to Llanbedrog

Saturday 30th April- day 11
When I arrived at last night's site an elderly gent told me to pitch where I wanted and a lady would come round and collect the fee. This didn't happen, and at 7:45am this morning I was reluctant to knock on the door, so I am sorry to say I left without paying.
A twenty minute walk took me back down to Criccieth. The cafe did not open until 9:00 so remembering the benefit of a free night I went into the posh Lion Hotel and had a posh £10 breakfast - excellent!
Six hours of more or less non stop mixed coastal and inland walking took me to Pwlleli . There was a huge fleet of dinghies racing in the bay (420s I was told). In the town I had scones and tea and marched on to this site in Llanbedrog. Once again a "brown sign" indicated camping which turned out to be erroneous. The lady told me they only had a licence for caravans and the council wanted £600 to change the sign. However I was alowed to camp. Next to me in a caravan is a family and the son has completed the D of E Gold Award and also has his own web site (disguised as a blog) where his subject Iis photography of urban subjects - www.behindthecity.co
We had good conversation about computers etc. And I will be looking at his site when I get back. He reckons Orange now provide better coverage than Vodafone for people with outdoor interests.
There is a pub in the village so I'm off to see if I can eat there.

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Welsh Walk - north of Harlech to Criccieth

Friday 29th April - Day 10
Two items from yesterday: I saw two swans swimming along in the sea which seemed unusual to me, and departing Barmouth I walked through a caravan site first talking to the proprietor. He advised me about walking on the beach and mentioned some slippery rocks that would need to be negotiated if tide were high. He said "if you slip there you'll be drinking soup for the rest of your life", and not having heard the expression before I found it quite amusing.
Last night's site appeared to be perfect until I found I had pitched not far from the exhaust pipe of an oil fired heating plant which emitted a loud roaring noise for periods of fifteen minutes at unpredictable intervals, thankfully this problem went quiet after midnight.
Today I crossed the estuary to Portmadog and saw Portmerion across the bay as well as a brief flirtation with the pretty Festiniog Railway. I also had great views of the rock cliffs of Tremadoc where I climbed several times with my old pal Tony. The walking has been attractive but not quite so spectacular and it has been hot.I am camped about a mile north of Criccieth out in the country on a pleasant, private and orderly site, or so it would seem at the moment.
I spent a lot of tome chasing down a gas cylinder in Portmadoc. Because there are clip on, pierce and threaded, mine being threaded they seem to be difficult to find.

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Welsh Walk - Barmouth to north of Harlech

Thursday 28th April - day 9
Walked a large part on the best beach in the country. Six miles of pristine sand which was the most perfect walking surface. No footprints, no litter, about one couple met every half hour, all in wall to wall sunshine. I donned my Crocs enabling me to cross the odd streams running across the sand into the sea.
I passed through Shell Island (not an island) which is reputed to be the largest camp site in Europe. It is all spaced on hummocky cropped grass with no overcrowding, and not as bad as it sounds.
In Harlech I visited an up market tearoom which even had a guy acting as Front of House. When I asked about the existence of the campsite I am on he went off and tephoned them and confirmed my stay for the night.
This is a small privately owned site with no hoodlums or shell suited, ear pierced tatooees which has been the norm on some of the sites so far. I am just waiting for the sun to go down a bit more before cooking.
I wrote a post last night and despite having s modest signal all day it has refused to go, so I suppose this one will go into the stack as well.

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Welsh Walk

Wednesday 27th April - day 8
I was glad to leave that dreadful camp site this morning. Apart from its dreariness a gale (without rain) blew all night. My Terra Nova is remarkable, not a peg came loose nor did anything budge even though it felt as if we would take off. It was also very cold this morning and I walked until after ten wearing my Hollowfill jacket. After that it became hot. Wonderful scenery continued, a lot from high vantage points. The hills behind Barmouth look inviting. This could be a good place to stay and do daily outings from.
I am noticing the tendency of many farmers with gates using the perfectly adequate sneck mechanism to add a piece of that ubiquitous orange or blue hairy cord to provide an additional fastening. That cord is what farmers refer to as "a bit o' band".
I have booked into The Taly-y-Don hotel in Barmouth so I can do some much needed laundry and gadget charging etc.

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Welsh Walk- south of Macynlleth to south of Tywyn

Tuesday 26th April - day 7
Last night's site was Morben Isaf situated next to the Osprey watching site where I called in and saw live tv pictures of the Osprey on it's nest. The site was of the highest quality (better than Caravan Club) as I mentioned in yesterday's post. This morning I was brought tea and toast and marmalade by the friendly people in the nearby caravan.
Yesterday in Borth huge stones had been brought in barges across the North Sea from Norway and they were building huge sea defences. I was told that this was cheaper than using stone from the UK and paying for it's transport by road or rail.
Yesterday I went into The Wildfowlers Arms (can't remember the village), this was a food pub, but I was told they don't do sandwiches- so much for the traditional hostelry providing for the weary traveller.
Today I have travelled back along the northern shores of the Dovey Estuary after the long trek inland to cross the bridge at Machynlleth. The views were superb.
I am now on one of the worst camping/caravan sites I have ever seen. Everything is run down, seedy, strangely quiet and abandoned. I must remember to take some photos.

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Welsh Walk-replies to comments

I am doing this as a post because it less fraught.
BB - thanks for your cheery comments.
Gimmer-I think conventional strong boots would still have been uncomfortable. The Roclites are proving to be, by far and away, the most comfortable boots I have ever had.
John Proud-glad to hear you had a good trip. What's next?
Mick and Gayle - thanks for your comments. Hopefully you will have received more from me on your own blog.

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Message to all

Posting replies to comments is fraught with difficulty, but I will try. If I try to reply direct and the signal is not strong enough to post I loose the whole thing. The alternative is to write in email then copy and paste into Blogger Dadhboard then attempt to post. If it fails I still retain the email to try again. Opening all these sites is dreadfully slow and time consuming. Often I can get an email to go but not so often a blog post or comment reply.

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