travel
The sore feet of Ursula Martin
When I first heard about what Ursula Martin had done I found it hard to believe. Over a period of seventeen months she set out to walk 3,300 miles around Wales – in the end she walked 3,700 – including all the recognized long distance paths and other, river-long walks, she devised herself. Now she’s […]
Anglesey Coast Path, day 12
It’s our last day, and a chance to fill a missing link, between Newborough and Brynsiencyn, the furthest point west we managed last year. We leave the car in the Llyn Rhos Ddu car park south of Newborough. In its centre is a metal sculpture by Ann Catrin Evans of several ‘gafrod’ or bunches of […]
Anglesey Coast Path, day 11
After Holy Island north, today three of us are tackling Holy Island south – a much shorter and less strenuous trek. It’s a cooler and cloudier day. We start from Trearddur Bay. Just as it took half an hour to get into Trearddur from the north, it takes half an hour to leave it walking […]
Anglesey Coast Path, day 10
Just the two of us today. Valley to Trearddur Bay direct is no more than three miles. Valley to Trearddur Bay via Holyhead Mountain, taking in a circuit of the northern half of Holy Island, is sixteen miles, and that’s our route. We’re lucky to have a day of continuous sun, from start to finish. […]
Anglesey Coast Path, day 8
It’s still and warm as we deliver C to the railway station at Rhosneigr for the absurdly long train journey back to Swansea (including an enforced bus journey between Cwmbran and Newport). Someone has scratched the words ‘… is shit’ as a predicate to the platform sign for Arriva Trains Wales, the unlamented rail franchise […]
Walking to meet heroes
In October 1705 Johann Sebastian Bach set out on foot on a journey of 260 miles. He was twenty years old. He’d recently been in a brawl with a musician he’d insulted in the market place of his home town of Arnstadt in Thuringia, central Germany. The church authorities who employed him as organist in […]
A biodiversity lesson from India
We tread softly behind our guide, taking care not to make the dry leaves crackle and alarm the birds around the Chambal Lodge estate. He points upwards, to a branch where owls are asleep (it’s mid-afternoon, and we’re surprised to see owls at all). A large Scops owl sits stock still, and stares at us […]
Anglesey Coast Path, day 4
Rain threatens this afternoon, so C and I start out on our own from Brynsiencyn at 8:30. It’s a dark morning, and thick layers of cloud cover the mountains across the Strait. The village looks comprehensively closed. The pub’s abandoned and the public toilets are locked. But we do spot that rarity in Anglesey, a […]
Anglesey Coast Path, day 3
A day without rain, the Met Office predicts. There’s rejoicing in Beaumaris. All our guests are gone this morning, and C, H and I wait again outside the Spar for the 9:05 bus to Llanddona. This time the driver’s too polite to express incredulity that we want to go there. From the pub in Llanddona […]
Gwynedd Coast Path, day 19
Heavy rain is forecast until the afternoon. We put off making a start to Bangor as late as we can, but set off from the city centre along Ffordd Ddeiniol towards the Pier around 11:30. The rain’s falling steadily, and only our faces are visible. The long Garth pier, built in 1896 by Lord Penrhyn […]
