Category: travel
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Wales Coast Path, day 84: Aberffraw from Malltraeth
There’s a royal wedding on, but we’re somewhere else entirely. Ca and I point the car towards the far north, through Talley, Temple Bar and Llanrhystud in the bright May sunshine. Coffee in Pysgoty in republican Aberystwyth, where protests quickly forced Oxfam to remove pictures of Harry and Meghan from their bookshop window, and a…
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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…
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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…
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Wales Coast Path, day 76: Moelfre to Porth Amlwch
It’s rained all night, at times heavily. Over breakfast we ask each other whether water will mean trouble for us again during today’s walk, from Moelfre to Amlwch Port. We stare at the map. We consult tide tables. We scrutinise Mr Rogers. We think we’ll be safe. As it turns out, we’re wrong. The weather…
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Wales Coast Path, day 87: Brynsiencyn to Menai Bridge
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…
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Wales Coast Path, day 75: Llanddona to Moelfre
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…
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Wales Coast Path, day 88: Bangor to Llanfairfechan
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…
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Wales Coast Path, day 74: Beaumaris from Llanddona
The rain has stopped, and none is forecast for the rest of the day, as six of us wait in Beaumaris for the bus to Llanddona. The driver looks dubious. ‘Llanddona? Are you sure? There’s nothing there’. But we are sure and he lets us on. We get out by the pub and the public…
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Wales Coast Path, day 72: Caernarfon to Bangor
Caernarfon to Bangor isn’t one of the Wales Coast Path’s happier stretches. On a day of near continuous rain it really can’t be recommended. And if, on top of that, you get lost not once but three times, it can turn into a bit of a torment. Normally a bus journey is a fine start…
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Wales Coast Path, day 73: Menai Bridge to Beaumaris
Anglesey has more than enough cars – far more than enough. This struck me the last time I was here a few weeks ago, when it took an hour and a half to go a few miles, and it’s even more obvious today. A crawling queue to cross the Britannia Bridge, then a slow snake…