That’s it!

The serious news of increased coronavirus infections drives home the need to take care of personal hygiene and space. We have experienced shops, cafes, pubs and communal facilities at campsites during this trip and it’s clear that the standards differ widely.

As this virus is a silent spreader there’s little that can be done except to try to stay distanced during conversations. This can be very hard as some people just don’t think or remember. When walking on a narrow cliff path you do get a sense of COVID hesitation upon meeting others coming towards you.

It’s the differing standards at campsites though that is a surprise. Some have hand gel but others don’t. Some enforce 2m and others don’t. This is how Eric the Quartermaster does it.

Contact details are taken in some places such as this café and now masks are worn in shops here in Wales.

As I write, the UK government are about to announce further restrictions to try to slow the spread of infections in the second wave. I’m sure that the warm weekend weather and fear of new restrictions was the reason for so many people here. The campsite owners are saying how busy it has been for September. It doesn’t feel busy though.

I like Hymer campervans. Actually these really fall into the motorhome category. So when there were two classics sitting together on Eric the Quartermaster’s ‘no hookup’ field as we drove on, I had to go and say hello. Well I did after we had established ourselves.

The discussion centred on the base vehicle which was a Mercedes in both cases. I think that this is unusual and the owners said that it is fantastic in terms of reliability.

One guy was surprised to hear how much planned maintenance I do to our Landy and said that his Hymer just has an oil and filter change. It was ironic therefore to see a recovery truck there the following night. They were to have left that evening but couldn’t get the engine started. As I had my pyjamas on I didn’t go out to gloat. 😁

We did chat with a guy who rather surprisingly runs a ‘claims’ business. He had one or two unbelievable stories. Coming into the claims business from the installation side, providing ‘domestic energy efficiency improvements’, he found himself following-up installations of loft and wall insulation and solar panels. The householders had become suspicious of the claimed benefits.

A typical scam was (is?) when installing loft insulation, to load the rolls into the roof space but not to un-roll and install. Instead the rogues make a few noises for a while and then declare “job done”. The poor householder who has said “I never go up there”, never goes up there but does sometimes notice that the house is no warmer.

Now he works on mortgages where the repayment has been incorrectly calculated at the bank and others where the commission paid was higher than it should have been. In his opinion, these mistakes are deliberate and the courts seem to agree.

The final day saw us walk from Morfa Nevyn to the Ty Coch by way of a pub lunch and the beach. We had a final swim in reasonably warm water.

I’d like to make special reference to these amazing Dock & Bay towels which pack down to nothing, yet still dry you and then themselves, very quickly.

The pub was still doing a good trade but it must be hard in these times when they close in bad weather. Not today though but it is the final day of summer I think.

Getting to know the Llŷn Peninsula has been a surprise and delight. It is very easy to move around by vehicle and a single base would be perfectly sensible. From the correct location walking too can include the north and south coasts. It isn’t far from one side to another.

The myriad of small coves and cliffs is what makes it so nice. If you want motorboats and jet skis then go to Abersoch, otherwise it’s secluded beaches, fishing from rocks and very easy hilly walking combined with fantastic views. It is windy though, nearly all the time. 😁

Back at the Ty Coch

A couple of Land Rover 110s arrived on Saturday morning and by the afternoon we were chatting. The guys were very interested in our lifting roof and had a tour as we explained the set-up. They are from Nomad in Macclesfield, a company that sells Land Rover accessories, provides all sorts of upgrades and also ECU remaps from Alive Tuning.

We looked at their ‘blingy’ vehicles with some admiration and promised to call and see them at Nomad / M&R Motors. It’s handy to know that they are next to the famous Shufflebotham’s cloth and fabric outlet.

Mike Woodier (Nomad) is a long term visitor to this previously quiet ‘site’ and was a little shocked to see so many visitors. We are all staycationers now though, as we were originally planning to be abroad and he was supposed to be at the Adventure Overland Show.

CoVID19 has really affected all aspects of life. Farmer Chris, once able to leave a few campers to themselves, now has to sleep in his caravan on the busiest nights. He certainly conducts frequent sweeps of the site on a quad bike or Izuzu pick up.

The fantastic weather continued although this is a windy peninsula and this cliff a particularly windy spot. We needed to strap down all flaps again before it was possible to sleep.

As we have seen everywhere, a camper’s essential kit includes a big brazier and huge supply of logs. We were shown a particularly handy log burner that packed away very efficiently into a very handy pack. This was just as well because the volume of logs and kindling that are carried is unbelievable!

So we had three more nights of this fantastic late summer weather and needed one more site.  We decided on a second visit to Eric the Quartermaster at Porthdinllaen near Morfa Nefyn. It was a little risky as it would be a Saturday night but there was room and we settled again in the middle of the no-hookup field.

The first outing was to the Ty Coch (Red House) pub on the beach. A festival atmosphere was all around and we joined the queue for a beer, happy that the brisk breeze would disperse Coronavirus droplets.

Then we made a return visit towards Whistling Sands, walking southwest along the coast for about 2.5 miles. When we arrived it was clear that something was afoot as several groups of people were strategically placed.

There were now nearly thirty seals in the bay. One of the pups was still on the beach as before but looking much bigger. The other was on the rocks with adults but still looking pup-like. There were a few skirmishes when a male (seal 😱) approached the pup and there was a lot of howling too. A seal howl sounds rather like a Tawny owl crossed with a wolf. I hope that helps.

On the walk back I realised that the pebbly beaches here are a result of erosion at the top of the beach. We have seen much evidence of this in these parts.

With the sun on our backs the view towards the  hills was a perfect reminder of what makes this peninsula so attractive.

Gogglebox campers

Giles and Mary were staying on the site at Llanbedrog. At least it could have been them. The couple near us talked to one another in the same way as do those stars of Gogglebox. It’s as if they they are getting used to living together, even though they’ve been married for years. They talked so loudly that ignoring them wasn’t really an option.

Are you ready to have lunch? What shall we have? Would you like cheese Mary? Cheese and biscuits? We do have a lot of cheese Mary.

I’m going to pop to the shop Mary whilst you go to the gallery.

Yes I’ll have a walk to the gallery. Do you want to come to the gallery Giles?

I’m going to pop to the shop.

How long will you be?

Only a few minutes.

Do you want to come to the gallery? Have you ever visited a gallery?

So it continued. They were sitting outside their camper but could have been on different pitches, oblivious to things around them.

We made a decision not to rush off around the Cardigan coast. The weather forecast was still holding warm and sunny and the Llyn is so nice. Why leave?!

A close inspection of the map showed a small beach a little up the coast from’Whistling Sands’ and a bit of research suggested a camping field next to a car park, both accessed through a farmyard with ‘payment required’ warning signs. On-line reviews were polarised from ‘fantastic place’ to ‘grumpy farmer’.

So we arrived early-ish after stocking up at Lidl in Phewhilli (sic) and found a fairly busy carpark, a small field with touring caravans and a larger cliff top field with a variety of vehicles.

The beach was fantastic and easily accessible, with a view to die for. We pitched in between a Boughton truck and a huge twin axle motorhome and settled down for a couple of nights.

Whilst there is a very small temporary toilet block, not really suitable in CoVID19 times, there is a chemical disposal point and that means most self contained campers such as us are happy.

We had a good swim in the reasonable temperature water but didn’t hang about to play. The ‘grumpy farmer, Chris came see us and we talked farming in a very un-grumpy way.

We only do dairy / only fifty five cows, we aren’t greedy / milk twice a day / don’t start till 7:30am and are finished at 9:30 etc etc.

Apparently they call Robert Jones at Mynydd Mawr  “Saddam”, as he can get a bit angry. Maybe it’s due to sheep or perhaps tourists.

The next day we walked north around the headlands, passing little beaches but seeing few people. The views up the coast towards the distant hills near Trefor and down towards Mynydd Mawr are just terrific.

Dawn enjoyed flying the kite once the wind died down to a decent breeze .

We bought some green beans (haricot vert) and steamed them on the bbq which worked very well.

The sunset was perfect and with the moon 🌑 in these dark skies, the Milky Way was very prominent. Farmer Chris is so lucky as his farm is literally directly underneath it 😀 

Halcyon days

We were entertained when a couple of guys turned up in two cars and proceeded to try to erect their two tents. Never has it taken so long to achieve some sort of erect-ness.

These fellas spent well over an hour with the first. These are small tents with just three or four poles.

They made a reasonable attempt at it and celebrated with a couple of beers. Then it was onto the second and a couple more beers and another hour and the tiny tent was up. We laughed with them as they turned to the first to improve on the initial attempt, by dismantling it and starting again. We suggested that maybe two more beers would help.

I have never, ever seen two people struggle so much when erecting a tent and yet keep on smiling and chatting throughout. It was a world first for me.

At the bottom of the lane in Llanbedrog is a wonderful house, built in gothic style, that for many years has been an outlet for art. Plas Glyn-y-Weddu  (the mansion of the Widow’s glen) is now a formal gallery and we went for a CoVID19 secure visit.

The artwork is mainly paintings by local people but there are some sculptures and also photographs by members of a local group.

They also do a great latté and fruit scone. We sat in the garden, totally overwhelmed by another very warm and sunny day.

Calories in = calories out and we climbed up the Mynydd again to view Llanbedrog beach from above a 100m shear cliff and then walked around it to overlook Abersoch beach.

There we stripped and had a swim but there were several jellyfish floating by which curtailed it. The walk back was a choice between a climb over the mountain or a teasing walk around the headland at low tide. We didn’t know if this would be possible but as there was an hour still before low tide and the map seemed to suggest that low tide would just clear the rocks, we decided to try.

There are no further photos as the phones had to go up in our backpacks. The splash through the end of low tide became almost a wade as we reached the crux. It was all safe and quite amusing. The escape route had been plotted, and although it would have required a clamber over seaweed rock, we could have walked off.

Afterwards we had a new bbq meal style of chicken with courgettes and peppers in pitta. The starter was bbq corn on the cob. We finished with a sloe gin and a nice candle and then looked for shooting stars 😁

Llanbedrog

Abersoch really is in a perfect position. It faces east and is sheltered from the south and west by some big lumps of igneous rocky headlands. The southern beach is large, sandy and flat and sweeps north for perhaps a mile to a headland that separates it from the northern beach which is even bigger. That stretches north with ‘The Warren’ alongside, until the very large igneous lump immediately south of Llanbedrog, marked on the map simply as Mynydd.

The tidal range at the moment is about 4-5 metres and the flat sands mean that the beaches are very wide too.

However, Abersoch is not for us and we moved to a fantastic site on the top of Mynydd. The link to the site is here and it has to be one of the best ever. It is large but with just a few pitches on short grass. Small hedges separate most. The amenities block is worthy of an award. The pitched roof is supported by engineered beams with cladding in timber and large Velux roof windows. Inside the fixtures and fittings are better than in most hotels.

Owner Ruth is taking CoVID19 precautions very seriously and is trying to enforce the wearing of masks in the building. That means wearing one when washing the dishes, laundry, or oneself. She also cleans the building twice a day.

We paid for our first night on arrival and our second a few hours later. The third was paid during the next morning. Yes it’s a nice spot and the weather forecast is a good as it gets in September (or August or July...).

The view from up here is breathtaking as you can see the mountains sweeping around from Trefor, across Snowdonia to Caeder Idris. Mount Snowdon is prominent and must look spectacular in winter. The arc of mountains and the coast is one of the best I have seen anywhere.

With the sun in the correct place, some of the Snowdon features can be seen such at the summit itself, the Rhyd Ddu Path, some of the Clogwyn crags and the summit of Garnedd Ugain slightly west of the main summit and one on the classic horseshoe walk. 

From the site it is a short steep walk down the single track road to Llanbedrog beach. This is amazing as it is very sheltered and has flat sand with the tide somehow going out slowly leaving shallow water stretching for several hundred metres. This becomes very warm in the sun and the dozens of pre-school kids were having a great time.

We did too, walking out far enough to be able to swim. As the tide turned and the waters covered the sand, the heat in the ground warmed the water to the extent that it felt hot.

The signature beach huts were disappointingly already off the beach in the car park. They were still worthy of a photo. 

Around the corner to Abersoch

 It was just as well we weren’t in a rush to leave on Sunday morning. Farmer Robert was on fine form with lots of chat. We quickly covered off some sheep and lamb updates and moved on to the job he’s doing on the cottage next to the field. His farm is a little further away and this place came on the market twice. First time he missed out to a ‘developer’ who seems not to know one side of a stud wall from another. Robert had found radiators built behind them!

I asked about cottages bought for holiday use and he said that some of the locals moan but then “they are happy to do the building work, first in the queue”. We didn’t mention the old sketch, Come home to a real fire; buy a cottage in Wales. That one is best left alone 😀

So we said goodbye and vowed to be back and we drove through Aberdaron and over the headland to see Hells Mouth. This is a huge beach with its jaws open to the southwest and today the breakers were rolling in on the back of the recent gales. A few motorhomes were corralled together in one unofficial camping spot but we’d had enough of camping in a gale. 

Parking on the road with everyone else, we joined the surfing crowd and watched them trying to get to grips with very unpredictable waves. This was most definitely wetsuit weather and after 10 minutes watching we left them to it.

An inconsiderate driver had parked within 10cm of my front end. Why do that? Anyway I had just enough room at the back and off we went to Abersoch. As we drove around the corner the wind dropped and we were in another world. This is the land of F-Pace and Range Rovers. Everyone was shopping at Fat Face, Jack Wills and Joules.

The beach here is beautiful and very accessible to all kinds of craft. We watched young kids launch a dingy and sail across the bay and then walked around the headland into town. Peering through a pallisade fence I spotted the sad sight of a Land Rover graveyard.

We had a lovely ice cream from Two Islands and sat overlooking the boatyard and a Heron and Egrit.

We stayed overnight on a terraced site for ‘static tourers’. There’s no way that these would be towed very far as they are too big. The view here is amazing and one that I would never have thought about. The whole of Snowdonia is there with the sweep of the Cardigan bay coast stretching south as far as you can see.

We saw stars for the first time too as the clouds disappeared. In this dark sky area and with the moon rising late, we had an instant view of the Milky Way that really lived up to its name. Also one shooting star lingered as it moved across the sky but without a tail. It lasted for a second or so. Certainly long enough for a good gaze. 

Windy headlands

The coast path follows quite rugged scenery around the headlands of the peninsula and we walked around the north side, over Mynydd Mawr itself  towards Porth Oer. At the top is a coastguard lookout which for some reason hasn’t been used for over twenty years.

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I like the way in which there are smaller farmsteads spread right up the hillsides. Some are still very ‘primitive’ and others ‘gentrified’

I can’t remember the name for this flower but I believe it’s quite rare or at least hard to spot. That’s because it only flowers on one day so I guess we were lucky😁

It was a good walk of eight miles or so with a lunch stop on a rocky beach and a few people with whom to pass the time of day. Certainly though this part of the coast isn’t busy.

We passed one lady who was walking from our turnaround at Porth Oer to our start at Mynydd Mawr. She wasn’t sure how she was going to get back and like us, assumed it would be along the roads and tracks. Only afterwards did I think that I should have asked for her car keys. We could have driven it back to her finish and our start.  🤔

Back at Robert’s campsite we needed no persuasion to try a cream tea from Mrs Jones’ café. So many calories were expended and then replaced in just a few minutes.

We had moved down to the bottom of the field to be away from the-three-lads-in-their-tent. On Friday night they thought they were in the pub and were having a very loud time in what is a beautiful place with the wind and the waves usually to be heard. Unfortunately the wind hadn’t blown away their shouts and laughs which continued until the early hours.

We chatted down there to a chap from Chester (who I thought was a scouser). He’s a bricklayer who was camping for the first time in years. He seemed a bit sad, looking out to sea for much of the time but I didn’t probe and we talked about Liverpool FC and I showed him how to read a map. He hasn’t walked far as he thought he’d get lost in the lanes. Rather than get lost I think he might have walked a little too far. Now he can read a Landranger map he should do better.

Another chap had been cooking Bass that he’d caught and I wished I had a rod and lure to cast off the rocks. It turns out that he has been furloughed for so long that he doesn’t know what to do with himself. He’s spent a month in Cornwall and now is content to while away the hours on the Llŷn Peninsula.

A couple were driving a Defender 130 (Rapier) which was instantly attractive due to the purr of the V8 under the bonnet. Originally with a full tilt (soft top), replaced years ago with a custom camper box and and is now very shabby chic. We had a couple of long chats and  he even pinched my sliding worktop idea.

We made a final move to try to get out of the wind and strapped down the roof porch. It was a wild night, even wilder than the previous ones and up there with the roof catching the wind and the Landy swaying about all night, you could imagine being on a boat.