Penrhyn Pictures

So last weekend (or wait, was it the weekend before? It's all blurring together) the sun shone. Jo and I figured we couldn't let a sunny Sunday go to waste, so we made plans to go to Llandudno to the beach. Then we ran into Kiwi Ian, who wanted us to go down to Bangor Pier for tea and scones with him, so we added a detour to the plan. En route, the three of us ran into two of Jo's friends who were just setting off on what they claimed was a three-mile walk to a beach near Penrhyn Castle (just outside of Bangor). Open to suggestion, as always, we gave up on both Llandudno and the Pier and joined them for the walk.

Contrary to the estimate we were given, it ended up being a 7- or 8-mile round trip (as measured by a bit of string and a map) and didn't involve a beach so much as a mud flat by the sea. However, there was a river to be forded, a crumbly stone wall to be climbed, and a bit of grass to have a picnic and a nap on. Plus the spine and ribs of SOMETHING - the kiwi claimed it was a fish, but I reckon either a sheep or a dog. (Didn't take a photo of that, sorry guys!)

All in all, very Famous Five.





We walked back along the shore - turns out you can get all the way back to Bangor, if you don't mind a little bit of a scramble through some bushes if the tide's in. (I got very excited about watching it come in - although I understand the theory of tides, I'm hardly ever staring at the ocean long enough to see one). It was a very cool walk as most of it was beside the crumbling sea-wall of Penrhyn Castle. We came out at the Bangor docks, tired and in need of ice cream...





(sorry about the darkness of the photos - beer was spilled on my camera in a mysterious incident a few weeks ago and it is still recovering!)