Day 117: Llandudno to Talacre
Distance: 25.03 miles
Ascent: 1199 feet
Weather: Sunny
Accommodation: Wild camp Near Talacre
After a great night’s sleep, I was treated to a lovely breakfast and sent on my way with a little packed lunch from The View Guest House. I did not do much of a description of Llandudno yesterday as I literally stayed on the very edge. But it has something about if that a lot of the coastal towns I have passed haven’t. It doesn’t have that rather sadly common decrepit feel of a seaside resort, as luckily almost all the hotels and B&B’s have made an effort to keep there external appearance nice. On top of this it has some other attractions like the Great Orme Cable Car and a large theatre/conference space, and was busy both when I arrived and when I left whcih gave it a little buzz.
The forecast was good and on setting of the sun was out and fortunately would be for the whole day. After walking around Llandudno Bay I did the only climb of the day which was up and over Little Orme’s Head, before the path heads down to Penrhyn Bay and onto Colwyn Bay. Colwyn Bay is definitely a little posher on the promenade than most other welsh resorts I have passed with a famous chefs restaurant, weird designed promenade furniture and general attempts to make it classy. But given all this it definitely has the most sorry looking pier (Victoria Pier) I have seen on the whole walk, fortunately it looks as though they are now about to, if not already started, demolishing it, a job the sea has already started for them.
This will be a short diary as the next 17 miles or so were very similar, essentially a flat, tarmacked/concreted, straight path, with boulders or beach on one side and a road or railway on the other at all times. It varied slightly sometimes a pure path and other times a promenade along the front of a town, and to make it even more exciting there were miles and miles of my favourite thing only a short distance inland Static Caravan Parks. The only respite was passing through Rhyl which just had a bit more going for it and I stopped for an ice cream just to add some interest. So this part was very monotonous but it did make for speedy progress. For this reason and as it was sunny I decided to elongate today a bit.
Finally the route changed as I joined the flat beach after Prestatyn, flanked by its dunes and with the sun still out this part was lovely. After about 3 miles of sand walking I reached Point of Ayr Lighthouse, which was one of my favourite lighthouses so far, fully exposed as it was at low tide. Something about if was both quaint and brutal.
From here the path turned south. I for the first time on the walk stopped for dinner before I had found my pitch spot or pitched. This is not something I liked doing (in fact it made me quite anxious) but made obvious sense based on my location. After eating I headed another half a mile south and found a lovely pitch spot on thick grass wedged between a gas works and a high path embankment meaning I will be well sheltered for the night (even though not forecast I have a feeling there may be a storm tonight.)
So a slightly monotonous but successful day, though it was great having a sunny day! If it wasn't for my map I may well have thought I was in Liverpool today based on all the accents.
