Day 67 – Abersoch to Caernarfon

Day 67 – Abersoch to Caernarfon

53 miles; total 4,267 miles; 172 miles to go.

Firstly a few words about yesterday.  My cunning plan to go a bit further than planned came at a price.  With 78 miles to do on Monday, 94 miles on Tuesday and 77 on the last day, and a poor weather forecast, I thought if I got ahead a bit it would be a good idea.  I had felt strong in the morning and confident of managing a long day.  But as soon as the decision had been made, the heavens opened. Even Noah would have felt under-prepared. And for the last 25 miles the headwind was just cruel.  The rain continued through the night on our improvised caravan site; making a call on the phone as I approached the site, my up-to-then dry iPhone became drenched and went on partial strike; and the T-Mobile people were telling me I had used up by ‘fair use’ allotment and wouldn’t give me access to wi-fi.

I was, to put it mildly, cheesed off.

Never mind, you can’t drive a car by looking in the rear view mirror all the time; onwards and upwards…  So this morning I set off with the intention of seeing how things went, then deciding at the first pit-stop whether to go for Conwy and make Tuesday easier, or stick to Plan ‘A’ and stay at Caernarfon.

It didn’t take long to decide. I was feeling knackered after yesterday.  I thought Abersoch was at the west of the Lleyn peninsula, but I kept going west for a further 20 miles, into the headwind and including a long and rather vicious climb up to Rhiw. I didn’t feel on top of my game, I can tell you.  So a short day was decided upon.

Nice to visit Abersoch by the way. As far as I know, until today, everyone in Clitheroe except me had been to Abersoch.  Now I don’t need to feel left out any more.

The Lleyn peninsula has some interesting scenery, with rugged cliffs, woodland and marshes, but the villages seemed uninspiring with many of the houses plain and utilitarian. And every village seems to have at least one awful-looking plain, domineering Methodist Chapel - Cromwell would have loved them.

At Nefyn the rain returned, making the long climb out of the town up on to the moors a little less pleasant, but the descent was fast.  A short detour around Foryd Bay and Saron, and the day was over, here in Caernarfon, where I was met by John and Helen Rushton, old friends who did part of one of the Wainwright walks with me two years ago.

Catherine has reccied the footbridge over to Caernarfon Castle and tells me it doesn’t open until 7 am, so that’s when I’m starting tomorrow. A long day coming up, after that only one left. Scary!  KPO.