Sunday July 10th 2011 - More water and a sore leg

I woke that morning to more sunshine and a sore leg. It had been mildly itchy down the shinbone the previous night but I hadn't thought much of it, however that area was now not only swollen and very itchy but also quite painful down the sides of the swollen bit. It would seem I'd been bitten by something the previous day - probably a horsefly - although I hadn't been aware of it at the time. Whatever it was it had certainly made a meal of my leg, and the itching was driving me mad. After I'd taken the dogs for their first walk of the day I put the kettle on and made some breakfast then soaked a spare new J cloth in cold water and sat with it on my leg to ease the itching - it did help and the itching subsided after a while to something more bearable.

It was late morning when I finally went out and my first port of call was the big car boot sale on the Anglesey showground. I wasn't looking for anything in particular, just having a mooch, but it would be nice if I could find a mouse ornament to add to my collection - unfortunately though there were no mice anywhere, and nothing else metaphorically jumped out and shouted "Buy me!" so I got round the whole sale without spending so much as a penny. When I got to the end of the last row of stalls I took the dogs up to the far end of the showground where there was no-one around and let them have a good run round off the lead before putting them back in the van. My next stop was Penrhos Coastal Path and Pete's Burger Bar for one of those cheeseburgers I like so much - that area is very popular and when I arrived I couldn't initially find anywhere to park as all the spaces were full but as I drove round the car park a vehicle reversed out from a space and drove away so I was able to get the van in there. Just in the nick of time too, as when I got out of the van there was a line of half a dozen cars all pulling into the car park with every driver looking for a space. I went across and ordered my cheeseburger and coffee then took them back to the van where I sat in the front passenger seat and enjoyed the view - and as always the cheeseburger was excellent.

From Penrhos I drove up towards Holyhead then took one of the minor roads in the direction of Trearddur Bay, stopping first at one of the little bays just before it which was another place I had only ever photographed when the tide was low. By the time I got there the tide had turned and was on its way out but there was still enough water around to make things interesting. Parking the van on the roadside grass verge at one side of the bay I clipped the leads on the dogs and set off towards the other side, which wasn't far. There were several families on the beach and the resident ice cream van and burger van seemed to be doing steady business; quite a few people were in the sea and as I stood looking at the view a convoy of brightly coloured kayaks came round the headland and headed towards the beach. The whole scene was very colourful and I was glad I'd stopped there.

Back on the road again I stopped briefly to take a couple of photos at a very small deserted cove where the sea was quite well in, then again at another small bay where a handful of people were on the beach and in the sea. My next stop was at Trearddur bay itself, the sea was quite well in there and I spent quite a while watching a guy on a tractor towing boats out of the water and up the slipway. There was a small shingle beach near the end of the slipway so while I was watching the boats I waded into the water to see if it would soothe my itching leg. Unfortunately, though I didn't realise it till later, as a result of my paddling the camera lens got splashed by a couple of water droplets so the next half dozen photos had blurred patches on them - that'll teach me to remember to put the lens cap back on when I'm not actually photographing something!

From Trearddur Bay I headed in the direction of Aberffraw, which entailed crossing Four Mile Bridge, and I was more than happy to see that for once there was plenty of water around so finding a place to stop at the side of the road, and having wiped the camera lens clean, I spent ten minutes or so taking a few more photos. As I walked back to the van I stopped for a minute to watch a group of teenage lads jumping off the bridge into the channel below, judging by the sound of the splash as each one hit the water it must have been reasonably deep there, but it's not the sort of thing I would be brave enough - or foolish enough - to do.

When I finally got to Aberffraw time was getting on and I didn't fancy my chances of seeing much water by then, but as I parked the van near the bridge across from the village I could see that my luck was in. The shallow stream which ran past the village and out across the beach to the sea was now a great deal wider and deeper, and the boats which would otherwise have been grounded were floating on the end of their mooring ropes. I did consider walking right down to the beach but it was quite a distance from there so with the dogs off the lead I walked down just far enough to take a few photos before I turned round and headed back to the van.

My final stop of the day was inland as I was on my back to the camp site via various country lanes - my route took me close to a site where I knew another UKCS member was staying, so just on the off-chance I decided to call and say hello. I had never met her before, though I knew her name was Kate, so as I pulled into the site, which wasn't a big one, I thought the best thing would be to find someone - anyone - and ask if they knew her. As I parked the van I could see a tall guy outside the awning of a caravan just across the way so I decided to ask him - and he turned out to be Kate's husband. I think Fate must have had a hand in that one! Needless to say, Kate was very surprised to see me and once she had introduced me to her family and her three lovely dogs she offered me a brew and we all sat chatting outside the caravan. They were so easy to get on with it was as though we had known each other for years - the time flew by and before I knew it it was 10pm and almost dark by the time I hit the road for 'home'.

As I headed across the island towards Benllech I realised I was notching up another personal 'first'. Usually at that time of night I'm safely ensconced in my tent, now here I was driving round the winding unlit country roads of Anglesey in the dark for the first time and enjoying every minute of it. Approaching the outskirts of Benllech where the road was now lit by street lamps I saw just ahead of me a hedgehog ambling across the road - having no wish to run the little creature over I stopped to wait while it crossed and I only moved off again when I could see that it was safely on the other side of the road. I like hedgehogs and I always feel a touch of sadness when I see one that's become a victim of the road - this one could eventually end up the same but at least it was safe for the time being.

Back at the tent I gave the dogs a very late tea-cum-supper and took them for a quick walk round the site then made myself a last brew and some toast which I took to bed with me. My itchy leg had become a bit more swollen and had developed a blister the size of a ten pence piece - the whole area was now quite painful so I was glad to take the weight off it. Other than that though I'd had a good and varied day and got some good photos from everywhere I'd been - it was just a shame that I had to go home the following day but I would be back again soon.