Monday May 4th 2015 - Lligwy beach, Port Lynas & Llanddona

I woke early that morning to something I didn't want to hear - rain on the tent, but by the time I got up it had stopped and the sun was coming out. The wind had dropped and it turned into a really nice morning with blue sky and fluffy white clouds; studying the map book for somewhere to go I saw what seemed to be a lane leading down to the far end of Lligwy beach so I thought I'd have a look there to see if I could get some different photos to the ones I've taken on previous visits to Lligwy. Somehow though, things didn't quite work out like that.

I knew which lane I needed to turn down from the main road and I followed its twists and turns for quite a distance, passing a couple of camping/caravan sites on the way, but I didn't seem to be getting anywhere near the beach, and when I went past one of the camp sites for the second time I came to the conclusion that I'd been mistaken and what I'd seen on the map book didn't actually go as far as I'd thought; maybe access to the beach at that point was only through that camp site. Not wanting to waste the journey I headed back towards the main road and took the route which I would normally use to get to Lligwy beach, parking up at the side of the lane just before the beach car park, then with camera in hand I went for a wander through the dunes and snapped a few photos.

My next port of call was the little bay of Port Lynas; I'd been there a couple of times in previous years but never actually gone down onto the beach, and as it was dog friendly I thought it might be a good place to take Sophie and Poppie. Leaving the van in the free parking area I walked down the hill to the bay; the tide was in, and with a rocky outcrop jutting out across the narrow beach about halfway along there wasn't much sand left to walk on so I just stayed in the vicinity of the access slope. As usual Sophie only ventured into the water just far enough to get her feet wet, but Poppie was a bit more curious and spying a clump of brightly coloured seaweed floating below the surface she went a bit deeper and tried to catch it between her paws.

Just to the left of where I was a stream came from somewhere under the road and tumbled down over the rocks at the end of the beach. Poppie decided to explore round there and while she was playing - at the end of a long cable as I didn't want to risk her running off again - I managed to get a few photos of her. That's the first time since I got her that she's really been anywhere near any water and to watch her playing made me think that she doesn't have the same dislike of it that Sophie does. 

When both dogs had finished exploring and playing I made my way back up the hill and sat in the van while thinking where to go next. The fluffy white clouds were beginning to gather into big patches over that part of the island so I decided to drive back to the main road and wherever the sky was bluest that's the direction I would go in. The south of the island looked to be the clearest so I decided to head for Newborough beach but by the time I'd got to the other end of the island the cloud had followed me, the sun had gone in and the blue sky had disappeared - beach photography was obviously out of the question so as I wasn't far from the model village I went there instead.

The entrance fee was only £3, which rather surprised me as I expected it to be at least double that, though once I got in there I realised why. Although the models were quite well done the place wasn't that big and within fifteen minutes I'd seen everything so I went round again to make sure I hadn't missed anything. I did get a handful of photos but to be honest I've seen bigger and better model villages elsewhere.

From there I decided to head back to the camp site but with a detour en route to see if I could get to a beach which, for one very good reason, I hadn't yet explored. It was at the bottom of a high hill and both routes to it were winding and extremely steep single track lanes with very few passing places - I didn't fancy taking the van and meeting something coming the other way, regardless of whether I was going down or up. My thoughts were that if I could find somewhere to park at the top of the hill I could walk down to the beach, and as it turned out that idea proved to be quite successful.

Instead of following the route through Llanddona village itself I took the other route and managed to find a convenient place to park near the telephone mast right on top of the hill; a signpost told me that the beach was a mile from there so with the dogs on the lead I set off on my quest. Even with the cloudy sky it was quite a pleasant walk and when I finally got to the bottom I was met by a vast stretch of sand and shingle backed by a handful of private houses and bungalows and with the road running between. 

There was nothing particularly exciting about the beach - though maybe it would look nicer if the sun was shining - so I just walked to the far end of the road where there was a little cafe, then turned and retraced my steps back up the hill to the van. Not far from the top of the hill was an open field with a view over the bay so I took a photo from there just to show how far down the beach really was. 

Those were to be my last photos of the day; I drove back to the camp site, and even though the sun did decide to put in another appearance later on I didn't feel like going out again so I spent the remainder of the afternoon and evening watching tv and reading my book. Three of the four families occupying some of the caravans over the weekend, plus a couple of families at the other side of the hedge, had packed up and gone while I'd been out, leaving just one couple across the other side of the field, so my final night was guaranteed to be a very quiet one.