Saturday August 13th 2016 - Part 2 - Gwrych Castle and a harbour

Arriving at Manorafon camp site I parked in the arrivals area, went to reception to book in with Jules then Will showed me which pitch I was on - it was a hedgerow pitch, the third one in from the entrance gate and very spacious. That would do nicely, so with the van parked up I set about putting the tent up. As I was only there for two nights and the pitch didn't have a hook-up point I was sleeping in the van then I could use the overhead light for reading, so I was really only using the tent as somewhere to wash and dress in private and make a brew; with not as much stuff to put in it as I would usually have it only took forty minutes to put it up, peg it down and put in what I needed then I was ready to go up to the castle.

The entrance fee for adults was £5 and the guided tours were free - I'd missed the two o'clock one so I got a ticket for the next one and browsed the various stalls while I waited. The tour was conducted by the Trust's founder and it was very interesting learning about history of the castle and what the different parts were once used for, though there were so many people in the group that I couldn't get any decent photos, so once the tour was over and everyone had dispersed I went all the way round again on my own.

It was nice to be able to wander freely round the extensive inner grounds and although the upper parts were still out of bounds I was able to get plenty of good photos. It was gone 4pm when I realised that apart from the coffee at Eileen's I'd had nothing to eat or drink since my very early breakfast and I was hungry, so although I could have got something in the way of fast food from one of the stalls in the castle courtyard I decided to go back to the camp site for the van then drive down to the beach and get a proper meal at the Pantri Bach cafe.

Throughout the afternoon the sky had been mostly grey but as time went on the clouds started to disperse and big patches of blue appeared; by the time I'd had my meal and left the cafe the sun had finally come out of hiding so not wanting to go back to the tent too early I decided to head towards Rhyl and take a few photos round by the harbour. Parking up near the Marine Lake I crossed the road and was pleased to see that the tide was in; twenty minutes with the camera got me a dozen decent shots then I returned to the van and made my way back to Manorafon.

Back on my pitch I drove the van as close to the front of the tent as I could get it - any closer and I would have caught the poles with my wing mirror and probably have brought the whole lot crashing down - then spent a couple of hours reading before taking Sophie and Poppie up the lane for their last walk of the day. It was a very early bedtime for all three of us then, but it had been a long day and we'd done a lot of walking so it was nice to finally snuggle into our beds in the van for the rest of the night.