Thursday June 4th 2015 - Part 2 - Aberdaron, Abersoch & Llanbedrog

The small village of Aberdaron was split into two by a stream which ran between the houses, past the car park and out across the beach to the sea.  A stone hump-back bridge carried the road through the village and in the square at the end was an ice cream parlour, a couple of small cafes, a pub, a hotel, and two or three small gift shops. A path from the far end of the car park took me directly onto the beach but there was nothing particularly interesting along there so with just one shot taken looking back the other way I headed back into the village itself.

A short alleyway took me between two gift shops and out onto the short promenade; close by was the front of the hotel with its terrace overlooking the beach, and beyond it a small quaint-looking chapel with a little garden at the front. At the far end of the promenade was a small garden area with pleasant seating and lots of brightly coloured alpine-type plants, and which overlooked the end of the stream.  It took less than an hour to look round everywhere and when I'd seen all I wanted to see I returned to the van and set off for Abersoch, my next port of call.

As I'd been to Abersoch four years previously I knew where I was going when I got there; just up the hill out of the village was a private car park with a very reasonable parking fee so that's where I headed, but when I got there I found the kiosk was closed. A note on the door said 'Please DO NOT pay any money to anyone if the shed door is closed' - it was just gone 4pm by then so maybe whoever manned the kiosk had gone home for tea. Judging by the number of cars there the place itself must still be open and presumably it was now free of charge so I parked up, took the dogs and went for a wander.

With the tide out I knew there would be nothing of interest along the beach so I stuck to the harbour and the riverside, getting several nice shots of the various boats beached on the sand. Within half an hour I'd seen everything of interest so I made my way back to the van with fingers crossed that the car park kiosk guy hadn't returned in my absence and slapped a penalty ticket on my windscreen. He hadn't, so after giving the dogs a drink I set off for Llanbedrog, the next place on my itinerary.

Llanbedrog village itself is set off the A499 and away from the coast, with the beach being just round the headland from the northern end of Abersoch beach. Access is via a narrow lane off the main road - if you blink you miss the turning - though you can only drive so far down. The lane ends actually on the beach, and with a high stone wall on one side and a deep ditch on the other there is no turning space so cars have to be left in the car park near the top. 

A stream running down the ditch flowed out across the beach and right at the end of the lane, almost on the beach itself, was a small cafe/bistro with an outside terrace. There was nothing along the beach other than a long row of brightly coloured beach huts, and as I walked along I was struck by how much of the sand below the high water mark was covered in embedded seaweed. Now normally I don't mind the smell of fresh seaweed but this was more of a rotting fish type of a smell and although it wasn't very strong it wasn't very nice either - how anyone can spend any length of time there with that smell is beyond me but obviously people do.

With the horrible smell, very little to see, and the surrounding trees cutting out a lot of the late afternoon sunlight, I called it a day after just ten minutes and returned to the van. My original intention was to make a stop at Pwllheli, another few miles along the coast, but time was getting on and I had a long drive back to the camp site so I continued past the town and right up the A499 heading back towards Caernarfon, where I picked up the A487 to the A55 and Britannia Bridge.

It was gone 7pm when I finally arrived back at the tent; it had been a long day with a lot of driving so with a sandwich and a brew made I sat down to relax for the rest of the evening. By the time ten o' clock arrived I was more than ready for sleep so after a quick final dog walk I settled into bed, and I don't think I got through even half a chapter of my book before my eyes closed.