2019 February – North Wales

 

The weather for the last half of February was fantastic with the warmest area of the UK being North West Wales. It just so happens that we had booked a four night stay at The White Lion Royal Hotel in Bala (our usual haunt in North Wales). There may have been frost on the car every morning but we enjoyed glorious sunshine and temperatures above 20C during the days.

We arrived on Saturday afternoon and completed our usual walk around Bala and along part of the lake shore before enjoying a curry at Bala Spice (just as good as ever).

On Sunday we headed to Mawddach and a walk along a disused railway track bed beside the Mawddach Estuary to a marvellous viewpoint.  We then retraced our steps and walked over the bridge to Barmouth. The sun had brought out many tourists sitting outside pubs and cafes eating ice creams! – far too many people for us so we beat a hasty retreat.  Unlike previous visits, there was no train to complete the photograph this time!

After our walk we drove the couple of miles to Fairbourne where we found the steam railway working.

We didn’t travel on the railway but were able to see the train working and Gerry was able look in the engine shed.

We returned to Bala via Machynlleth and took our usual lake walk before supper.

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On the next day we headed to Bodnant Garden near Conwy. What a brilliant couple of hours walking around the estate – the pictures speak for themselves.

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From Bodnant, we travelled to Plas Newydd on the Isle of Angelsey. As usual, we went for a walk around the estate rather than visit the house. Once again we found the gardens were a blaze of colour especially the heather beds.

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Our final full day saw us undertake a six mile walk.  We set off from the village of LLanystumdwy, walked past the LLoyd George Museum to go through woods on the banks of the River Dwyvor for 1.5 miles. From there we walked along a minor road before crossing farmland and walking into the town of Criccieth. After a break for coffee, we continued along the coast path for a couple of miles before heading inland back to our starting point – a lovely walk in brilliant weather.

We concluded our day with our usual walk to Bala lake. We had seen some beautiful sunsets on previous days, but the view over the lake on our last evening was amazing.