Day 44: Holywell to Rhyll

As we were parked next to McDonalds we had breakfast and used the facilities. Once back on the road we made same mistake as yesterday of missing Dock Road which meant Bev had to perform an unexpected U turn!

During the short journey, Poppy stole a bag hearts and cards from my jacket pocket and shredded them!!

We arrived at the start point just as the sun was rising.

Walking along the side of the estuary today with the tide fully in was a completely different experience to yesterday when the tide was out and all you could see was a vast expense of sand and mud flats and hardly any water. Whereas, today the tide splashing right up along the sea defences.

There was ship the Duke of Lancaster in some sort of permanent dock. It looks like a decaying animal very sad. I wonder what it looked like in all its glory. What was its story?

I walked under the railway tunnel and I had to keep my hat on because the roof was so low. I could literally only just walk through it.

As the sun was rising completely, the scenery opened up and was beautiful and I was feeling great. Then I started to feel guilty that Angela wasn’t here to share it with me. I’m not quite sure what to do with that feeling, the sadness of missing her so badly. Earlier I took a photograph by jumping onto the huge rocks that comprise the sea defences. I also took some video straddling the top of a gate. I could hear Angela saying ‘be careful don’t do anything stupid’.

Sometimes you can see hearts in the strangest places.

Then I thought of Angela skipping along behind me just slightly outside of my line vision. I reached my hand out to hold hers like I would do in the past.

I was listening to the radio this morning and there were lots of wedding requests and stories. It made me think about our civil partnership when we were walking down through the trees to the amphitheater where our ceremony took place holding hands feeling very happy.

I walked round the gasworks at which I thought was gonna be pretty boring, but it turns out that the coastal side of it was very pleasant indeed. I met a group of twitchers who had a lot of gadgets and gizmos and we had a nice chat.

Victoria very kindly posted about my Trek on her instagram story today and that has generated quite a few more followers and very importantly donations. So thank you once again Victoria for your generosity. Bev and I became quite emotional when she was reading out the content to me.

I got caught in a heavy downpour and obviously didn’t have my full waterproof gear on so I found myself totally soaked! My trousers were clinging to my legs in that cold way, I’m sure I could wring them out! I must pay more attention to the weather forecast.

The afternoon was extremely wild and windy and was blowing in my face all the way down the coast. The sea looked brown as the waves churned up the mud and sand.

It was amazing to see all of the off shore wind turbines in perfect alignment.

As I came into Rhyl it elicited memories of a really windy day one summer with Angela, Rhoda, with Amy and Emma when they were only young. It must have been on a day trip from Liverpool.

There is a lot of work going on here building extensive sea defences, with massive beautiful coloured stones.

Ever since I jumped down from a wall and landed in sand I’ve had a pain in my shin. I thought I could walk it off but clearly I couldn’t so eventually I had to admit defeat and stop. Ironically, I stopped just outside the hospital and had to call Bev to come and collect me. Priscilla has had to turn into an ambulance.