Day 49: Bangor to Caernarfon

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I said goodbye to Jackie and Alex for a few days and set off in Priscilla to Bangor. It was absolutely pouring down on the way but brightened up once I got into Bangor. I parked up at Asda and made my way back to the coastal path.

I was travelling solo today, just my supplies for the day in my pockets. As I was walking someone honked their horn at me and it was the guy from yesterday who recognised me and gave me a big thumbs up and a smile. What a lovely start to the day.

I walked to Telford’s famous suspension bridge but it wasn’t great for photo opportunities which was a shame because it’s absolutely fantastic.

The route then took me through the botanical Gardens for a while and then on towards the Britannia Bridge but it’s nowhere near as dramatic. There’s a little island in the middle of the straits with houses on it called Ynys Gored Goch.

As I walked under the bridge I slipped on some black ice and went flying and landed on my back which winded me badly. I had to stop for a minute to check everything was okay before slowly getting back up. This gave me flashbacks to a couple years ago when I did exactly the same thing, but that time I broke my arm. So luckily this time I was just winded and cracked my neck a bit and banged my leg.

Once I recovered I was on my way gain. I was making better progress as the path was well maintained. However, I was pushing my luck today as I was then faced by a large sign for the footpath closed. It unfortunately didn’t give me any diversion information. I had to assume that this was due to storm damage. So I had to look for an alternative route.

This proved difficult as there weren’t any official paths. I had to improvise and walk through a field full of cows with calves, fortunately for me it was too cold and they didn’t move.

An icy wind picked up in the open fields I was in and the wind whipped round my face quite painfully. It was freezing. As I looked around there was snow on the mountains.

I was walking through private property looking for some semblance of a way onto the road. Then I came to another fence. This time it was about 8 foot tall with caged metal and covered in barbed wire and a thick chain and padlock and a huge sign saying Private Property Keep Out. There was no way I was getting through there. So I had to backtrack again and pick my way through the deep and slippy mud. I was definitely going completely cross country on private property, which is not a great thing to be doing. Then I could see and hear the road but I couldn’t get to it because I was fenced in a field with sheep. After much perseverance and an awful lot of mud, I finally made it back onto the road. Thank goodness I had done my mountain navigation course with Girls on Hills earlier this year.

Desperate for a cup of tea and sit down I arrived in Port Dinorwic marina. There must be millions of pounds worth of yachts here some of them are moored by the side of the inlet and others are on the land looking like stranded fish.

Eventually I found a lovely cafe called Llofft in Y Felinheli where I stopped to get lunch. The staff were so lovely and kind. I even got a wonderful hug and something extra to take away. Thanks guys.

All of today I have been walking on the shore of the Menai Straits and parallel with the Isle of Anglesey which is massive. I’m glad I’ve decided not to walk around it.

The fall I took earlier today made my neck sore and set my leg off again so I was limping the last few miles. It feels like a case of how long is a country mile? The last couple of miles seemed to go on forever. I needed my emergency music. Today this was the soundtrack to Everybody’s talking about Jamie.

Today’s been not a great day at all. In fact, it’s probably been psychologically my worst day. I needed to dig really deep to keep going. When you are feeling a bit down all your emotions come to the surface and you start feeling sorry for yourself. My thoughts drifted to Angela. I so hate the brain tumour for stealing Angela from us for such a long time before we knew what it was. I shed a few tears for her and our loss.

Then, as I was still in my emotional stupor almost out of nowhere Caernarfon castle appeared just above the houses. I took a few obligatory photos then got the bus back to Bangor. I will be back to Caernarfon tomorrow on my rest day. Back to Priscilla for the night.