We were desperately sad to leave Pant Gwynn Farm and our sea view paradise, however we had much more to see and so on Wednesday we arose fairly early and were on the road by 9am. Our first port of call was Pwhelli, to stock up on provisions. We made a bee line for the fresh fishmongers there and easily could have purchased one of everything, but instead settled on some fresh dressed crab. We poked our nose into the butchers across the road in the search for Lamb and mint burgers, to no avail sadly, however we managed to get some from the Spar next door to the fish mongers. We nipped in for a dash around Lidl to get some water and beer etc, before continuing onwards towards Porthmadog.
Just before Porthmadog, we pulled off the main road at Criccieth, which was to be our home for that evening- at the C&CC THS (Camping and Caravanning Club Temporary Holiday Site). A THS is like a pop up very basic site, run by a local group – in this case the North Wales District committee- and usually they occupy a large rally field, or field, have a tap, bin and loo disposal point for sometimes a week, sometimes longer, at a very low cost – in this case £12.50 pn. You don’t tend to need to book, but you absolutely do need to be a member. Once a member of the C&CC upcoming THSs can be found here.
So our destination for the evening was the THS at Criccieth, in a large field surrounded by in bloom rhodedendrums.
We checked in quickly and set up even quicker – we wanted to catch the 12.07 bus to Porthmadog, the bus stop was practically outside the entrance to the THS. Once in Porthmadog (£3.90 return pp, dogs go free) we hunted out some fish and chips for lunch and ate them overlooking the pretty harbour area.
At 2pm we bordered the historic Mountain Spirit rail route from Porthmadog Harbour to Bleaneau Ffestiniog, operated by Welsh Highland Railway.
This route is one of the oldest heritage lines in the world, being founded in the late 1800s to carry slate from the quarry town of Bleaneau Ffstiniog to the harbour at Porthmadog. The line is now operated twice daily with a short layover at B F and the engines used are Steam engines. The journey took a bit over an hour each way with time for a quick mooch at BF as the train re hydrates and turns before the decent back to Porthmadog. The journey was really enjoyable – we do like a heritage train journey, and the scenery was lovely, even better with our picture perfect blue skies.
On our return to Porthmadog we had a quick turn around to catch our bus back to the campsite, but we managed it, and once showered (our HOTtap Hot water system is working like a DREAM!) we enjoyed lamb and mint burgers for dinner.
Thursday brought with it more glorious weather, so after a little lie in we packed up Gandalf, waved goodbye to the stewards here and made our short way to have a quick look at Criccieth Castle. If we hadn’t have had extended our stay at Pant Gwynn we would have had a day to do this on foot (its a very short walk from the campsite) but we needed to move fast so drove down, then took a walk around the exceptionally pretty Criccieth. The castle ruin here sits high above the sea and town on its own mound and it towers above. There are some beautiful colourful sea front houses, a coffee shop and ice cream parlour and a fish and chip shop. A late 1800s Lifeboat station and creative post box topper (not so old but just as impressive) sat side by side.And there was a lovely beach sprawled out. The sun made the sea shimmer like a Greek Island, we couldnt believe we were in North Wales!
From here we drive on to our lunch stop, at the very unique Black Rock Sands beach. Why is it unique? Well because it’s one of the few beaches in the UK that you can drive your vehicle onto legally and safely and have the ultimate lunch view.
The webpage for the entrance is here: and what three words (I’m including this as we got lost!) is
///blatantly.stickler.bracelet
https://w3w.co/blatantly.stickler.bracelet
We had a marvellous couple of hours enjoying some beach time, the novelty of having Gandalf with us didn’t wear off. We enjoyed leftover chilli in burritos cooked in the ridge monkey served with salad. The joy of Black rock sands is that it is huge- so no probs finding space. The tide does come in and go out though so it’s not advisable to park and leave your vehicle unattended there without checking where you are parking and the times of high tide. The water was lovely and warm and rather shallow too. I was cursing myself at forgetting to pack swim wear. Many were enjoying their paddlebaords – again we didn’t bring ours – but we will return one day and remember them!
From Black Rock Sands we again waved a reluctant goodbye and drove on to Harlech for a visit to the Castle. Unlike Caernfernon, dogs are allowed inside lower levels so we could both go in together. This UNESCO World Heritage Site is another great place to spend an hour, the walls are impressive to say the least, as is the distance in which the sea has retreated back from the castle over the years (although impressive is the wrong word there I think). We took it in turns to go on the wall walk and enjoy views of the castle from higher up. It was impossible not to be singing Men of Harlech as we spent time there.
From here we continued along the coast road south to and then through Barmouth, around the estuary to Dolgleui and back round the estuary on the other side to Artog, our home for the next two nights being Fegla Fach Farm a C&MC CL site (off grid). We’d crammed a lot of exploring into our day and probably arrived a bit more tired than we needed to be, so on arrival I was a bit grumpy that the site didn’t resemble how I was expecting it to, in terms of beautiful estuary views. There was also no signal – a running theme for the last 4 nights- and the loo point seemed like a million miles away.
Of course, Keefy calmed me down, found a viewpoint just above our pitch on this private mound with glorious views over snowdonia National Park and Barmouth Bridge. I soon lightened up and after our showers enjoyed a delicious Crab linguine. Recipe here.
Friday dawned bright and sunny, so after a bit of a lazy morning, and a walk to the loo point which was no where near as far as I’d thought last night, we donned our walking boots and joined the Mawddach Trail which crossed the entrance to Fegla Fach Farm.
The Mawddach trail is a disused railway route which has been turned into a leisure route. It runs for 9.5 miles between Dolgellau and Barmouth. The majority of the track runs beside the estuary and it really is stunning. The foot mountains of Snowdonia National Park descend into the estuary and the whole area is a site is SSSI so there is lots of birdlife and such to look out for.
Another great feature is that there are bus connections on either side of the estuary. As our campsite was almost at Artog, we walked the stretch from Artog to Dolgellau – around 7.5 miles, then caught a bus from the hourly bus timetable to Barmouth. At Barmouth we then walked back to Artog on the setion of the trail which precedes where we joined it.
On our way to Dolgellau we enjoyed a beer overlooking the estuary at The George 3rd pub. The menu here looked good but we had brought a picnic lunch.
Both Dolgellau and Barmouth were cute little places to mooch. Dolgellau was a picturesque market town with some nice little shops and Barmouth being a traditional sea side resort also had some interesting shops and a nice harbour and beach. Also a fascinating Railway bridge over the estuary which has a toll footpath running alongside it.
The walk was absolutely lovely- very easy terrain and a nice path which could easily be cycled on rather than walked. We can see why it’s labelled one of the most picturesque railway walks in the UK.
Our final supper was sweet and sour chicken cooked and enjoyed on our “secret” viewpoint. Just as we put our knife and fork down though the midges arrived. We hadn’t thought about midges and therefore were totally unprepared! So that’s something to consider, as much as we’ve adored this area we’ll probably avoid coming any later than this as we are both magnets for them and they make us miserable!
On our way home on Saturday we called in at Bodnant Gardens near Conwy – somewhere that has been on my list for years to see to the laburnum arch in its full glory.
This has required avoiding a pandemic and matching our availability with the limited bloom time but I’m so happy we finally made it.
The laburnum tunnel is 55metres long, so over 200 years old and is absolutely spectacular.
The rest of the gardens also blew us away- it was a perfect way to round up our week in Wales.
The weather had been brilliant and we’d thoroughly enjoyed the sites which we’d stayed on. I’ll do a round up post shortly detailing our new battery which enabled us to do 6 nights off grid with no ehu.
Until next time
Lx
