Sunday, July 5, 2015

Were Off........

We are sitting here in Wales, thoroughly enjoying our first part of Euro trip Mk 3.
The only problem is we have no internet signal whatsoever so I’m not sure when we will be able to publish this (very long) post!

Back to Saturday 27th June. I went for my final walk along the towpath at Poynton ...
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We said farewell to our neighbours and fellow motorhome travellers, Si and Jo.  They kindly gave us a couple of of bottles of lovely Rioja for our travels.  Hopefully we will catch up with them in Spain sometime this winter ...
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We had a very pleasant drive to Pentreath in Anglesey, where we moored up at a very pleasant site overlooking the bay.  We are the only touring vehicle here, otherwise the site is all static vans. Our friends from Macclesfield Andy and Jane are staying in their van….which is why we are here!
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First stop after arriving….the pub!  Then off for a walk along the beach ...
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Bombo couldn't find any sticks so seaweed would have to do!
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We had a nice walk around the bay, stopping at another pub for a swift one before returning back to base for dinner and watchng Glastonbury to the wee hours on the box! What can I say Kanye West is absolute bollocks!

Sunday 28th June

The day started with sunshine, so what else to do apart from enjoy the rays and go to another beach ....
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And what a beach, it was humongous, and best of all it was deserted!
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Elaine getting some quality time with Jane ...
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After a good walk we finished up in a…….pub!
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Another late night, watching Glasto, and what a difference, it was fantastic to watch and enjoy a real band…..The Who.

Monday 29th June

First stop was the place with the longest name in the world….Elaine even knows how to say it!
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A group of Americans arrived by coach and started taking pics of us….apparently the blog is a hit in the States!
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As Andy and Jane were our tour guides I didn't actually know where we were half of the time!  They took us to a lovely forest and beach on the other side of the island ...
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It was lovely and deserted apart from us and a ranger who informed us we weren't allowed on that particular part of the beach with dogs!
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But if we walked around the corner we had the freedom of this…….
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Not bad eh!
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The water temp was actually quite pleasant, if I had the budgie smugglers with me I would have gone for a dip.
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Sammie isn't too keen on the sea water.  Just after El took this pic I let him off the lead….straight away he bolted back towards the forest!
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Tuesday 30th July.

Today went from being nice, slightly warm weather to HOT….and very welcome it was too!

Today's tour started of in Moelfre and firstly we had a look around the old lifeboat station/museum ...
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About 100 metres away is the brand new lifeboat station, which officially opened 2 weeks ago ...
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Inside the station is a nearly new Tamar class boat, which was bought by a very wealthy New Zealander!
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Hence the name KIWI, it is the shortest named lifeboat in the RNLI ...
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It is a lovely boat, kept in immaculate condition ...
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What a nice Kiwi chappie to leave £2.500.000 ($5.000.000AUD) to the lifeboats ...
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The old lifeboat station ...
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Moelfre village ...
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Next stop was the beach, by now it was very hot!  Even though the doggies are Aussies, they don’t handle the heat very well, Sammie was digging a hole to keep cool in ...
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That’s better ...
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Oh how we love summer ...
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Back at base Elaine carried on catching some rays ...
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The night was lovely and warm as the moon rose over Snowdonia ...
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That night we had our first barbie of the season.  I should have taken the pic earlier when we had the fat juicy steaks on the grill!
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Wednesday 1st July

Elaine was up at 5.00am to catch a lovely sunrise on what was, according to weather forecasts, going to be the hottest day in years…..

Bring it on!!
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Sam and myself checking out the heat wave conditions ...
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Unfortunately Anglesey didn't join in the heat wave party,!  It started off OK and quickly got up to about 25 degrees

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But by lunchtime the sunshade was wound in and we retired to the van and put the heater on!!!  I kid you not!  Anglesey is a lovely little island but the weather is woeful.
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Thursday 2nd July.

Once again another awful weather day in Anglesey, but undeterred we, or should I say, Jane arranged for us to go on a sightseeing trip to Puffin Island!  The boat left from Beaumaris (which was a lovely little town).

As you can see from our fellow passengers the weather was…….

I know I shouldn't keep banging on about the weather but the rest of the UK is having a fantastic summer and we are not! It's not a big deal as we will be heading south soon and not long till we hit mainland Europe, so it will happen.
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We motored down the Menai Straight through the gloom.  To the right of the pic is Great Ormes Head and the resort of Llandudno.
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Once past the lighthouse ...
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We spotted our first seal ...
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And loads of seabirds!  It was a twitchers paradise ...
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But of course we were going to Puffin island so we wanted to see Puffins.
Yay, we weren't disappointed ...
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Another one, next to a baby gull ...
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More puffins…
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One more…
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OK two more…
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Farewell Puffin Island ...
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Thanks Jane for arranging it, it was a really great trip on a very dull and cold day ...
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The dogs handled the boat with their normal aplomb!
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We met up with Andy once back on shore.  He had stayed behind with their dog, Pip so they were both absolutely freezing!   We quickly dodged the rain and retired to a warm pub for lunch.

After that it was a quick look around the Beaumaris ...
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We didn't hang around for too long as it was just so cold and wet.
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The boys did a bit of window shopping on the way back to the car ...
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Last night was a wonderful clear night as the sun set over Snowdonia ...
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We went for a few drinks in Benllech but by the time we went for fish and chips at 21.00 it was …shut!  So, we went back to the pub for dinner….which had stopped serving food!!! So, we went off to the local Chinese which was thankfully open!  It was great food but a very strange restaurant.  It had a dartboard with a team in full play and there was also what looked very much like a 'wife swapping/dogging club' meeting going on as well!! Well, it is Anglesey and there isn't much else to do!

Tomorrow (Friday) is threatening to be a lovely hot day!

Friday 3rd July

The forecast was correct the weather was superb.  We made the most of it by doing nothing apart from having a couple of short walks with the dogs.

At night we went for a few pints up the local and then down to the Boathouse restaurant on the beach at Red Wharf Bay for our final supper with Andy and Jane, which was really lovely.

During the night we had a mega thunderstorm which was fun!



Saturday 4th July

Oh well that was summer then!  We woke to cool overcast conditions, and said our goodbyes to Andy, Jane and Pip.  It was a really great week and they were terrific hosts showing us the sights of the island ...






Our next destination was just south of Barmouth but we took a bit of a detour hoping to see Snowdon through the gloom.

We had no luck with Snowdon, but we did see the exotic sports car club having a fang through Snowdonia!
I bet they were glad they were going the other way, we tend to be a bit slow lumbering through the narrow roads and would have held them up a fair bit ...




It was a very nice drive though ...

With superb scenery, which would look even better if the sun came out!


And as we got closer to our destination it did come out.

This is what they call an A road in some parts of Wales ...


Here we are at our destination, Llanfendigaid, which is a lovely remote spot adjoining a massive old guest house.

The most amazing thing about this site is that on the grounds there is a massive indoor heated pool which we can use any time day or night. We used it last night and will be giving it a fair work out while we are here.

We stayed here in November 2013 in our last motorhome, unfortunately we only managed one night as we got hopelessly bogged in the mud and had to give up.  That was our inaugural trip...which you can check out here !


We have ocean views and sheep for company ...

Just down the road is Tonfanau motorcycle race track where today, Sunday, they are having a meet!  We can hear them practicing as I type this up, unfortunately the noise has put Elaine off from going to watch.

So I will go and check it out whilst Elaine makes the most of the pool. 

I am now up to date........Woobloodyhoo!!

2 comments:

  1. Hi Paul and El,
    Just been catching up on my blog feeds, of course yours was the first - only another 700+ (posts) to go!!! Oh dear, must be the laid back lifestyle! What with that and walking all the miles we do, get home and knackered.. We were out at another charity event last night, so that was another late one.
    I'm so glad you're travelling to where you really want to be again and feel really happy for you both.
    Oh and I also hope the second generation Manly Ferry has air con! It's 36 degrees C in the shade at the mo, and has been holding steady between 32 - 36 for the past few weeks (altho there was a nice sea breeze for a couple of days, didn't drop the temp down any).
    Get sat in the shade and its lovely, get out walking smothered in Factor 50 and as long as you're on the move the suns rays don't burn. We've both bought caps which helps protect your head, along with the water and sunglasses! If you look after yourself you don't get burned, just a nice tan develops slowly. Dave has darker skin than me and now looks like a native! (I kid ye not).
    Global warming is now setting in too, last year there was no rain for months, it was the longest time without it on record. Also this year we've seen it on the news average temps are going to be 1 degree higher this year, with the same amount of no rain.
    Long after our lifetime, when London, New York and all of Florida have sunk, Spain will be a desert! (Oh shut up Heather)
    Well I hope that hasn't put you off!!!!!! On the bright side (excuse pun) neither of us have got sunburned yet, you just have to be careful. When we went down to the beach a couple of weeks ago we could spot the holidaymakers a mile off, bright red and sore, and they weren't even putting sun cream on their kids! Nor were they wearing hats! Perhaps they should put signs up on the beach about common sense!
    Anyway I must go and move to a different chair on the front terrace here that's still in the shade!

    Be great to see you both if the Costa Blanca is on your list.

    Lotsa luv, Heth and Dave xxxx

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    1. Glad to hear that you are enjoying Spain and life in general. We will be down your way but not till later in the year, we intend a very slow cruise this time with so much to see on the way. Its funny with the suntan thingy, the last few years in Oz we hid from the sun as we didnt want to be burnt, but now we cant wait to feel some decent heat again.
      Paul xx

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