April 16th

I hope this entry finds everyone doing well and enjoying the spring.

Spring is definitely here in the UK, unfortunately the last few days, it has manifested in April showers. But the land does need the rain. And we had a very good bout of sunshine for the first six weeks of our trip.

After breakfast and some writing, we headed into Bala and had a coffee in an old pub to get out of the rain. The sweetest young lad took my order. He asked me what I wanted and printed it out very slowly on paper, helped by the older boy. The young one was so polite and conscientious. I found out later that he was the son of the pub owner and was on Easter holidays. He told his dad he wanted 5 pounds a day. He was so cute I just wanted to hug him.

After coffee, we went for a circular walk around the town and along the lakefront. The wind was fierce and cold. My face was frozen.

Guy led us up to a viewpoint over the town. The wind and rain had subsided a bit. Apparently the viewpoint was an old Roman camp. We failed to take a photo of the hill.

Bala is a market town on the fringe of Snowdonia in the county of Merionethshire. The area is a proud centre of Welsh language. Everyone speaks it here. They will happily switch to English to serve you but it’s wonderful to hear two Welsh speakers in conversation. Interestingly , “In the 18th century, the town was well known for the manufacture of flannel, stockings, glovesand hosiery”(Wikipedia). Bala, with Bala Lake, is an outdoor Mecca for hiking and water activities We likened it to a mini Whistler and imagine it is nuts in the summer.

The rain was on and off all night. Fingers were crossed for the morning.

April 17th

Bright sun shone in the morning.

We got on the road to Llangollen at a reasonable hour. Driving time, 35 minutes.

Llangollen is an incredibly stunning village in a setting that is worthy of fairy tales.

We had a walk around the village and along the canal. Then we ventured up to Castell Dina’s Brân, about an hour up from town. We were in a hurry because we had only paid for 3 hours parking. We had enough time to get up, take some photos, have a snack and get back down to the van. Well as I’ve said before, the pictures can do the talking.

At the bottom of the hill and near to the village, I spied some sheep wandering down a road. I said to Guy that I thought they might be loose. They had little lambs. I rushed down the slope to where they were about to venture into the town. They stood there looking at me as I made the snap decision to close the gate on them. Not sure if I interfered with a farmer’s free range plan for his sheep. I’m sure though that he didn’t want them wandering off into the village. It was my good deed for the day.

On the way from Llangollen to Anglesea, we stopped at a farm shop and bought some food for dinner. Burgers at the cafe there beckoned but we resisted and saved probably 32 pounds for both of us. (60 Canadian dollars). To Guy’s delight, we had homous and cheese sandwiches in the van. 😂

The A5 to Anglesea was 2 lane, very winding, but breathtaking like we had landed on another planet. Huge mountains and rock outcroppings in what seemed like a more arid landscape from the interior, all part of Snowdonia National Park.

We drove over the bridge onto Anglesea. We thought it was the Menai bridge going over the Menai Strait. Turns out it was the Britannia Bridge off the North Wales Expressway A55.

We got in to our campsite at Red Wharf Bay. about 5 pm. The paddock in front is full of sheep but they were too shy to be in the photo. 🐑. I have so enjoyed all the sheep and lambs of late that have been in the fields around wherever we stay. I know the outcome for the little ones so it is a bittersweet feeling. The mom’s here on the property obviously recently said goodbye to their babes. It’s Easter dinner time …………..if there wasn’t a better reason to be a vegetarian, I don’t know what is. On the other hand, this whole industry keeps the economy going here and it has done for centuries.

Looking out to the Irish Sea which we will be crossing next week.