Day 4: Pensarn to Llandudno

Our campsite for the night was located through the gatehouse and behind the walls of Gwrych Castle estate. The castle which was built in the early nineteenth century is described as little more than a showy country house! After packing up our tent we walked our way back through the suburbs of Pensarn to the coastal path which pretty much followed a tarsealed cycleway / footpath all the way to our destination of Llandudno.

Entrance to our campground

Gwrych Castle 

However, before starting off on the path we decided that ‘second breakfast’ was in order. Our pot of porridge had just not hit the spot so we both ordered a full-cooked breakfast to fuel up on. I’m not too sure whether we are losing weight with all this walking as I think we are more than compensating all the exercise with the volume of food we are eating. It is almost impossible to get something healthy to eat in a pub or café here. The healthiest option I have seen so far has been a Caesar salad and to be honest who really wants to eat that when you’ve got another 20 km of hiking with a 17 kg backpack on your back!

Taking a short break along the route

 

Walking along the seemingly endless cycleway

Concrete poly-blocks along the foreshore

 

Our lunch stop with Llandrillo-y-Rhos and Little Orme in the background

St Trillo's Chapel, a tiny shrine built over a holy well

Towards the end of the day we left the cycleway / promenade at the Penrhyn Way and made our way towards the first proper cliffs on the route, the limestone shelves of Trwyn y Fuwch or Little Orme as it is more commonly known. Our guide book noted that ‘a lovely path climbs up through the quarries…’ although I thought it should more accurately record that ‘a very steep path climbs up though the quarries!’ After a long day of walking, going up a steep track was not my idea of fun however I was keen to finally get our first view of Great Orme and the town of Llandudno (pronounced Clan-dude-no).

The 'lovely path' as quoted by our guide book

View from Little Orme - we had started out from beyond the second headland.

View of hills beyond Penrhyn

After huffing and puffing our way over Little Orme we got our first view of the Llandudno. My first impressions were of a sea of humanity with a gleaming, sparking snake of traffic on the main street and the hum of hundreds of people from miles away. We decided not to head into town and called into the first pub we came across, which incidentally was also heaving, had some dinner and then called for a taxi to take us to our campsite which was located approximately 2.8 kilometres inland via very narrow roads with no footpaths.

The narrow road leading to our campsite