Day 14      9/5/86   Newborough to Llanfair PG 

Distance: 23 km (14 miles)    Total Distance:    191 miles

Today was not a very successful day walking today at all!  The weather was poor – drizzle on and off all day with a hard wind at times. This was particularly when I tried to walk out to Traeth Melynog.  Here the wind and rain were appalling and I could not find the path so I was forced to backtrack.

There then followed two other attempts to get nearer to the coast and access better scenery. One route was blocked by a river where stepping stones were marked on the map but if there were any they were way under the level of the river. Again I had to backtrack.

This also appeared to be an area of few public footpaths. Even when they were marked on the map there was no sign of them on the ground.  I gave up in the end and kept to the road for the rest of the day stopping in a pub in Brynsiencyn for lunch. 

I suppose the highlight of the day was going to the bookshop in Plas Newydd, a National Trust House and finding a book on Dylan Thomas in the sale – I got one for myself and one for a friend from Swansea.  The coincidence here is that he swears one of the pictures in the book is of him. I also bought some love spoons for friends in Coventry (this must have worked as I ended up marrying one of them later).

The Love Spoon (one of three!)

Dylan Thomas (going cheap)

The walking for the week finished in Llanfair PG.  It had been quite a trek and it had only rained on the last day.  I got a lift back to Newbourough from a chap on his way home from working at Sellafield – not in people’s good books after the accident earlier in the week at Chernobyl. 

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch - the longest place name in Europe

 I was later to find out that Anglesey was one of the worst affected places by radioactive fall-out from the accident (I wonder if that’s why I have a thyroid problem 20 years later – all that radioactive rain that fell on me?).  I camped in Bangor again that evening going to visit some aunts and uncles, before heading home the next day.

Postscript: I had a wonderful time walking around Anglesey in a week.  The scenery is spectacular and varied.  I was frustrated at times that access to the actual coastline was forbidden or impossible to find.  I understand things have much improved some 25 years later and access is now much better.