Walk 354 -- Aberdaron to Hell's Mouth

Ages:  Colin was 71 years and 341 days.  Rosemary was 69 years and 118 days.

Weather:  Brilliant sunshine all day.  A cold wind which abated this afternoon.

Location:  Aberdaron to Hell’s Mouth.

Distance:  9 miles.

Total distance:  3653 miles.

Terrain:  Grassy paths, hardly any mud, very undulating, magnificent views.

Tide:  Mostly out.

Rivers: None.

Ferries:  None.

Piers:  None.

Kissing gates:  Nos.736, 737 and 738 near the start of the Walk.

Pubs:  None.

‘Cadw’ properties:  None.
Ferris wheels:  None.
Diversions:  None.
How we got there and back:  We were staying in our caravan in Snowdonia.  This morning we drove to the beach car park at Hell’s Mouth Bay.  From there we walked a mile up the road to the village of Llangenan where we caught a bus to Myntho.  Ten minutes wait there before we caught another bus to Aberdaron.
At the end we walked along Hell’s Mouth Beach (a lovely sandy beach despite its name) until we came to a short path up to the car park where our car was waiting for us.  We had our tea and biscuits, then drove back to our caravan.

We bought pies at a little cabin bakery as soon as we got off the bus, then we sat on the seafront and ate them.  It was a gorgeous day, and the scenery was great.  There is a lovely sandy beach at Aberdaron.

We walked up the road rising above the village for about a mile, passing a mucky farm feeder in an adjacent field.  We were glad we didn’t have to walk through there.  There were violets everywhere — far more pleasant to look at.

Eventually the Coast Path turned off the road across fields.  A group of youngsters came out on to the road just as we entered the field, but we got the impression they were local kids, not serious hikers.  The path was a little muddy, but it was nothing serious.  We passed a farm where some children were being silly (laughing over-loudly and shouting) so we ignored them.

We found some of the stiles really difficult to negotiate, at least I did!  They were high with a fence to climb over at the top and “Granny’s teeth” style stones to get up and down.  We found an owl pellet on a post by one of them — Colin thought it was that of a little owl.  We didn’t have time to stop and dissect it.

We passed some friendly horses and belligerent sheep before we came out on a lane.  I was feeling very tired with aching legs, so I was glad to get out to the easier walking on a lane. On the grounds of fatigue, we decided to miss out the next ‘loop’ of the Coastal Path as it went downhill and then uphill back to the lane.  (I’ve been feeling tired and listless for about three weeks now, and I’m fed up with it.)

We continued straight along the lane, passing a derelict farmhouse and a goat sleeping by a stream.  We sat on a wall and ate some chocolate, very early in the day, in the hopes of boosting our energy.   We came to a church in the middle of nowhere — but the graveyard was full.  (Perhaps all the worshippers had died!)

We turned off the lane and walked up to a farm.  There we were greeted by several young pigs who came bounding out towards us as we approached.  I like pigs.  As Winston Churchill was reputed once to have said, “I like pigs.  Cats look down on you, dogs look up to you, but pigs treat you as equals!”

We took a track which went up behind the farm, and saw that one of the farm workers was mending the roof of one of the barns. We continued up and up, out into open moorland.
We seemed to be walking round a mountain with wonderful views over the sea to our right.  We sat on a rock out of the wind to eat our sandwiches and apples. The sun was shining on the sea below, and it was absolutely GLORIOUS!  We continued along a good path.

A couple of young men with a dog overtook us, and we met a lone hiker coming the other way — he stopped for a chat.

We passed a cottage with no road access — how do they get their stuff in and out?  Eventually we came to a road and immediately went steeply downhill, ignoring the official Coast Path which went even more inland.

Colin was desperate to change his pad, but he couldn’t find anywhere private enough.  Eventually he did it behind a low wall under his coat, but he wasn’t able to fit it comfortably under those circumstances, and he had to adjust it later.  It’s miserable for him — and no sign of when he can have the operation which he’s now been waiting seventeen months for.  Urology is the “Cinderella” of the NHS because most of the complaints are not life-threatening.

We turned a corner and walked a bit of “old” road.  We soon saw why a new road had been built further inland — half of this road had disappeared down the cliff in a landslide!

We passed blackthorn in blossom, butterflies, and wonderful views over the bay called Hell’s Mouth.  We passed a campsite on top of the cliff where a couple were setting up their tent to the accompaniment of booming pop music.  I was glad they weren’t on our caravan site!  Colin said he wouldn’t camp there knowing how soft and unstable the cliffs were.  When I later saw them from below, I agreed.

We came to a footpath sign pointing down to the beach called Hell’s Mouth, but the Coast Path signs continued along the road.  The lone hiker we had chatted to further back had told us about this — he said that the footpath was now several fields back in places, but he recommended the beach.  We’d always intended to walk along the beach because it was four miles of sand, and the way-marked footpath on our OS map was marked as going along the beach.

As we tried to make our way down to this lovely beach, we could see why the official footpath had been diverted along the top.  Landslides had obliterated the path and steps.  It was very difficult to get down, especially the last bit.

But it was worth the trouble — the tide was well out revealing several miles of sandy beach.  GLORIOUS!  GLORIOUS!  I cheered up at once, and didn’t even feel tired anymore.  Why this beach is called Hell’s Mouth we’ll never know — we both thought it was Heaven! 

We sat on a rock to eat more chocolate before walking along this lovely beach.  AND THEN WE SAW DOLPHINS!!  (Or was it whales?)  Most of them were far out, but one was breaching quite near the shore.  It did it several times, but too quickly and infrequently to photograph.  Then it went out to join its mates.  This was so exciting! 

We really enjoyed walking along that beach in the sunshine with the waves lapping.  It was BRILLIANT!  We stayed well away from the cliffs which looked quite unstable, we remembered a cliff ‘avalanche’ on a Norfolk beach near Mundesley as we passed several years ago, and we knew how quickly and unexpectedly they can happen.  We didn’t want any accidents to spoil our day.

Three people had followed us down on to the beach at the beginning, but they stopped there to play with their dog.  As we walked along we had the whole beach to ourselves — until we reached the path down from a car park near the other end.  Quite a few people had come through the gap in the dunes there, but the beach was so vast we hardly noticed.  We ‘escaped’ through that gap in the dunes because our car was waiting for us in that car park.

That ended Walk no.354, we shall pick up Walk no.355 next time at the beach car park in Hell’s Mouth Bay.  It was half past four, so the Walk had taken us seven hours. We had our tea and biscuits, then drove back to our caravan.