Day 1: Holyhead

So, the team arrived at Holyhead, the official start of the clockwise coastal walk of Anglesey, full of enthusiasm and anticipation, on Saturday 20th April, only to find St Cybi's Church gate locked and the starting point of the path diverted!!  A quick walk around the church perimeter and luckily we found the path again, clearly marked, the sun was shining, and all bode well for a great first day.

                   

And what a day.......the first stretch took us along the coast, through the Penrhos Coastal Park and over the Stanley Embankment.  There's been some good engineering by Thomas Telford and Stephenson constructing bridges since the mid 19th century in Anglesey 👍, never imagined 50 years ago that we'd  be actually walking over it!!

The first few hours went pretty much to plan, frequent stops, a prime picnic bench with fantastic views over Penrhos Bay but the afternoon brought a few unscheduled diversions via farmers' fields of corn, slurry and swamp  (well, it has been an exceptionally wet autumn, winter and spring!)  Climbing styals with a top layer of barbed wire and limbo-ing under farmers' electric fences while searching in vain for a green bridge to cross the boggy land around Afon Alaw was definitely a challenge. 

 

A helpful farmer in the middle of his milking duties - the cow sheds were full of the biggest cows ever encountered face to face, with extremely amply full udders - kindly set us on the right path back to the correct coastal path route.  We were relieved to see the bull 🤘😈, that usually grazes in the field we had tramped through, was also safely in a shed 😱.  Unfortunately in the the marshy landscape it was the hour of menacing midges looking for blood to suck, so we reluctantly called it a day, 12 miles later, but Gill had earned her second Fibit badge, a Slam Dunk for walking 25000 steps, quite an achievement for short legs (Sue's are longer, but can be tricky to manoeuvre if her rheumatoid arthritis is playing up!)