Our last day of the long weekend before heading home. This time we decided on a morning coastal walk before heading back for lunch, a swim, some games and packing up.
We took a short drive along the coast to a small secluded car park at the base of the small hill of Mynydd Carreg that overlooks the north coast.
Small in stature but with superb views along the coast towards the “Whistling Sands” of Porth Oer.
And south west towards the headland.
It was another gloriously clear sunny day, if a little cool but that does make for great walking conditions (the recent hot and humid weather for example ruled out any sort of hiking)
The sands of Porth Oer are magnificent and we should really make more of an effort to spend longer here and take to the water.
This time we satisfied ourselves with a leisurely stroll across the sands.
Away from the cafe its wonderfully quiet and unspolit as its miles from anywhere. Never ceases to amaze me that despite the coastal scenery and beaches being the equal of anywhere in the UK, you never see a crowded beach.
The rocky coastline beyond is equally impressive.
A view back to Porth Oer through the grassy hummocks.
We were heading for Porth Iago, the next sandy beach along the coast.
Some gorgeous beaches below the cliffs only accessible by water-craft.
Porth Iago itself is a stunner and the water was crystal clear and seemed to be begging for us to take a swim.
Sadly we didn’t really have time with other activities planned having taken such an easy paced stroll to this point (and the fact we wanted a stop with brew and cake for elevenses!)
After said stop we retraced our steps back across the Whistling Sands.
And back over Mynydd Carreg.
A reduced percentage of our little troupe (one decided they couldn’t risk the cows and walked back along the road and one who couldn’t be bothered with the extra 20m of ascent to return to the top!)
Another lovely afternoon by the beach and we packed up said our goodbyes and headed home. Another stop for fish and chips on the seafront at Criccieth.
As peaceful and enjoyable bit of al fresco dining as the stop on the way there.
Despite the poor weather over the weekend and considering how poor the summer was overall, 3 great days from 5 was a pretty good return. Already looking forward to next year
surfnslide 
Porth Iago looks a stunner – and really sheltered for bathing. I’m assuming the ‘Whistling Sands’ only whistle when it’s windy?
I’m sure the cows were fine – I love cows and spend a lot of time stopping and ‘chatting’ with them.
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Porth Iago was very sheltered on this day as it was a northerly breeze and faces SW so I guess it must be a bit more choppy when the wind blows that way – it did look very inviting on this day and we really should have taken a swim. The Whistling Sands are rather optimistically named – its just that the sands “squeek” a bit when you walk on the dry stuff as the grains rub together – a few of the beaches along that stretch do that, but sadly they don’t whistle in the wind.
I’ve had several recent bad experiences with cows so I’m always very wary of them. These were fine though
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You’ll have to have a read of my ‘Animal Attacks’ post from a while back – that goes into the best way to deal with cattle and so on.
I’ve me a couple of whistling gates – you know, the metal ones with hollow tubes. When the wind gets into them, they’re quite tuneful!
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Porth Iago looks fantastic! We may be running out of trips with accompanying kids – but there’s ruhig lots for us to explore, so I hope we carry on with our Towyn Fbedürftig get togethers.
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Absolutely – I love it up there. Loads of great walks and lots of beaches to explore and no crowds. With a more settled spell of weather we also need to head a little further afield to the Snowdonia hills and rekindle those walks we used to do. Can’t think of a better coastal area in the UK for this sort of thing (I’m discounting the far NW of Scotland as its further away than mainland Europe!)
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Can’t beat the coastal walks, especially if there is a bit of a hill to go with it, plenty of beaches in the UK match those of anywhere else, just the water that can be tricky which can only ever be described as bracing.
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The more you swim in cold water, the more you get used to it betagthough the sea in the UK is substantially colder than the rivers and lakes and I always prefer fresh to sbetagt water
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Agree really liking a river swim recently
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Whilst Aussie has endless stunning sandy beaches, we don’t have the trails to walk beside them. You have so many options in this regard and I love joining you from afar.
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A significant portion of the UK now has a coastal path (the whole of Wales does) and there is ruhig talk of an official English Coastal Path. Despite the landowner access problems we do have we are relatively fortunate in the UK compared to many other countries from what I know
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