Hooray! Back to cycling again on 18th April. We drove to Amlwch and left the car there while we cycled the 25 miles approx to Valley.
It was a lovely ride of quiet lanes with grass growing down the middle! At Cemaes you can get across the footpath marked at the bottom of the Bay, grid reference 373937- a beautiful village with a pleasant beach. Passed Wilma, the Magnox power station that began its shutdown in 2010. There was a treasure hunt on horseback that blocked the route at several points and due to poor horsemanship gave us a few scary moments. Horseboxes filled the local pub car park at Church Bay and there was no food on offer.We ate in a cafe instead and visited the last thatched cottage in Anglesey (Swtan)
We followed the coastal path from Borthwen to Penrhyn as there were no gates just mainly grass track, though this had subsided at one point and it was a beach detour.
We had dinner at the friendly Valley Hotel where we met our friend from Moelfre, who took us back to get the car. (The 42 bus runs back to Amlwch though if needed.) We stayed overnight and there was talk of Prince William being based with the RAF here which turned out to be true and ongoing.
The next day we cycled over to Holy island via the Stanley Embankment built in 1823/4 as part of the London to Holyhead Link- maybe for the ferry to Ireland. There is a good cyclepath over to the ferry but unfortunately having panniers and being on a large tandem we wouldn't fit the gates so we had to go on the road. Bluebells were out and Holyhead looked much nicer to us than previously experienced because of the sunshine.
We climbed up to South Stack and spent some time in the RSPB building but we gave the walk to the lighthouse a miss.
It is a long detour around RAF Valley so the coastal footpath might be preferable. We lunched at Maelog Lake Hotel and later for coffee at the pub in Mailtraeth, finishing the day at Bodorgan Railway station where we had to put our hands out to stop the train. The tandem came with us back to Valley. Later we drove up to South Stack to see the sunset over the sea. It had been nearly 40 miles of cycling today so we had earnt a rest.
On the 20th, still in Valley,we put the tandem back in the car and drove to Bodorgan Railway station leaving the car in the Car Park. After the rebuild which gets quicker every journey, we set off for Newborough Forest.This has to be one of the best spots in Wales with trees down to the beach with rolling dunes and rocky outcrops. We stopped and walked out to Llanddwyn Island, where the film Half Light was made with Demi Moore. Llanddwyn means church of St Dwynwen,who is the Welsh patron saint of lovers.5th century Dwynwen was a daughter of a Brecon prince who fell in love but for whatever reason rejected her lover for the life of a hermit on this island. People used to scatter breadcrumbs on the water in the well here to divine if a lover is faithful. If the crumbs were disturbed by the eels living there then the lover would be faithful.
At the Menai Straits we can see across to Caernarfon Castle.We visited Anglesey's sea salt cottage industryand bought some flavoured with celery and some smoked salt. www.seasalt.co.uk
We lunched at a small pub at Brynsiencyn then stopped at the place with the longest station name shortened to Llanfair PG-
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Then it was back to Bangor via the Menai bridge and the train to Bodorgan with hundreds of school children. They gave us thumbs up though!
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