Trearddur to Four Mile Bridge (9 miles)

 

It's been four weeks since the last walk, so time for some flowers to fade and others to bud and open. Sure enough, as we started at Trearddur yesterday we spotted on the sand dunes both Sea Holly, with flowers just beginning to turn blue, and pink-and-white Sea Bindweed. As we walked out of Trearddur, we also spotted Livingstone Daisies, not a native in this case but clearly adapted to the conditions. Later there were wild carrots in flower.

It must be difficult to maintain a garden in these salty conditions and with this geology (acid soil?). One after another they seemed made up of little more than a purple hebe and a dark pink species rose - both thriving at this time of year, but leaving little room for other plants. 

We stopped for our coffee flask soon after Raven's Point.

Then there are two natural arches to see - Bwa Du and Bwa Gwyn. We have seen them before (but that was twenty years ago), yet somehow we managed to miss one this time. The picture is Bwa Du (I think).

We have been on the lookout for marine mammals all the way along the north and west coasts of Anglesey, and near Rhoscolyn Point we succeeded in spotting swimming seals, just off the cliffs. There were probably two together - we didn't managed to see both at once, but there was a lighter one and a darker one.

These were highlights enough, but better still was to see St Gwenfaen's Well once again. It is a well-preserved holy well, where you can see how it might have worked. You could sit in a corner seat and take a sip of the holy water, you could sit in a niche and dangle your feet in it, or you could go outside and be immersed. Either way, it was said to cure mental illness. (Or maybe it was the bracing walk to get there that made you feel better.)

We had our picnic on a handy little bench at the Borthwen car park (public toilets open here). After Traeth Lydan/Silver Bay, the guidebook and my OS map say that the path goes through a pine wood - but now the trees to the right of the path have been felled, it's more along the side of the wood. The walk northwards is less coastal, but the woodland walk which is closed in winter is well worth it for the change of scene. There's a sweet cherry tree along this way.

We returned to Four Mile Bridge. Before taking the bus to Trearddur, we had parked at a little layby just where the next leg turns off so that we can resume from there. A nice walk, not too strenuous, a lot to see, and would be good in different weathers.