The Free Car Park at Abergwyngeryn on the old road to Penmaenmawr.
The Afon Aber at Abergwyngeryn - the start of our walk today.
The view over Abergwyngeryn as we started the climb to to North Wales Path.
Looking towards the Aber Valley and the lower hills of the Carneddau.
Our view as we arrived at the junction with the North Wales Path, but not the way ahead for us today.
The North Wales Path, Anglesy and Puffin Island ahead.
The bird of the day at The Spinnies Nature Reserve.
This must be the ideal aim for Gove's policy to reduce the impact of petrol and diesel powered cars.
Well it is probably just as likely to work!
Walk stats: Distance: 8.2 miles. Climb: 1159'. Probably a little wind assisted on the GPS.
Time: 5 hours 6 minutes. On the move walk average: 2.2 m.p.h. Overall walk average: 1.6 m.p.h. (Mostly because we spent about twenty minutes watching a Kingfisher at The Spinnies nature Reserve).
Group: Martyn and Ed.
As we approached Abergwyngeryn, we made a last minute decision to park at the free car park in the village, rather than use either of the coastal car parks marked on the route description. This also has the advantage of having a small information centre, beautifully maintained with toilets too. I'm sure we will use this as a start for walks in the future.
Just after nine we started our climb out of Abergwyngeryn, heading for the North Wales Path and then to follow it Westward.
It confused me a little as I remembered it passing through a cross shape woodland, still on the math but now no more!
This grassy track was delightful, giving superb coastal views, occasionally only marred by power lines.
We noticed that footpath marker indicated that we were following three walks, the North Wales Path, the Pilgrim's way and the Circular Path. We later came across a sign that said we were on a Penrhyn Estate route.
So far we had encountered no stiles and lots of very welcome gates (not there on any of my previous visits) and this continued to the end of the walk, except for one stile, but we were still able to use the adjacent gate.
However we still encountered a known "hazard", the cow dung enhance track past the farm to the road near The Spinnies Nature Reserve.
We entered the hide at The Spinnies Nature Reserve, looked on to the pond and all we could see was a few Mallard and Blue tits and Great tits on the feeders and then simultaneously we both proclaimed "Kingfisher!".
Thankfully it wasn't put off by our shouts of delight as it perched on a post just a few yards in front of us, and then flew off to perch on a log that was in bright sunshine - no doubt now the Kingfisher was the bird of the day!
As we left the hide we saw over fifty Mute swans on the sea close to the tide line, but after having had lunch on the picnic tables at the Aber-Ogwen Car Park, they seemed to have disappeared cf. of a coastal walk with Roger. However on this occasion we did see them again as they moved towards Llanfairfechan along the water edge.
Birds seen or heard today included: House sparrow, Carrion crow, Rook, Jackdaw, Comon buzzard, Meadow pipit, House martin, Barn swallow, Meadow pipit, Stonechat, Blue tit, Great tit, Chaffinch, Wheatear, Mallard, Little egret, Mute swan, Oystercatcher, Black-headed gull, Herring gull, Lesser black-backed gull, Eurasian curlew and Kingfisher.
This was a really enjoyable walk, that I am sure we will do many times more.
This was a walk that was completed in almost perfect conditions, pleasantly warm, a cool wind at times, only two spots of rain and just half an hour when I should have put on my sun hat!
On the way home I called in at the Blue Bell Inn for a takeaway for a celebratory glass of cider. Steve and his wife are heading to Scotland for an extended break/holiday. On leaving Steve shook my hand and said "Carry on walking. You will still be welcome".
Who will we see behind the bar the next time we call in at the Blue Bell Inn at Halkyn!
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