It doesn't look too good on Conwy Mountain and the Carneddau.
You can just about make out the path below the cliffs that we will be following.
No butterflies on this part of the path,
One of several Pyramidal orchids seen today.
One of the many Pearl bordered blues seen today.
One or two more.
A heard of Kashmiri goats on the west side of the Great Orme.
More Kashmiri goats.
Heading for the Limestone Pavements on the Great Orme plateau.
Red billed choughs on the Great Orme plateau.
Red billed choughs again.
The Great Orme summit looks a long way off!
A males Stonechat trying hard to sing above the noise of the wind.
View from our lunch spot.
The Great Orme summit from our lunch spot.
St. Tudno's Church.
Inside St. Tudno's Church.
A Great cormorant on the rock.
Who's missing?
On the Invalids' Path - much easier than the Igam-Ogam on the knees!
A Moderate breeze is good for some!
Waves crashing on the West Shore beach.
Enjoying a drink of Vanilla Porter in the Albion in Conwy.
Walk Stats:Distance: 5.8 miles. Climb: 1040’
Time: 4 hours 6 minutes.
On the move walking average: 2.2 m.p.h.
Overall walk average: 1.4 m.p.h.
Temperature: Around 17.1 Celsius for most of the walk. 15.6 Celsius as we walked across the summit plateau. 18.6 Celsius in the more sheltered sections.
Beaufort Wind Force: Max 4. A 14.2 m.p.h. Moderate breeze.
Group: Martyn, Sue and Michel, Nigel, Fran and Nigel. Unfortunately, Ed was suffering from food poisoning, so didn’t feel up to joining us today. Hopefully he will be fully recovered soon.
The weather forecast today was looking OK, largely cloudy with high chance of light showers according to the BBC, Nigel’s Met Office forecast suggested that we might get away with low chance of showers. Thankfully the latter was more accurate and we even ad spells of warm sunshine. However, both forecasts were right with a cool Moderate (north westerly) breeze accompanying us as we crossed e summit plateau.
We set off along the path below the Great Orme cliffs as we knew that was a good spot to see the Pearl bored blue butterflies. At the start, the path was exposed to the pretty strong breeze, not conducive to butterflies. This meant we had to be satisfied with the plethora of wild flowers on both sides of the path.
These included, Rock rose, Cinquefoil, Pyramidal orchid, Bugel, Lady’s bedstraw, Vetch and Field geranium.
However, a little further on a stone wall shielded the slope from the wind and with the Sun shining, we came across good numbers of Pearl bordered blues. I think we must have watched hem for about 20 minutes or more.
As we climbed the Monk’s Path, we saw our first group of Kashmiri goats, and to our surprise, we couldn’t spot any of the large Billy goats with their magnificent horns.
As we crossed the Limestone pavement, Stonechats seemed to be everywhere, but best of all we had good views of Red billed choughs.
We also noticed some high fences had been erected across parts of the summit plateau. We later learned that they were trying to catch all of the Nanny goats and kids in order to reduce the birth rate of the Nannys by injecting them with a birth control hormone. They were also going to send a good number to zoos and country parks around the UK. They didn’t tell us what they were doing with the Billy goats, but we did find out that it was the Billy goats that caused problems by going into Llandudno in winter months, and eating residents garden plants.
We also informed that Kashmiri goats had been seen on the hills above Craig-y-Don.
We had lunch using the picnic tables and benches near the car park on the north side of the Orme summit.
After lunch, we visited St., Tudno’s Church before dropping down to Marine Drive, which we followed as far as Happy Valley.
We didn’t see any Grey seals today or Fulmars, but Red billed choughs and Pearl bored blues made up for it.
Our return route took us past the “observatory” and back streets of Llandudno to reach the Invalids’ Terrace and back to the West Shore and the start of the walk.
It turned out to be a shorter than usual walk, but no one complained as it had been such an enjoyable, varied and interesting walk with one or two surprises.
Birds seen or heard today: Carrion crow, Jackdaw, House sparrow, Dunnock, Chiffchaff, Winter wren, Woodpigeon, Black billed magpie, Herring gull, Great black backed gull, Great cormorant, Meadow pipit, Stonechat, Barn swallow and Red billed chough.
After walk drinks were enjoyed at the Albion in Conwy, where appropriately that had several beers from the Conwy Brewery on offer, Golden Gate bitter was the brew that wen down well, although I did sample Hafod Brewery’s Vanilla Porter which I know would have been Ed’s choice too.
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