Hiking in Wales

Finally, a blog posting.  We have just been busy with day-to-day life.  Looks like I've not posted for a month now!  Whew!  It's been on my list a lot though!  Thought I'd better post, before I need to post another!

Probably the most exciting thing we've done in the last month was to take a hike in Wales.  There are TONS of walks and trails in Wales, and probably just as many books listing various trails.  Books of trails in North Wales, South Wales, the coast, Snowdonia (which is a National Park, and has the peak Snowdon--creative, huh?), easy trails, circular trails, etc etc.  You get the point.  I have a book on trails that I found, Best Walks in North Wales, as that's the area we're closest to.  They happen to be 28 circular trails that this particular author enjoyed.

We chose a trail on the Isle of Anglesey that was 5 miles long.  (I wasn't sure how N would do, but you gotta try, right?)  Getting to the town of Aberffraw was half the excitement.  We passed through an underwater bridge to get to the island, and there was spectacular scenery on the drive, as we were driving through the foothills of the mountains.



Through the mountain

  We went through two tunnels through the sides of mountains.  After we exited one of the tunnels, the view opened up in front of us-it was just so beautiful.  The ocean to one side, and the mountains rising and cliffs on the other, and then, ohmygosh--is that a castle?  Just unbelievable.  I felt like we were in Hawaii again with all picturesque scenery, only there were no palm trees.  And too many sheep.

Lots of sheep!

We dressed in layers-you never know what the weather will be--rain, or just cloudy.  We lucked out--it was probably 50 out, and the sun was shining, for the most part.  We even got hot while we were walking, and had to shed a layer.  We parked "by the old bridge".  It looks like I imagine the bridge in Three Billy Goats Gruff to be.




No trolls under the bridge!

Kissing gate to keep animals out of fields

 The instructions were rather vague at times, but we managed.  We passed through many kissing gates, now I know what those are, as well as stiles.

Down the path

Along the ocean

 The trail was right along the coast, so there were a lot of panoramic views.There also was a tiny church on a small island from long ago.   



Kids walking down the trail
 

Small church on island

 We stopped and ate on some rocks, but had to keep moving, or we got cool.

Ready to eat lunch

The kids managed to get some shells.  G used to go beach-combing along Lake Winnebago.  The kids or he managed to find a part of a buoy that'd been washed ashore.  Here is G with his find.

Look what I found!



N looking through binoculars

W and J climbing on rocks along shore

To return to our starting point, we had to go through several large fields.

Large fields to traverse.  J is in the lead (small dot), G and W or N (can't tell!) next, and finally W or N

N crossing the field.  One of my favorite pics

One of them was through a pasture with cows in it.  Now, the cows in our backyard always come mooing very loudly up to us in a big herd as soon as the cows hear us-luckily there is a fence.  We were a bit nervous if these cows would do the same, and there was no fence to separate us.  We walked along the edge of the field, trying to be quiet.  Luckily, it was a very large field, and they did not charge at us.



Cows, and the small island church and ocean in background.

The next field we had to cross had sheep in it-they seemed pretty harmless, except for one.  There was probably 1-2 more fields to cross after that-they're larger fields than what we have in WI.

More sheep

 


Apparently this sheep is a Packer fan.

 I am happy to report, that the kids managed fine.  I almost think they enjoyed it!  They were all a bit tired on the drive home.

On the way home from hiking.