What great weather we’ve been having in Wales. So many warm, sunny days to entice us outdoors. Last week, Carol & Ross were down from Scotland staying with us. While Carol did her 5 star training, Barry and I took Ross around the Stacks on a lovely calm day… although we did take him against the tide both ways! Most of the time we were near to the cliffs and out of the strong tide, but going around South Stack against the flow was a fun challenge!

On the weekend, we scampered up Tryfan, one of my favourite Welsh mountains, before driving down the Llyn Peninsula for another treat; an overnight stay o

n Bardsey island. The sun shone on the car on the drive, until a few hundred metres from our destina

tion of Abadaron when we drove down into a thick layer of sea mist! It was a shame that Carol & Ross couldn’t see the island (or anything at all if it was more than 50 metres away!) but it was quite fun to do my first crossing to Bardsey in the mist. We chose our bearing but used a GPS for back-up. When we were about 200 metres away, we got a brief tantalising glimpse of the top of Bardsey briefly poking through the mist. We closed in on the north end of the island ferry gliding across a strong band of current off the headland. We could see the island now as we paddled against the flow (to keep a theme with Ross) to reach the harbour where we landed for the night.

As always we had a great time staying with the Porter family and enjoying farm life for a few hours. They have been busy lambing for the last month or so, and are now gearing up for the arrival of some more calves.

On Sunday, we climbed Bardsey mountain and were treated to a clear view of the mainland. By the time we crossed back the mist had crept in over the west side of the island and half way across Bardsey sound. We paddled on a bearing again, until we emerged into clear blue sky! Despite the poor visibility, we saw a porpoise & lots of seabirds including puffins. What a wonderful weekend!

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