Shell Island

Second camping trip of the year during the second May bank holiday!

Shell Island is a massive campsite on the coast of North Wales near to the Village Llanbedr. The campsite is on the peninsular and during high tide the road is covered hence why the site is referred to as an island.
The campsite is BIG, according to their website they are the biggest camp site in Europe, with over 300 acres of land. This means there is plenty of space to pitch up away from other campers.
The campsite is right next to the beach, and there are MASSIVE sand dunes, probably my favourite thing about this place. Whilst you're standing down in the bowl of one you can't hear any sound from the campsite or the sea, how many places are there where all you can hear is the sound of your own thoughts? Walking down the dunes south of the campsite brings you into a completely untouched, wild environment (because obviously it isn't possible to build anything on, or near to the dunes) it is really quite spectacular.

This part of the country is also home to Portmeirion, a model village and exotic gardens designed by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis and built between 1925-1975, it was the setting for the 1960's television drama The prisoner, as well as scenes from other television programmes and films. The village is situated on an estuary of the river Dwyryd, and when the tide is low there is access the sands, which was the case whilst we were visiting. To understand how amazing this place is, you need to visit. We went in the afternoon, because after 3.30pm entry to the village is half price, however, I would happily pay full price to spend an entire day here. It is just such a quaint place, full of interesting buildings, monuments and curiosities and is set in such idyllic surroundings I don't think it is possible to not fall in love with the place.

Whilst staying at Shell Island we tried to visit Harlech castle, just down the road from Lanbedr. The first time we followed the brown tourist signs for the castle through the small, windy streets of the village and were directed down a very narrow road leading into the castle. There was a queue of traffic trying to exit the same road, so we gave up and drove on through and visited Porthmadog instead. The following day we ignored the signs directing us through the village and came from the other direction, up the road from the bottom of the hill towards the castle. At first I wondered why the tourist signs even directed the way they did, since this seemed a much better route to take, there was no other traffic! I soon learned why. The road from the bottom of the hill towards the castle is literally built into the castles ramparts, as we got onto the road there was a sign warning us that it was a 25% gradient. As well as the steepness of the hill, the road had about 4 bends in it, and at each one the car slowed down even more. By the top we were struggling along in first gear. If we had had to stop or if we had met another car coming the oppisite direction we probably would have had to roll back down the hill. I can honestly say it was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. After all that the castle car park was full, so we drove on and visited Criccieth castle instead.
Criccieth castle is a typical ruined castle, but still worth a visit. We ate chips on the beach in Criccieth and got an ice cream from the apparently world famous Cadwaladers ice cream parlour, and then proceeded home to Coventry, thus ending another enjoyable and successful camping trip.

3. Pack up the car and go (to Wales)

For the past two years my friend Mike (Manchester Mike if you move in my Ipswich circle) and I have said we will go camping in Wales but never got around to actually going, so with a bit of time off work over Easter I decided the overdue trip to Wales was in order, I communicated with Mike that it was time and he agreed, a trip to Wales it was.

Martin (boyfriend) and I packed up the car with everything we deemed necessary for a weekend camping in April and set off from Coventry to Leeds (for boring blah blah house reasons), from Leeds to Sale (near Manchester) to pick up Mike and then to Wales!

We stayed at Henllys Camping and Touring site in Towyn, North Wales. Henllys has a field for campers and at £32, two nights camping for the three of us was very reasonably priced. The site usually only allows families and couples to stay, the camp site owner gave us the benefit of the doubt though, I guess trusting that we weren't going to destroy the place. Henllys is a nice site, I usually prefer dedicated tent sites but the decent toilet/shower facilities and the family nature of the site made up for all the caravans and camper homes.

Our camp with Welsh mountains in the background :)

Towyn itself consists almost entirely of caravan parks. It has a population of almost 8000 and probably a tourist population of many times this, even in April the place was heaving. The whole place had a slightly run down feel holiday camp feel. I will admit I wasn't too keen on Towyn, but the other places we visited just short drives away were good.

Llandudno
Llandudno is a seaside town in Conwy, North Wales that was built during Victorian times. It is quite touristy, but that traditional family seaside-holiday touristy. We parked about half way along the North shore and walked the rest of it towards the pier. The pier is the longest in Wales and has many little shops selling things like shells, tourist memorabilia and ice cream on it.

Other attractions in Llandudno that we didn't check out but that I'd like to in future are the Great Orme, a headland to the side of the North shore. A tramway, originally built in 1902, takes you to the summit, or alternatively there is an aerial cable car that starts in the Happy Valley. The Happy Valley is another place I'd like to visit, lower down it has landscaped gardens and higher up a ski-slope and a 700meter toboggan run! The marine drive also starts in the Happy Valley. The marine drive is a four mile drive around the Great Orme from the North shore to the West shore that can either be driven or walked. Traffic is one way around most of the drive and by the looks of it (according to this website- http://www.greatorme.org.uk/marinedrive.html) there is loads to see. I am defineiely going back the Llandudno one day just to do this :D

Conwy

Conwy is a thirteenth century walled market town, only about 5miles from Llandudno but with a completely different atmostphere, it is simply spectacular. Most of the town walls have survived and you can go up into them and walk the 3/4 mile circuit around the town, which of course we did! There are stunning views across the historic town and the estuary as well as Conwy castle which was unfortunately closed when we were there.

Conwy is also home to the "Smallest house" which is the smallest house in Britain, and really is tiny! It was lived in until 1900 and is now a tourist attraction, because we were visiting Conwy in the evening this too was closed so we didn't get to see inside.

Conwy reminded me a lot of York, but sleepier. Many parts have been preserved so it still feels like a medieval town. It was one of my highlights of the whole trip.

View of the castle from the quay, Martin and Mike in the town walls and a view over Conwy from the walls

Betws-y-Coed and Swallow fall
On our final day in Wales we went for a quick visit to Betws-y-Coed. We got there along the A458 scenic route, although it is a national speed limit road I was probably driving at an average of 30-35mph! It's quite twisty and has some pretty steep descents, not at all like the roads I'm used to driving on. We stopped at the village Llanfair Talhaiarn along the way and had a drink in the Black lion, the pub owner was very friendly and the pool table was only 50p a game! I can recommend a visit here it if you ever find yourself in that part of the world.

On the day we visited, Betws-y-Coed was bustling with families out enjoying the unseasonably good April weather and hoards of bikers (there were literally hundreds of them.) We ate on the village green, ambled around the tourist gift shops and then drove up to Swallow falls about 1mile up the A5. Swallow falls is the biggest waterfall in Wales and is really very impressive. Because it was April the water was flowing quite fast and crashing down into the river, it is really a great example of how stunning nature can be. My camera had run out of batteries by this point but I will easily remember the falls without photos, it was a great way to finish trip.


First camping of 2010 was definitely a success, I am now itching for more and already planning. Further adventures will follow, but for now this is Georgia signing off and going to do something.