Into Wales

To get to Wales proper, I had to cross the river Dee on a massive, beautiful mini-Millau bridge. Horrible road though - the A548(?) is THE road round the Dee estuary and full of fast traffic.  I was dodging on and off this road for the first ten miles, but in between I found the town of Flint, with its delightful castle, glaring across at Parkgate.

Flint Castle

Still travelling north up the Dee estuary, at Mostyn I was rescued a cycle path, NCN5. This took me to Ffynnongroyw, a proper Welsh name to exercise the pronunciation, then up to Point of Ayr (not Point of Ayre, where I was yesterday). Same idea, northerly point, lighthouse, but loads of sand dunes between me and the sea / lighthouse, impassable on a bike despite trying several routes.  Eventually I stuck to NCN5, sheltered behind the 40ft dunes. I think this goes most of the way to Anglesey.

I was thinking about a tea stop, but unfortunately the first likely place was Prestatyn, 27 miles after Neston.  But it was flat, so I pressed on, with the sea to one side and sandy grassland to the other.  Before I knew it, I had missed Prestatyn!  The problem is that the towns seem to be set well back from the sea for some reason: the railway runs along the coast and the seaside is separated from the town. A great shame if you ask me, but then, nobody did.

I'm sure Prestatyn is nice though.

Rhyl next, another six miles, half of which was through a giant caravan park.  I wasn't going to miss Rhyl, so rode in and eventually found the centre, where I had an evening meal and found a campsite.  Rhyl is big.  It's a big seaside town, like Clacton or a small version of Blackpool, but without the seafront being joined to it. Weird.

Rhyl harbour

Tonight I'm staying in a castle in Abergele. Sort of.  It's a 'Farm Park' which can be accessed through an impressive castle gate.   The castle itself is massive, built along (and halfway up) the cliffs which overlook the town.

Camp site

It rained a bit in the night but the morning was grey and dry. Packing my wet tent and washing, I exited the castle gate and hit the town at 8am.  It was very quiet.  Still separated from the sea by the raulway, here joined by the North Wales Expressway, you wouldn't know it was by the seaside. 

A few miles along the coastal cycleway I completely missed Llandulas, invisible behind the road/rail barrier.  Saturday morning - there were lots of MAMILs out on expensive bikes. I was determined to visit Old Colwyn, but it looked as if it was up a hill, possibly a very big cliff , so I pressed on to Colwyn - lovely sandy beach and promenade, and then to Rhos-on-Sea, where I had been advised there was a cafe open early.