Porthmadog to Barmouth

After the trauma of Morfa Bychan, Porthmadog was a 'normal' town with tarmac instead of sand on the roads.  Surprisingly, I was still quite close to Snowdon, having gone in a big loop from north to west.  On Snowdon Street (with a fine view of it along the street) I found a great cafe. They had an amazing-looking Welsh Cream Tea, but I settled for a gimormous sandwich instead. 

Snowdon Street, and Snowdon

Welsh cream tea

Harbour

Porthmadog has a lot going for it.  It's got a beach, a small harbour, it's fairly near Snowdonia, and it has trains.  Three trains, in fact.  There's the Cambrian branch line to Pwllheli, and more excitingly, it's the terminus for both the Ffestiniog steam railway, with it's unusual push-me-pull-you engines, AND the new Welsh Highland line, which winds its way through Snowdonia to Caernarfon.

Welsh Highland Railway

Ffestiniog railway

Leaving Porthmadog: view to Snowdonia

I was entering hill country. There's a main road which sensibly sticks to the coastal plain, and there's the way I went, encouraged by NCN8.  Straight up, across, straight down to Harlech, with another amazing castle dominating the wide estuary and lowlands.  I can see why they wrote the song about Men of Harlech, having experienced the hills.  There's one in town with a gradient of 40%. Mark recommended it to me as it's the  steepest climb in the UK.  However, despite his motivational encouragement, it wasn't on my route, so I left town on a different hill.

Castle

40%

On the high bit, surounded by views of the mountains, there were several gated roads through fields of sheep, with a microwave oven built carefully into the stone wall. A bit further on, I met the farmer who owned it: out feeding his sheep.

Hill country

Microwave oven

And inside...

I'm booked into a bunkhouse in Barmouth tonight. The last few miles were flat but seemed long - it's been a very varied and interesting day.  Barmouth seemed a bit neglected to me, despite having a great situation.   It's got a huge sandy beach, a decent harbour on the river Mawddach, and it backs onto some very high and dramatic.cliff-like hills.

Dragon

Approaching Barmouth