New Year Greetings from Aberdaron

Dear All,

New Year’s Greetings from Aberdaron. Our best wishes for a happy and prosperous New Year. What a brilliant year 2014 has been for Aberdaron and Manaros! Not everyone was lucky but for much of the summer the sun shone for week after week, and we've yet to see a frost this winter at this end of the Llŷn.

Manaros was let for an extended season which meant that we could afford to make some upgrades and hold the prices steady over the last three years into 2015. We have also invested in an electric rise and recline chair and an adjustable bed which is available on request.

The village car park is now owned by the National Trust, is open in the evening and is free to members. The new National Trust Interpretation Centre Porth y Swnt is now open and has a number of intriguing, puzzling  and unusual exhibits. It is well worth a visit.

The new fish and chip shop is doing a busy trade and the menu now includes lobster tails and crab cakes, and more is promised for 2015.

The new 3 storey thatched bakery has been built, to some controversy, and dwarfs the old mill. The bread, savouries, cakes and biscuits are better than ever though.

Further improvements have been made to the Wales Coast Path and this section from Rhiw to Aberdaron along the south coast is due to open mid 2015.

The winter storms of early 2014 caused some damage and brought a lot of sand into the village, but the beach has now returned to normal. However, we are promised 70 mph winds this week and some high tides...

We were fortunate to have bookings at Christmas and at New Year, and Manaros proved to be a comfortable place to stay in the winter, see this review on Trip Advisor, and this photograph of the Boxing Day charity swim. Though we must confess that neither Simon nor I made an appearance!

There are new attractions in the area, such as the restored Nefyn Maritime Museum, which shows the development of shipping on the Llŷn Peninsula.



The Felin Uchaf eco centre at Rhoshirwaun continues to develop and the new visitor centre will be open this year.

To encourage off-season visits we are offering free transport to the Coast Path between Porth Oer and Mynydd Rhiw, which means that you can pick challenging walks back to Aberdaron along the coast. We are getting good bookings for 2015, so if you do want to visit us this year, please have a look at the availability calendar and, as they say, book now to avoid disappointment!

We hope to see you soon. Before we go, the video below was published on YouTube last year and well worth a watch in case you need one last bit of inspiration to come to the Llŷn. Mwnhewch!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G0DFBVpOn0

Volunteers needed: Snowdonia Marathon 25th October

Can you help out at the Snowdonia Marathon on the 25th of October? The Snowdonia Society is asking for volunteers to help operate the Beddgelert feed station. Packed lunch, T shirt, slate coaster and fun guaranteed.

The Snowdonia Marathon supports the local community and last year donated £14,000 into local good causes including a generous £1,000 for Cymdeithas Eryri the Snowdonia Society.  They will be running the food station at Beddgelert and are looking for volunteers from about 11:00 until 14:00. The race starts in Llanberis at 10:30 and the front runners should reach the station by 11:30. Apart from handing out drinks, gels and other high energy foods volunteers will be cheering on the runners and making sure the area is kept tidy.
If you would like to help out please contact info@snowdonia-society.org.uk quoting 'Snowdonia Marathon 25th October'
More information about the marathon can be found here.

Snowdonia Walking Festival 25th & 26th October

With so many of North Wales' walking festivals concentrated in the spring and summer, it's good to see one based in the autumn for a change. The Snowdonia Walking Festival is based in Betws y Coed on the 25th and 26th of October. Snowdonia is beautiful at all times of the year, but the autumn colours should make it well worth a visit. According to the website:

"Each level of fitness will be catered for - from three mile strolls for beginners through to all day treks for the more experienced mountain walker."

 For more information phone the organisers on 01690 720331, or fill in the enquiry form.

Abersoch Half Marathon - 4th October 2014

There are still places available on the Abersoch Half Marathon, taking place on Sunday the 4th of October. The race is in aid of the Wales Air Ambulance and entry cost £29 per person, or £27 if you are a member of a UK Athletics running club. You can enter online until 2pm on Friday the 3rd.

Conwy Autumn Walking Weekend

Are you interested in joining guided walks in the spring and autumn? Cerdded Conwy Walks are a group of Volunteer walk leaders who put together seasonal walk programmes with the help of Conwy County Borough Council's Community Walking Project.

This autumn Cerdded Conwy Walks are putting on a four day Autumn Walking Weekend from the 9th - 12th October, which will include walks with a range of difficulties and interests. The programme is available here.

To help sustain the work of Cerdded Conwy Walks group, any donations from participants on walks is much appreciated (£2 suggested). Donations help Cerdded Conwy Walks to be able to lead walks and events in the future.

Cerdded Conwy Walks' volunteer leaders also lead a number of walks for Conwy Walking Week which is usually held during the first week in July each year. Visit www.conwy.gov.uk/walkingweek for further information.

If you would like more information on the walks, or if you are interested in leading a walk and want to find out how you can get involved contact:

Jenny Towill (Community Walking Project Officer)

Tel: 01492 575543

Email: Jennifer.towill2@conwy.gov.uk

The Wales Coast Path is a fantastic walking route and it deserves to have first class published guides to attract walkers to the path, to enable them to plan their journey and then to find their way along the route. The first of a set of 7 official guides to the Wales Coast Path has now been published by Northern Eye books. It covers the Llyn Peninsula from Bangor to Porthmadog. It sells at an affordable £12.99 and it is lavishly illustrated with gorgeous photos and 1:50,000 maps. It carries very readable introductions to the history of Llyn and details of its wildlife. It contains information about the whole Wales Coast Path and shows walkers where to go for information on tides and detours and maps. There is no waffle and I have come across virtually nothing that should not have been there.

However, it has to be said that the signage along the path is a long way from being adequate and it is essential that a walker purchase a 1:25,000 map to accompany this booklet. It is also worth noting that the Llyn can be remote and facilities, public transport and accommodation are hard to find. These things are treated almost as a footnote in the book where they should be centre stage. I could stand accused of talking up our own business, but we are constantly coming across walkers who are lost and unable to find food or a bed, and we would still advise walkers to book their journey through an established walking holiday company such as the Edge of Wales Walk. In our view there should also be more details about how tough certain sections of the path really are.

As for the level of detail about information on places of interest along the path there is always a balance to be struck between too little and too much, and this is a hard judgement. Because we are locals to the Llyn we would consider that many things of interest have been omitted. If you take as an example the 20km stretch from Porth Colmon to Aberdaron, I would consider the 2 cafes near Mynydd Mawr, the contact number for the Bardsey Boat, the wreck of the whisky ship near Porth Ty Mawr, the story of Carreg, the story of the Porth y Pistyll Quarry, St Mary's Church or the remains of the Pier at Porth Simdde to be indispensable information for anyone actually completing the path. However this was not our call and on balance the authors have produced an excellent book which does justice to this jewel in the crown of the Wales Coast Path and we look forward to the other books in the series.

New Walking Operator

Good news. We have a new walking holiday tour operator, who is now established in Prestatyn, north east Wales. His name is Scott Brown and his company is called Go Walking in Wales. He has a brilliant new website and he has announced his business as follows on the Walking North Wales website

Go walking in Wales

At Go Walking in Wales we offer a variety of self-guided high level and low level walks across North Wales to suit all abilities. We feature the Wales Coast Path from Bangor to Prestatyn as well as its neighbouring higher level walk the North Wales Path which starts and finishes in the same places. The Brenig Way is a quiet countryside walk over the rolling hills of Denbighshire ending at the atmospheric Llyn Brenig. We also have 2 walks in the Llangollen area. The Llangollen Round is a circular high level route around the town in beautiful scenery with impressive views in all directions. For those wanting to steer clear of hills we have the Llangollen Canal path from Nantwich where it joins the Shropshire Union Canal all the way to the canals end, just past Llangollen at the pump house by the Horseshoe Falls.

All of our holidays include B&B accommodation, walking notes written by us when we did the walk, OS maps, luggage transfers and any transfers required to get you to or from the walks.

01745 507 590

www.gowalkinginwales.co.uk

info@gowalkinginwales.co.uk