Lon Las Cymru day 6: home territory!

We’d expected today to be easier because the ascent wasn’t as high as we’ve done over the last few days; however, we struggled. We’re starting to have a few aches and pains and, I’m not going to lie, our nether regions are starting to feel a bit sore! As well as these issues, by the end of the day, we agreed that it seems tougher doing flatter routes because, although the hills aren’t as long or steep, there are no lovely long downhills to give your legs a rest. At times, today felt relentless, and the strong winds didn’t help, especially on the last leg on Anglesey.

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We left Porthmadog and joined a lovely track through woodland. Today our route has been lined with lovely pink foxgloves, campion and rhododendrons, as well as white daisies and cow parsley. This made a change from bluebells, and buttercups.

After about 10 miles of undulating lanes we dropped down to Criccieth, with the castle perched on a Rocky outcrop high above the beach. John has fond childhood memories of Cadwaladrs’ ice cream in Criccieth so we had a break in the cafe and sampled some.

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After this, it was 20 miles across the Lleyn Peninsula to Caernarfon. The hills weren’t steep but did seem to go on forever. We joined Lon Eifion along an old railway track, where John had a bit of an incident. We were flying along at 30 km/h when a flying object flew straight down his throat… maybe a bee or blue bottle… who knows! Despite almost crashing and coughing his guts up, he lived to tell the tale 😊

It was cloudy all morning but, as we got nearer to Caernarfon, the sun started to shine. I couldn’t believe we were now so close to the North Wales coast, having cycled from Cardiff!

The track then followed a narrow gauge railway line into Caernarfon. It was great to get our first glimpse of the castle.

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We stopped for lunch at the Anglesey Arms, where we could sit and keep an eye on our bikes, and enjoy the view over the Menai Straits. We checked the map and noticed we were directly opposite the place we’d be staying for the night, Dwyran.

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Now we had about 20 miles to go; 10 from Caernarfon to Menai Bridge in mainland Wales and 10 from Menai Bridge to Dwyran on Anglesey. We followed Lon Menai from Caernarfon to Felinelli. Around Bangor the journey became unpleasant following busy, noisy main roads, which we had to keep crossing. Menai Bridge and Llanfair PG weren’t much better!

We were glad to get back onto quiet lanes, but now had strong headwinds to contend with. The last few miles seemed to take forever and we kept stopping to check the map and have a drink and a breather, shaking out our aching legs. I used my motor more than I really needed to because I just wanted to get to the B&B.

Finally we arrived and the friendly host checked us in. We’re showered and fed, and the bikes are on charge, ready for our last day. I can’t believe we’ve nearly finished and will see South Stack tomorrow. The last 6 days have flown!