Caernarfon to Pontllyfni 18/6/2013**

 

Caernarvon Castle   Field pepperwort   Smooth cockle

From Caernarfon we crossed the bridge near the castle and followed the minor road west along the Menai Strait and around a large estuary, Foryd Bay, a bird nature reserve.  At this time we could see just mute swans, little egrets, herons, oystercatchers, herring gulls and very many carrion crows on the saltmarsh.  Eventually the road turns eastwards directly away from the coast to Pont Faen, where a bridge crosses the river.  On the other side we took a footpath through farmland on the south bank, despite the discouragement of flooded gateways, tractors parked to obstruct the path and aggressive dogs.  We persisted and emerged on a small lane leading back to the edge of the estuary (on the official trail).  This lane was very narrow and we had to be wary of frequent wide vans that could only just scrape through.  It was densely bordered each side by hemlock water-dropwort.  Eventually a footpath struck NW across Afon Carrog by footbridge and we gained access to the western shore of the estuary.  A small clump of ragged robin grew in the marshy ground just before the bridge.  We were now on an embankment which took us directly to the Morfa Lodge caravan park.  It is possible to continue north here to the dunes at the far end and it would no doubt be possible to continue from there along the western seacoast, with Caernarfon Airport occupying the land in between.  We instead followed the official path west along the south side of the caravans and airport by hedges of planted broom and verges with field pepperwort.  At the airport entrance is an aeroplane museum and also a modern café where we took lunch.  This is only a short distance from the coast, where we had time to explore north for a kilometre or so.  Small private planes and microlights frequently passed over us from the airport.  The wide beach sands and the shingle and dune ridge above had a good variety of plants and shells, including smooth cockle Laevicardium crassum.  Plants included lots of kidney vetch, sea holly, yellow horned-poppy, sea spurge, sand sedge, sea campion, sea mouse-ear, sea sandwort, sea fern-grass and rest-harrow.  Birdsfoot trefoil attracted common blues.  Small heath and wall butterflies were also flying.  To the south the range of hills along the Lleyn Peninsula was a prominent landmark.  We then turned south along the beach as far as the incongruous steep hillock of Dinas Dinlle, where there were remains of a prehistoric fortified settlement.  The road and the official trail here turn inland, but we continued along the beach beneath a shingle ridge where ringed plovers and oystercatchers were plainly nesting, so we kept as near the sea as possible.  We also saw a pair of redshanks and many cormorants.  The going was a mix of sand and pebbles, but quite viable to walk.  Where the shingle above gave way to fields we were able to walk along a path on grassed-over shingle, which was again very flowery.  This ended where a river burst through, but this was shallow enough going over the beach for us to jump and wade without getting too wet.  The grassy path then resumed for over a kilometre to another river, where a footpath led along its north bank through a cow pasture to the main A499 at Pontllyfni, where there was a large patch of escaped monkshood.  At the bus-stop we only had to wait two minutes for a bus back to Caernarfon. Lleyn Peninsula beyond birdsfoot trefoil Dinas Dinlle