Llanfairfechan to Bangor 9/7/2012**

 

Lepidochiton cinereus   Hygrocybe persistens   Hard fern

From Llanfairfechan station it is a short walk through  a park to the shore by the boating pool used by mute swans and mallards.  The trail today was virtually wholly along the top of the shore which is variously stony, stone with sand, or saltmarsh, sometimes with banks of various shells.  The railway and main road still ran parallel, but at sufficient distance not to be obtrusive.  We came to no community or even houses the whole way until the outskirts of Bangor and the path was easy, although muddy in places and slick after persistent rains, so the odd boardwalk was welcome.  The coast is largely a series of sheep pastures and RSPB bird reserves.  Although the tide was well out and feeding waders rather distant across the very wide Lavan Sands, we did see lapwings, Canada and greylag geese, little egret, oystercatchers, ringed plover and sanderling.  Overcast with some drizzle, there were few butterflies to be seen, except ringlet and silver Y.  Only towards the end did the path become rough, where builders’ rubble had been dumped on the shore.  Among an unexceptional flora we did see some hound’s-tongue, musk mallow, corn spurrey and more saltmarsh plants than the last few days: seablite, sea milkwort, sea-spurrey, thrift, sea rush and sea club-rush.  Stony parts of the saltmarsh had the chiton Lepidochiton cinereus.  With the wet summer, toadstools were again evident, as they had been all week.  The most striking was the bright yellow waxcap Hygrocybe persistens.  Another noticeable feature was fences made of long slate slabs, a use of local materials quarried from the hills above.           We had lunch just at the corner where Afon Ogwen emerges, sitting on a rock among rotten wooden groynes, overlooking the flocks of birds on the sands being disturbed by the rising tide which took over their resting-places, although a flock of mute swans went on swimming along unperturbed.  Also on the sea was a little group of dark sea-ducks that were rather distant but which we eventually recognised as red-breasted mergansers.  The shore after the river is inaccessible because it is part of the Penrhyn Estate, which extends as far as the next river mouth, the Cegin.  So we had to turn inland through a small Wildlife Trust reserve Aber-Ogwen, with stinking iris, hard shield-fern and redcurrant, to reach the road that runs along the east wall of the estate and roads along the south side.  After an industrial estate we came to a major surfaced track going north, initially sandwiched between the industrial units and the river Cegin.  We passed through a damp wooded valley good for ferns (hard, lady and soft shield), with the largest sanicle we have seen (presumably encouraged by the abundant rains) and opposite-leaved golden saxifrage where rills came down the banks. The river had large colonies of Indian balsam, although it is said to be frequented by otters.  This track passed along the east edge of Bangor, crossing the river three times, finally leading into the A5 as it passes along the north coast of Bangor.   Much of the area by the coast here was currently a building site for “flood alleviation” work, so there was little coastal access.  After passing the Boatyard Inn, The Ship Launch and the Tap and Spile along Garth Road, at the far north end there is just the New Pier and a car park, with a little garden and viewing platform overlooking the Menai Strait, Anglesey being only half a kilometre away.  Bangor can hardly be described as a seaside resort at all, as there is no beach.  We then continued along roads parallel to the coast until we reached the A5 again on the west side of Bangor, passing a small strip of woodland with masses of great woodrush, and greater quaking-grass at the base of a wall.  We finally left the coast to follow the A5 into the centre of Bangor and the railway station for the return journey to Conwy.  At the station we met again the young jolly transport policeman who was on the train when we came from Conwy and had spent the ten-minute journey astonished at our having walked all the way around England!  He shook hands heartily to congratulate us on adding yet another stage.