66km, 400m climb
Days 9 to 12 of our trip were spent relaxing, chatting and very much enjoying catching up with Jean and Christopher, helping with gardening and odd jobs around the Fort (plumbing and carpentry for Ben, hanging curtains and checking over the permanent orienteering course for me).
We have reluctantly decided to leave a day early because the forecast for Sunday is for a strong easterly wind and rain. Given that our route heads east along the North Wales coast, we felt that riding all day into a strong, wet wind seemed rather unattractive. Today we have ridden most of that stage and are staying in a hotel in Llandudno. Being Saturday night most hotels and campsites are full.
It's been a lovely ride - up the Menai Strait to Caernarfon and on towards Bangor, then taking to the hills above Bangor to cut across to join the cycle path which runs all the way along the north coast as far as Chester.
Conway Castle and estuary.
We went along the waterfront at Caernarfon and didn't think of going into the town to buy sandwiches for lunch. Unfortunately we hadn't realised that there would be no more shops or cafés until Penmaenmawr which we reached at 3.30, so lunch was chocolate hobnobs followed by nuts and raisins!
When we eventually reached the beachside café at Penmaenmawr we found that the plate of cheesy chips with beans was so welcome that it tasted like a cordon bleu meal! We've topped that up now with a takeaway pizza eaten on the seafront at Llandudno.
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