It was about 6 miles until I rejoined Route 5. I was happy to see the first sign. From then on, I just had to watch for the signs to tell me which way to go. For the most part it's a no-brainer. There is a sign for each and every turn. Occasionally, the sign is somewhat hidden by overgrown shrubbery, but I've spotted most of them. Sometimes I have to stop, and actually look to see the whole sign. There was one place where I missed the turn and was headed on another route (82). When I didn't see a Route 5 sign, I figured I had missed a turn. I went back, and sure enough, when I made what had to be the right turn, I saw a sign ahead.
The scenery today was pretty nice.
Come back blue sky!
I crossed a river on this, the Manai Bridge.
The wind was blowing pretty good going across the bridge. The three boats below were making very slow headway up river.
This is actually a road. The hedges are cut back just enough.
Coming into another little village.
I came to Penrhyn Castle. I thought about going, but it wasn't open for another 30 minutes. Along the way, I met a guy who was working cutting back some trees. He stopped and we chatted for awhile. He wanted to know about my tour. He had done some shorter tours. Even though I didn't go into the castle, talking to him was worth the detour from the route.
I continued following the blue signs with the red 5. There was some interesting routing.
Here was a brief time riding next to A5 (or maybe it's A55).
Here the route went up and over the motorway.
The route went around the tunnels.
Couldn't get much closer to the water!
Once I was riding along the Coast, the way was fairly flat. The wind had been swirling around some--headwind, then crosswind, and occasionally a tailwind. When I got to just before Abergele, it became a full-on massive tailwind! It was blowing so hard, I didn't have to pedal! By this time, I had gone about 50 miles. I'd asked the Garmin about camping, but it was no help. There were all these "Caravan Parks" along the Coast. Really, they are just Mobile Home parks. Granted, they are rented for holidays, but not really Caravans. Anyway, there was a family of touring cyclists going the other way (massive headwind for them). I asked if they had seen any camping possibilities. They said they had only seen the mobile home parks. I asked another guy walking his dog. He said there were a couple on the other side of the main road. Good news! Trick was, how to get over to the main road? It was really strange because there were vehicles next to the route, but I could not see how they had gotten there. The railway was between the route and the town (and main road). Finally I saw a path into one of the "Caravan Parks". I went in and stopped at the office to ask for more directions to one of these camping places. The gal was very helpful, and told me how to get to one in Towyn. I think I actually ended up at a different one, but no matter--I found a place to stay! It's called Henllys, and cost me 12£. It's really an old farm. The barns have been converted to shower and toilet blocks. The camping is really just a glorified field.
When I chose my spot, I looked East and could see it was raining, and the clouds appeared to be moving toward me. Quick as a bunny, I set up my tent in preparation for the rain. I got everything under cover...but it didn't rain. The wind was blowing very hard. I'll be surprised if I don't have another broken tent pole section (although, wind has not seemed to be a factor in the other breaks).
I gathered my stuff for the shower, and also took my rain jacket and hat. I just knew it would be raining when I came out of the shower, and it was a fair walk to my tent. Nope, not raining. Still very windy though.
Around 6:45, I thought some dinner would be nice. However, there was no way I'd be able to cook in the wind (not only would the stove probably blow out, but the pan would blow off the burner). I had seen one of the dish washing places on the other side of the toilet block that was pretty well protected from the wind. I took my panniers over there, and cooked my dinner. It didn't make for a great ambience, but it is handy to have the sink right there for washing afterward!
As I was walking back to my tent, I could, again, see that rain was coming. I hustled back, but again, no rain. I did see this rainbow, so it has to be raining somewhere!
It's gotta be raining over there. Maybe the wind is blowing the clouds in such a way that they are not coming over the campsite???
My goal was 55-60 miles today. I did 56, so right on target!
Here's a parting shot of the smallest chapel in Great Britain.
St. Trillos Chapel
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