Calling all walkers, report here please.

Calling all walkers, report here please.

arty stuff observations odds-n-sods walking

Hello. My visit to Hull yesterday. First I drove to Barton to have a look at the exhibitions in the Ropewalk Galleries. One was closed due to installing new exhibits, the other was a series of paintings which illustrated Spurn Point, didn't like them much at all, and of course the prices were ridiculous. .

Then I caught the bus to Hull. The fountains in the city centre were advertised as something special, I was expecting them to be arty, colourful, and maybe a bit showy with background music. Like dancing fountains. Don't know where I got that idea from. Nope, It was a splash pad, with jets of water coming up out of the ground and lots of little children having fun playing guess which one is going to spurt next, and let's see what happens if I put my foot on this one. It was a gloriously hot day, ideal for a splash about, kids and mums alike were enjoying it. I remember seeing the fountains in Bradford five years ago and they were shooting up as high as the buildings. Maybe that's why I thought these would be the same. Sorry, no pictures, it is frowned upon to take photo's of small children in their underwear in a public place.

Next stop the Ferens Art Gallery to see the pictures from the Sea of Hull, you may remember that everyone was painted blue and photo's were taken at various locations in the city centre. I was hoping to see more pictures than what had already been shown on the internet. There were two that I hadn't seen before, a lot of naked people were photographed on the Humber Bank with the bridge in the background. They weren't blue, just their own naked skin in the buff. The blue ones I had already seen, albeit in a smaller screen size. Have a look at this report in the Hull Daily Mail on the opening day.

Also part of the Skin exhibition are several nude sculptures by Ron Mueck, some of them larger than life, some in miniature, all of them perfect in every detail. They are so lifelike you have to get up close to see where every hair has been inserted into the model. I was not allowed to take any photo's in the gallery, but if you check out this BBC webpage, there is a picture of the Wild Man. The man is a giant perched on a giant stool, the top of my head came up to his nipples. The rest of the exhibition was fascinating, nude lifelike bodies of different sizes.

I wasn't long in Hull, the bus journey took ages because of the heavy traffic. I picked up a few yellow stickers at Tesco in Barton. A nice cauliflower for 48p marked down from £2, TWO CHUFFIN POUNDS, good grief. Bags of salad leaves for 16p.

The duvet has been deconstructed, and is now three separate pieces, now to start sewing.

Hands up anyone who uses resealable packs as they are supposed to? I find that they are such a faff to get the two sides to stick together that I don't bother. I cut them off completely, fold over, and seal with a clothes peg. Simple. To the manufacturers, get rid of them and knock a couple of pence off the price.

Here's a thought, are young people losing their observational skills? I presented this at the checkout at Wilko, girl scanned it and held out her hand asking for 50p. Hey girl, open your eyes, what does it stay there? I do despair, no wonder the tills are being replaced by self serve, brains are no longer required to be a checkout assistant.

Now to the most important part of today's post, THE WALKING GROUP CHECK IN REMINDER. Come on, are you a bragger, or a fessing up participant, ha ha. Have you broken all records with your walking, or have you failed to get up off your bum? I am a bit of both. I will get on with it when I feel like it, or I can say stuff it, I'll not bother today. I am able to ease up a bit on the three mile daily walks because I have clocked up a few extra miles on longer walks. It's like a deposit account, today I have 570 miles in the bank. On the other hand, if I take my eye off the ball for too long there is a possibility that I might fall behind. I can't let that happen.

So how are you doing? Let us know so we can admire your stamina or give you a kick up the bum to get on with it. Only joking, don't get too hung up about the numbers, just do as much as you can. It needs to be enjoyable, not a slog.

Thanks for popping in, we'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip

Llanfair etc, and Llandudno

Llanfair etc, and Llandudno

holidays/days out walking

Hello. Here we are on the last day of the holiday, well actually Sunday was supposed to be the last day, but after a look round Llandudno I decided to head back on Saturday. Before leaving Anglesey I needed to pop into Llanfair thingymajig, to get a pic of the famous long name at the station. There is a large car park which belongs to the big department store on the same site. Signs everywhere saying it is for customers only. I only wanted to stop for ten minutes so I took a chance that they would not check number plates. After I took the photo's I did actually buy something there, so technically I was a customer. 

Picture this, a massive car park almost empty. I chose a bay at the end of a row, empty space to my left, because I don't want to get my car door bashed by inconsiderate drivers. Someone pulled in right next to me and filled the space. Why did he do that! I started my engine and moved a few feet to my right to leave a bigger gap between us. Big bloke gets out and thanks me for giving him more room to open his door. For goodness sake, he had the whole of the car park to chose from, what a dipstick. 

And if you can's say it, try this. Double Dutch to me. I think most people use the shortened version.

My last port of call was Llandudno. I thought I might stay here the night, but when I arrived there were thousands of holiday makers and day trippers. Chose the wrong day really, it was bound to be busy on a Saturday. The streets were chocablock with parked cars, I went in a car park and paid £1 for two hours, and had a look around. I didn't enjoy it, my first thought was to get the heck out of there. It was dull and overcast and threatening to rain. As I drove out of the town along the promenade the traffic wasn't so bad and there was free parking on the left so I decided to dump the car there and walk back along the prom.

Lots of very large hotels.

Heading towards the pier. Weather still a bit mizzley but at least it didn't chuck it down.

I decided to take a walk up the Great Orme, following signs for Happy Valley.

Good views. The prom there in the distance.

The higher I went the better the views.

There is a Swiss Chalet style cafe and shop, an artificial ski slope, a snowboard slope, and a toboggan run. These were very popular, everyone enjoying themselves despite the cool and breezy weather.

Climb a bit higher.

Fantastic views from up here. No cable cars running today, closed because of wind I imagine.

The Happy Valley gardens were very pretty, plenty of benches to sit down and rest for a few minutes.

This is a good site for more photo's of the Trail.

Once back in the town I found the Tramway Station. It was very busy, people queuing to get on.

Off it goes up the hill.

Still people waiting to get on the next one. Too busy for me, I hate queuing.

It was 3.45pm when I got back to my car, what to do now? Too early to find a room, so I set off towards home, with the intention of calling in to see John on the way. I didn't know if he was going to be there or not, yep, he was in as you know, we had a laugh, he was getting ready to go out, so I carried on. I needed petrol so stopped for that, I rang my friend Lin at Ellesmere Port and she said she was in. I had originally said I would be there on the Sunday, but as I couldn't think of anywhere else I wanted to go it seemed a good place to end the day. It was smashing to see her again, we had a lot to talk about over a couple of beers. A good end to the holiday.

It was a smashing holiday. I might go to Wales again at some point in the future, the scenery is great, and there are lots of places of interest to visit.

The weather has been hot hot hot today, plenty to do in the garden. In fact it's half past seven, still sunny, and I am going back out there to do a bit of hedge trimming. Thanks for popping in, we'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip

Holyhead Coastal Walk

Holyhead Coastal Walk

holidays/days out walking

Hello, I thought I might go up Snowdon while I was in North Wales, but after looking at videos on yooootooob, I decided against it. It seems the summit is often obliterated by swarms of people all pouring off the train and climbing the steps to the top. I didn't fancy that at all. I decided to go up a little mountain on Anglesey instead, and Holyhead Mountain looked like just the ticket. 

As I was about to set off from the hotel a coach pulled up and discharged about fifty ramblers who set off down the path I had planned to take. Oh dear. I gave them a ten minute start and off I went. Maybe we wouldn't bump into each other once we got going. My plan was to take the coastal path then head up and over the top of the mountain. Maybe they had a different plan and I wouldn't see them again.  

I hadn't been going long before I came to an interesting building, it is quite high up so can be seen from the hotel below. On closer inspection I was disappointed that it had been fenced off and was in fact derelict. Such a shame, it must have been a beautiful building when it was occupied. I was speaking to a lady walking her dog, she said it belonged to the Ministry of Defence. 

Around the back was another building, also derelict.

The rugged coastline around this area is beautiful.

Large white pebbles litter the beach.

Onward I went, some of the paths are quite wide and easy to walk.

I'm going up there.

And up there.

Oh no, look who I have caught up.

I take a ten minute break to let them get ahead.

The weather was perfect, while the rain poured back home I was in brilliant sunshine. This is North Stack, a redundant fog signal station. Another break to admire the view.

Two boats go backwards and forwards to Ireland from Holyhead.

Stunning views.

After going up and over the mountain I arrived at South Stack Lighthouse, a bit further round the coast.

There they are again. I'll wait and let them get ahead.

I carried on around the coastal path and caught up with the ramblers again at a cafe. After a quick loo break I set off ahead of them.

This helicopter was hovering for ages over the land ahead of me, and eventually flew away.

Oh wow, a blue lagoon, so beautiful. After glancing behind me I saw the ramblers catching me up, so I stopped again and let them get ahead. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind seeing a few people when I am out and about, but I don't want to walk with a whole bunch of them.

Time was getting on and I needed to turn inland back to Holyhead, at that point I got off the coastal path and left the ramblers to it.

It was a couple of miles back to the hotel at the Marina. I picked up some food at Lidl and did what I always do when out walking, have a picnic in my room. Cheaper to spend £3 - £4 in a shop than £12 on a meal in a restaurant. I watched an hour of telly because sadly I couldn't get onto the internet.

I have checked the mileage, today was twelve. In total for the holiday it was 46 miles. One more day left to report on, I'll post that tomorrow.

Who needs big mountains when there are little beauties like this. It was a fabulous day. Thanks for popping in, we'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip

Two bridges at Menai

Two bridges at Menai

holidays/days out walking

Hello. Onward I went, from Caernarfon to the Menai Bridge and over to Anglesey. Once over the water I parked in a layby on the A5 half way between the two bridges. This is the Suspension Bridge. 

And this is the Britannia Bridge.

It was free parking in the layby so I abandoned the car and went for a walk. I followed the coastal footpath which was very well signposted. This is Church Island, it juts out into the water, and has a very ancient small church on it surrounded by gravestones on the steep slopes.

It was very peaceful, hardly anyone there. It has a tarmac path where you can walk across to it.

The little church is very simple and basic, nothing elaborate.

The monument at the top.

There is a massive old tree at the entrance to it, with this plaque attached to the wall below it.

Leaving the island the path goes underneath the Suspension Bridge.

I went up on top and walked across it and back again.

This is the view looking down on Menai town.

I walked further along the coastal footpath and took another route back to the car. I was on my way to Holyhead and decided to take the long route round because I had plenty of time.

Beaumaris looked like a nice place so I parked up and had a look around. It was a beautiful sunny day, very enjoyable to walk along the promenade, have a look at the castle, and watch the world go by.

 I followed the A5025 around the whole island and came to Holyhead. I came across a Travel Lodge and went in to ask for a room. Unfortunately they were full, but the nice lady at reception rang up another hotel to ask for me. They had a room so she gave me directions to find it. I was dead chuffed when I saw it, right opposite the Marina, and just where I wanted to be to begin a walk the next day. Couldn't be better. Great view.

Nice hotel, but this is where the Wifi connection was hit and miss, so I had to give up and watch telly instead. I'll show you where I walked, tomorrow.

Thanks for popping in, we'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip