Sunday, 20 August 1944

Log of a Cycle Tour to North Wales, by Roy Spurgeon, with Leslie Lee.   19 August   21 August

We had intended, when planning the tour, to use this day for going to the top of Snowdon, but the weather did not look at all good for the trip. The Mountain Railway (see photo) was not working owing to the war and the clouds were sufficiently low on the summit to make the climb unpleasant; accordingly, we decided against it. Our decision was subsequently amply confirmed by those hostellers who actually did go up and who got thoroughly wet and cold in the process.

We decided instead to run into Caernarvon to have a look at that old walled city, once the capital of Wales. So, leaving the Hostel at 1030 hours (4198.4), under an overcast sky, we made fairly good time considering the strong wind against us and reached Caernarvon at 1130 hours (4026.9) by a direct road from Llanberis. On the way, we noticed that the sky looked brighter in front, but the mountains behind were well covered with clouds. This inspired the famous Couplet -

  "Westward, look!! The sky is bright, But eastward look! It's black as night." (L. Lee, August 1944)

Caernarvon is situated on the southern side of the Menai Straits at the western end. Its name signifies "the town or castle opposite Mona (or Anglesey)". It is a very pleasant town and is built around the famous castle (see photo), another of those built by Edward I and birthplace of the first Prince of Wales. The town's history, however, goes back far beyond the construction of its castle (1295-1322) to Roman times, when it was the principal seat of the Dominion of Gwyneuu or North Wales. The castle was unfortunately closed until the afternoon, but we rode all round it, then looked at the harbour and walked along the promenade, getting our first view of the Menai Straits, and the island of Anglesey.

We then decided to follow the coast road to Bangor, so we toured the rest of Caernarvon and then set course north-eastwards. This road follows the line of the Menai Straits (see photo) which it overlooks at many points until it cuts inland through a valley to Bangor, which stands at the eastern end of the Straits. It is not a very interesting road but in places is quite pretty, with fine hills on its right hand side. About halfway to Bangor, we paused in the small village of Port Dinorwic, which is built round a small creek off the Menai Straits, where we saw a number of small minesweepers. The name of this small village signifies "Port of the Norwegians" having apparently, at one time in its history, been frequented by piratical Danes and Norsemen.

We reached Bangor at 1240 hours (4216.0) and immediately set about looking for lunch, though we were carrying some sandwiches should the need arise. After one unsuccessful attempt, we sat down to an excellent three course Sunday dinner at the Railway Hotel. After this, our appetites satisfied, we had a look at the rest of the town. Bangor stands on some high spurs overlooking the Menai Straits. It was once a place of Druidical worship, its name meaning "Upper circle" and it contains a number of historic buildings including the university college of North Wales and a cathedral dating from 1496. Having seen most of the town, we turned back at 1400 hours and took the famous A.5 road towards Holyhead.

We climbed round a fairly stiff hill and then ran down the road overlooking the Straits till we reached the famous suspension bridge at the bottom (see photo). This bridge was built by Telford between 1819 and 1826 for the coaching traffic; it is the longest suspension bridge in Britain and there is a clearance of 100 feet above high water mark. We dismounted and walked across the bridge in order to enjoy the view of the Straits in both directions, saw the equally famous tubular railway bridge in the distance, then arrived in Anglesey. Here we decided that we had sufficient time to go to Beaumaris, so we ran along the opposite side of the Straits on a very pretty road, past the flying boat station at Angle, with its moored flying boats, till we reached the small resort of Beaumaris at the entrance to the Menai Straits at 1505 hours (4223.8). Passing through the almost deserted town, we saw the castle in front of us and immediately decided to visit it, rather than try to get back in time to Caernarvon.

Apart from an awful smell emanating from the black waters of the moat, the castle is very pleasant. It is spaciously laid out, in quite good condition and contains many interesting winding corridors and spiral staircases, the chapel being in particularly good repair. Perfectly symmetrical in plan, the castle was built in 1283 by Edward I on the site of a former palace of the ancient kings of North Wales. We carried out a thorough investigation of all there was to be seen, then chose a place away from the smell, on top of one of the towers, to eat our packed lunches for tea. Just before we had finished, we were turned out by the custodian wishing to lock up at 1630 hours, so we retired to a bench on the seafront to complete our meal.

The weather was still overcast, with a strong wind making the sea very choppy, when we left Beaumaris at 1645 hours. We recrossed the Menai Bridge then, instead of going back to either Bangor or Caernarvon, we took a secondary road across the hills to Llanberis. This involved a stiff climb up to about 600 feet and then an exhilarating run down past the tip of Llyn Padarn to the Hostel at 1810 hours (4239.8).

After supper, we set out to visit the Llanberis waterfall which we had not known of before. Leaving our cycles at the bottom, we climbed up the side of the valley, by a rocky mountain stream, underneath the viaduct-like structure carrying the Snowdon mountain railway and were well rewarded by the 50 foot drop of water down a cleft of rock like a gigantic water chute, though the volume of flow was not so great as that shown in the photo opposite. We made our way back to the Hostel and turned in at 1030 hours (4242.4).

Total cycling distance for the day - 44.0 miles.