Rhyl to Port Eirias 4/28/26

Good morning!  I love all your comments.  I apologize for not responding to them, but it is all I can do to hike, clean up, write the blog, have dinner, and then get ready for the next day.  Know that I totally appreciate all of them, and I do read them.

Dragons seem to be a “thing” here in Northern Wales.

Kind of a cool drawbridge.  From a distance, I thought it was a sailboat.

Kind of a cool musical group, right along the ocean, where I suspect there are plenty of festivals.

The tide was really up. I couldn’t even get to the end of the ramp to walk along the water.

There used to be major flooding here until the rocks were brought in.

There must have been a hundred of these signs warning me to keep off the rocks.

Yay!  A place to stop and eat lunch.  A first.  It is okay because I always pack plenty to eat. You would think that I came from a third-world country where I was starved.  My major focus every day is on whether or not I have food.

I ordered a hunter chicken panini.  It was decent.  Turns out that this type of sandwich or main course is chicken with barbecue sauce and cheese. We Southerners could teach them a thing or two about barbecue sauce.  It was good, but some things we do better. The bread was an A plus.

As I was walking, I ran into a man on an electric scooter and his wife.  He told me that this was Emily’s Tower.  I googled it and learned that it was built between 1830 and 1840 by Lloyd Hesketh Bamford-Hesketh for his wife, Lady Emily, and their children. It served as a picturesque belvedere and banqueting tower. Some historical interpretations suggest that the tower, along with others in the area, may have been part of a chain of lookout towers to warn against Barbary pirates in the 17th century. 

Just as I was getting comfortable (smug?) about today being another wonderful FLAT walk along the coast, I looked slightly to my left and saw that things were about to change. I think I am about to come into the more challenging parts of the walk.

I crossed over several of these today.

Looking down along the coast. Today was windy and somewhat cold.  I wore my T-shirt, my wool layer, and my windbreaker/rain jacket. And my gloves.

I could find no reference to this one-room stone building on a cliff overlooking the sea.

My goal today was to reach Eirias Watersports Center and call for my pre-arranged taxi to the hotel.  After walking all around this facility, which said nothing about a sports center, I finally learned that it hadn’t been called that in years. It made me think about how many times in Louisville we tell people it is near the old Bacons.

One of the first things I saw while walking around the building, looking for a name, was this bird sculpture.  The middle of it is filled with plastic bags. Sad that so many birds (and ultimately us) are dying from plastic.

A shell!  I felt like I was on a Camino. But all my walks are Caminos. I pray for my friends and one special one who is fighting lung cancer.

I saw these inside the building.  They are called Welsh Cakes. I had to try one.  I was expecting it to be more like a cookie, but it was four little vanilla cakes sprinkled with sparkle sugar.  Quite tasty.

 Boy, was I in for a surprise. My glorious hotel, The Castlebank Hotel, is located in Conwy and  is quite the stately, posh place to stay. It is a beautiful old house turned B&B. I am on the third floor overlooking the walled town and Conway Castle. I didn’t have much time to look around, but I am hoping that tomorrow, I get back early enough to explore. I will have to walk fast.

I went to the Castle Hotel for dinner and ordered the Red Lentil & Oyster Mushroom Ragu( which was described as having a vegan suet rosemary dumpling, and mashed sweet potato. I ordered a Petal and Stem Sauvignon Blanc, a brand I have not had.  Both were delicious.  The ragout had the most intense fresh-tomato flavor (in a good way) I have ever had. I would love to know how that got that much tomato taste. The sweet potato mash was good, as were the weeds on top.  All and all - a great dinner.

So tomorrow is a new day on the trail.

Good night and God Bless.