Anglesey Weekend #4 Bull Bay to The Brickworks (Porth Wen)
30th September 2023 Anglesey Weekend #4
Autumn. Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness… and tipping rain.
A group of 8 -Paul, Keith, Andy Garland, Chris, Kevin, Gary, ably led by David and Fiona Gentle- set off in warm, calm, but decidedly damp conditions. The plan was to rock-hop our way round the coast from Bull Bay to the brickworks on Porth Wen.
David informed us that the previous day the sea had been in a slightly more assertive mood, and they had been lucky to come back alive – probably a slight exaggeration. Dolphins were spotted several times on the horizon, and we had a single seal giving us a wary look at one point.
Otherwise, it was loose chat and some assessment of the geological complexity of Anglesey (comprising metamorphosed sandstones and silty mudstones of the Precambrian, Palaeozoic and Ordovician eras -thank you Wikipedia) by shouting in the caves and reversing in and out of them.
After a quick lunch at the brickworks, the wind started to pick up and we headed back.
The wind was officially southerly but really all over the place and there was an ebb tide against us, with a brief tide race at the end to add a little spice to an otherwise sedate paddle.
We watched the rain through a picture window in the comfort of the Castle Tavern later, where a large part of the conversation was a detailed discussion about the virtues of gel coat. This paddler, having a plastic boat, did not take part. Even if I had possessed a fibreglass boat, I still wouldn’t have understood what they were talking about.
Then it was back to Anglesey Outdoors, a shower, a snooze and off to the Paddlers Return, where I had a fantastic chickpea curry and far too many glasses of the red stuff. Conversation as ever was illuminating, amusing and not entirely sober. As Lou Reed might have said, had he been a kayaker, ‘…the Paddlers’… it’s always back to the Paddlers’’.