27th September 2018
Penmon Lighthouse
Penmon Lighthouse (Trwyn Du Lighthouse),
with Puffin Island off to the right.
Again, I had a lovely night’s sleep, getting up around 06:30, I cannot remember if I was 1st up or Andy, but there wasn’t much in it. After a lovely hot shower, we had another full English. I checked in with Susie (her back was still hurting, she had been in some pain for a while now, to the point she thought of maybe not going away).
Andy had been saying since we got to the cottage that he wanted very little sun and loads of dark clouds not what you would normally want while on holiday, but he wanted to get some moody dramatic looking photos. I on the other hand had been praying for nice weather, even the week before we went away! It looked like my prayers were being answered, as we didn't get any bad weather, it got overcast a couple of times, but not enough to please Andy, but like the trooper he is, he soldiered on.
We had decided to go to Penmon Lighthouse (Trwyn Du Lighthouse). Andy had said about going to take some photos near to a lighthouse (we normally go to South Stack Lighthouse, which is on Holy Island, near to Holyhead, in the North West of Anglesey. But, there are loads of steps to get anywhere near it), so Andy had done some searches on t'internet before we came away, and found Penmon Lighthouse and Twr Bach & Twr Mawr Lighthouse.
Penmon Lighthouse
Penmon Point is the other side of Beaumaris. The ruins of Beaumaris Castle look impressive, but Andy assured me it is not worth the entrance fee. After leaving Beaumaris, we continued along the B5109 for a few miles, we then turned right onto a road signposted Penmon, we followed this twisting road until we arrived at a small car park by Penmon Priory and Penmon Dovecot. We continued past the car park where you reach a small hut near to Penmon Dovecot, where a lady takes payment (£3 toll) to continue to Penmon Point. The road becomes very narrow from here and starts to climb uphill. The lighthouse, with Puffin Island (Ynys Seiriol - St Cyril’s Island) behind it then comes into view, and as the road/track starts to descend, the car park is on the left, and there is a tea room on the right.
We headed down towards the lighthouse, which is off shore. There was another photographer already down there taking photos, and another 3 had turned up at the same time as us. So, Andy and I went off to find a view point where the 1st guy wasn’t going to be in shot, or us in his. There was a bit of a breeze, so we had to try and find a sheltered spot for taking long exposures (this seemed more or less impossible, as the breeze seemed to find a way of coming at us in every direction), it was a morning for using a tripod at its lowest point, to try and keep it stable. As I was setting up a shot, one of the 3 guys who had turned up when we arrived, had placed himself in shot (bar steward), so I had to redo the framing of my shot. I didn’t have any such filters like the ones Andy was using, I only had Graduated ND filters (which are good for getting shots where the foreground would normally be underexposed or vice a versa) the only other filter I had was an adjustable ND filter that screws onto the lens, which to a certain extent does the same as the filters Andy was using, the down side to this filter is that on a lot of photos, you get dark patches in the corners or centre. I tried taking photos using these filters (on looking at the photos when I got back home, a lot of them are ruined by the fact they have the dark areas).
Penmon Priory
We spent, I would say, getting on for a couple of hours trying to get decent photos for various points using different techniques. When we had exhausted everything, we headed back up to the car, then went to the tea room, we sat in the late morning sun drinking coffee (Andy treated me to a slice of Bara Brith.. nom nom) and chatting about how we thought we had got on and where we would go next. Twr Bach & Twr Mawr Lighthouse was our next destination, which is the other side of Llanfair PG, near Newborough Warren.
We left Penmon, and headed back the way we had come, at one point on the narrow road going back, we hit a bump in the road with an almighty thud, so once we got back to the car park near Penmon Dovecot, we pulled over to check the wheels, as it felt like there was very little air in the tyres when we hit the bump, nothing looked wrong, but Andy got his air compressor out and checked the pressures, (I went and took some photos of the Dovecot and Penmon Priory) when I returned, he said one was low on pressure, but all sorted now.
Once we got the other side of Beaumaris, Andy said about me taking some photos of anything I thought might make a good photo as we drove along (me being the novice when it comes to photography, Andy had to explain what setting I needed to get a photo without the motion showing). I saw a pier as we were driving along, I then noticed a layby, so I asked Andy to pull over. There is a public footpath that leads down to the shore near the Gazelle Inn. The pier across the Menai Straight, is Garth Pier (Garth is on the outskirts of Bognor), We took some photos, and then headed back to the car and continued on our way. After going through the town of Menai we found another layby to get photos of the Menai & Britannia Bridges.
Menai Bridge
Heading towards Llanfair PG we turned left onto Ffordd Brynsiencyn Road (A4080), we followed this road for some miles to a roundabout at Pen - lôn, where we turned right (still the A4080 Chapel Street) and headed into the village of Newborough (Niwbwrch). Here we turned left into Church Street, we followed this road round a sharp left-hand bend, then a sharp right-hand bend, then continued until you start to enter a wooded area, here you come to toll booth (£5). Once past this, just follow the road through the wood, until you come to a large car park.
Panoramic view of Newborough Beach (Traeth Llanddwyn
Once we had parked up, we got our gear out of the car and headed towards the beach… and what a beach, around 3.5 miles long of mainly soft sand, with some shingle. Newborough Beach (Traeth Llanddwyn), is a very well-kept secret, well to us it was, in all the time we have been coming to Anglesey, we had never heard of this place (well done Andy for finding it). We could see the lighthouses in the distance. We started to head off in that direction, occasionally stopping to take photos, then around half way along the beach, Andy said he might have to go back to the car, the sole of his boots was coming away from the rest of the boot! (Andy doesn’t have much luck when it comes to boots). He made the decision to carry on in his flip-flop boots, rather than walk all the way back to the car then back again.
Snowdonia viewed from Newborough Beach
When we arrived at the lighthouses, which are situated on Llanddwyn Island (Ynys Llanddwyn), there are a row of cottages (pilots cottages), which was being used to film what looked like a period drama of some sorts (it turns out to be an historical documentary, where they get a number of families to live the life of the people who would have lived and worked there back in 1906, the working title is Cockle Bay to be screened on BBC2), after by passing the film crew we found our own places to take some photos (since returning home, we have found that there was a view we never even thought to try, maybe next time). I think we got some reasonable photos.
Twr Mawr lighthouse seen through the ruins of the church.
St Dwynwen's Church
We started to head back, skirting around the film crew, being told to be quiet!
On our way to the lighthouses I had spotted a view I wanted to go and investigate, Andy was not too keen, I think because of his flip-flops… sorry boots! So, he said he would continue to head back to the car while I went off exploring.
I had spotted a point where the waves were crashing against some rocks, and thought this might make a nice photo, so this is where I headed off to. It was a spur of rock jutting out to sea at an angle, to get the photos I wanted I had to do a bit of scrambling up the side of the rocks (which wasn’t easy while carrying a camera and tripod). Once I had got to the best point I could find, I then had to try and set up my tripod on the jagged rocks. I got my photos and then headed back down off the rocks onto the small beach, I then noticed another photo opportunity a little further along the beach, so I headed over there, after taking some photos, I headed back towards the car along Newborough Beach, taking more photos as I went (I never know what my photos look like until I load them onto my laptop, as you cannot really tell by looking at them on the very small screen on my camera). I eventually got back to the car park, and found Andy sat on a bench, patiently waiting for me. It turns out Andy hadn’t returned via the beach but had followed one of the tracks through the woods. We put our gear in the car, Andy changed out of his flip-flops into his trainers, then we went and found a picnic table to sit at and just chill out and chat about our day so far, and what if anything we planned to do next. It was at this point I noticed the trees, or should I say the shape of them (I had sort of noticed it while we were walking along the beach, but as I looked around the car park it was more obvious). The trees branches were all facing in one direction (away from the sea), the constant wind had reshaped all the trees, it was quite eerie, especially as a lot of the trees had no leaves on, just bare branches that looked like lots of gnarled fingers pointing in-land.
The eerie looking trees at Newborough Warren
So, what to do next?
It was still relatively early, so we decided to head back and go to Garth, on the outskirts of Bangor (where the pier is which we had seen earlier). When we got there, it was yet another disappointment, as we couldn’t get to the base of the pier to take the sort of photos we were looking to get. We made the best of it though, as we had travelled all the way here, taking various photos from different angles.
Garth Pier
When we had had enough we discussed what we wanted for our evening meal, Andy got onto the Just Eat app on his phone, and started going through what was available nearby, Chinese, Indian, Pizza, fish & chips… "Ooh I fancy Pizza!" was my reply as he went through the list. So, pizza it is then as Andy programmed the satnav on his mobile to take us to the one from the app. We ordered our pizzas and waited, while we waited I noticed what other varieties of pizza they offered, Chocolate Pizza!!! Yes I kid you not.. Chocolate Pizza. Once we got our pizzas (not chocolate, I might add), we headed back to the cottage.
The advertisement for chocolate pizza
Our viewing tonight was Solo (the one I purchased when we arrived) and Rogue One (5 down, 5 to go).