Coastwalk

Conwy Morfa → Llanfairfechan

Distance: 6.55 miles
Ascent: 113 metres
Duration: 2 hours 3 minutes

Smile more
« Colwyn Bay | Bangor »

Our intent today was to walk to Bangor. However, as we reached The halfway point at Llanfairfechan we'd felt a few spots of rain and the clouds ahead of us looked full to bursting.

On this stretch the mountains of Snowdonia reach right up to the coastline, causing the railway and road to tunnel through the rock. The oldest road was built by Telford, with diversions added in the 1930s.

This is the route we followed, which included walking through two short tunnels at Pen-y-Clip. Exactly halfway through the eastern tunnel a long forgotten plaque is fixed to the tunnel wall commemorating its opening in 1935. The Welsh language equivalent plaque is in a more prominent location, affixed to the sea wall between the tunnels, but neither are particularly noticeable to the thousands of passing motorists.

Elsewhere someone has been busy brightening up the concrete of the A55. Uplifting quotations were stencilled onto the road parapets, but our favourite was on the tarmac of the cycle path: "smile more".