ron-t kayaking blog
25 November 2013 ............ Porth Dafarch to North Stack
A high pressure area brought several days of calmer weather to the Anglesey coastline, and right in the middle of it, the tidal conditions were perfect for a trip out to the Stacks - close to Neaps, with a low tidal range, and a flood tide until mid afternoon.
I had been watching the weather and the tides for a day or two to see how they would develop, and in particular I wanted to see if I could get out to North Stack, which I haven`t done yet.
I didn`t really mess about, just paddled straight out past Penrhyn Mawr, round the most westerly point of the Penrhyn Mawr peninsula, to get the first view of South Stack across the mouth of Abraham`s Bosom.
I was about three quarters of the way across to South Stack, and a seal suddenly popped up about 30 metres away.
It eyed me up for a while, then started to swim towards me, I just sat stationary, to see what it would do.
It probably ended up less than 4 metres away from me, and then posed for a photograph.
Not sure if it was presenting its best side, it then turned round, and posed again.
It then swam along the surface, and dissappeared down with a plop.
Magic !
South Stack was of course a lot nearer now -
Once past South Stack and round the corner a wee bit, Gogarth Bay and North Stack come into view.
At that point I was more interested in getting to North Stack, so didn`t do any exploration of Gogarth Bay and just kept going - here is North Stack a bit closer now.
There wasn`t much of a tide race off North Stack, and I paddled around the outside as well as through the narrows.
A bit past North Stack and round the corner, and you get the view up to Carmel Head - if you have a big screen you can also just see the Skerries lighthouse sticking up out of the horizon.
At that point I wasn`t too far from the breakwater at Holyhead - it looked amazingly long.
Having got to North Stack, I could slow down a bit, and headed back to Parliament House Cave for a quick lunch stop. At this point the tide was fairly high.
Time to explore a bit, this end of Gogarth Bay has some amazing rock formations, with cliffs, caves, and arches.
Next to Parliament House cave are another two caves - now some of the caves along here have names - Annies Cave and Cathedral Cave are two of the names, but I don`t know what name goes with what cave.
I think that it could be Cathedral Cave that has the upper hole that you can just see in one of the pictures.
Then another cave -
Another cave, though I can`t work out where it is -
Then a most amazing sort of huge cave-arch sort of thing - quite difficult to photograph, because I couldn`t get far enough away from it. Inside there, there is another cave - maybe that is the one in the previous picture.
More caves, and a sort of high level bridge -
Then there is a sort of tunnel through a rocky headland - you can paddle into it, but it is a paddling dead end.
However there is a slot right through, which of course you can also see from the other side.
Strangely enough, after all that, you come to a micro beach - at least it is a bit of a beach at some tide heights.
There is no chance of getting from the beach up to the top of the cliffs !
By this time you are a fair bit down Gogarth Bay - and South Stack is not too far away. Here are some pictures looking down that end of Gogarth Bay.
As you approach South Stack, there is a lovely example of a natural flying buttress holding up the cliff.
Almost opposite it, on South Stack island, there is a pair of caves - one of the caves has a slot that goes right through to the other side of the island.
If you have a good imagination, you can see an elephant`s head and trunk separating the two caves.
South of South Stack there is more fabulous coastline, with more caves, tunnels, and other fascinating rock formations.
Curiously, there was more swell around this bit of the coastline than at any other part of my trip.
I wasn`t really wanting to head any further into Abraham`s Bosom or I would run out of daylight, so I turned away from the coast, and headed back towards Penrhyn Mawr.
At Penrhyn Mawr, the outer race was quite quiet, but with still a bit of a flood tidal current.
There was just enough of a swell that I actually had a surfing assisted passage upstream and around the outside of Tide-rip Rock - which saved a bit of effort paddling against the current.
It is a fantastic bit of coastline, and it is not surprising that it is one of the classic sea kayak paddles around Anglesey.
But remember that I did this in near perfect conditions during Neaps with a very low tidal range.
Change the weather, change the tidal currents, and it becomes one of the most challenging bits of coastline round Anglesey, with big seas, and strong tide races at Penrhyn Mawr, South Stack, and North Stack.
Final pictures - the first one was taken from out beyond Porth Daffarch in the late afternoon. looking south past the Rhoscolyn peninsula towards Snowdonia and the Llyn Peninsula. You can just see the islands around Rhoscolyn Beacon off the end of Rhoscolyn Point.
The second one, my favourite, was taken a bit earlier not far from South Stack, again looking south, past the end of the Penrhyn Mawr peninsula towards the Llyn Peninsula.
It was taken with a longer focus lens setting - I love the effect you get from long focus lenses.
website design by ron-t
website hosting by freevirtualservers.com
© 2024 Ron Turner
