ron-t kayaking blog
21 May 2014 ............ Around Rhoscolyn - part 1
The day after my trip out from Cemaes to Hell`s Mouth, the weather was temporarily much improved, so I went down to Rhoscolyn for a play about around the islands around the beacon - it was good timing for the flood tide, which is when Rhoscolyn Beacon has its tide races.
It turned into a fabulous day with blue sky and sunshine, and a bit of a wind and some swell, and I took far too many photographs - I came back with 232 pictures - the joys of digital cameras and 4Gb data cards !
Back in the good old days, that would have been 12 rolls of 35mm Kodachrome !
Obviously I am not publishing them all here, but there is still a good number worth showing, so I have split this blog into two parts, to make downloads a bit easier.
Paddling out of Rhoscolyn Bay is always fun, as you head round the corner you get the first sighting of the islands around Rhoscolyn Beacon -
Roughly halfway along the islands there is a narrow channel which is good for a bit of rock hopping -
The outer race was quite chunky, these pictures show the swell breaking on the last rocks before the outer race, with part of the outer race in the background.
There was a bit of wildlife around - there were a couple of seals round about the middle of the island chain -
This cormorant allowed me to get quite close to it - they are usually very twitchy birds.
Later on I came across some more cormorants - and something I don`t think I have ever seen before - the two cormorants on the left are quite obvious, but if you look closely over to the right there are two cormorants sitting on nests.
After a while, I headed off across to the mainland and out to Rhoscolyn Head - this bit of coastline doesn`t perhaps have the drama of the Stacks and Gogarth Bay, but it is still quite a striking stretch of coastline - here is a typical sort of rock formation -
A typical headland with its outlying rocks -
Looking further along, with Holyhead Mountain in the distance -
Just before Rhoscolyn Head there is a large cave - there was too much swell about to go into it this time, but I have on a previous trip been quite far inside it.
Round Rhoscolyn Head, and this is looking further up the coast -
Heading up the coast, and there is a sort of rocky knoll with some very distinct bent rock layers, although they don`t actually show too well in this picture.
A wee bit further on, and there is a deep slot into the cliffs - it ends in a swallow hole, which you don`t see if you are up the top on the coastal path, because it is on the other side of the wall.
There is quite a large bay next, and in the middle of it there is a fascinating pillar of rock, with lots of folded layers of rock in it.
Another good headland -
Just out from there is a rocky island, and it was fairly catching the swell -
This is a very feature rich bit of coastline, and the next feature you come to is the White Arch - it needs to be a medium to high tide level if you want to paddle through it, as the bay behind it dries out at low tides.
About 200 metres further along the coastline you come to the Black Arch - and if you want to paddle through this one then you need it to be fairly close to high tide, as the area beyond it dries out.
Just beyond the Black Arch the whole area is made up of very jaggy rocks, which dry out at medium and low tides - it therefore needs a bit of respect, especially if the sea is a bit rough.
This is as far as I went before turning back - my return journey is in part 2.
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