ron-t kayaking blog
16 September 2014 ............ Trefor - part 2
This is the second of two webpages about a trip out from Trefor down the coast of the Lleyn Peninsula.
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Above Porth y Nant, the beach that links Trwyn y Gorlech with Penrhyn Glas, there are some quarries - I think they were granite quarries.
So there are a few buildings along the back of the beach - I have no idea what the buildings were used for, but here are a few pictures of them -
At the far end of Porth y Nant there is a small headland, and then another bit of beach - this marks the start of Penrhyn Glas.
Penrhyn Glas has some stunning cliffs, however when looking through all my photographs, I realised that I had stayed too close to the cliffs, so haven`t got many pictures which show off the cliffs to their full glory.
This is looking along some of the cliffs, and gives some idea of the scale of the cliffs.
In the background you can see Penrhyn Bodeilas, which is further down the coast.
The cliffs house two caves - they are both very deep caves, and I couldn`t get anywhere near the end of them.
Here is the entrance to the first cave -
I am quite far into the cave here, and I have had to add a whole heap of gamma to the picture in order for the picture to show anything - camera chips seem to have the capability to record information at light levels so low that in normal pictures it doesn`t show, but if you digitally process the picture, you can extract it.
Right at the back of the cave you can see a small dark opening - this is actually a kink in the cave, and the cave goes away in beyond it.
Away in beyond the kink, I could hear seals roaring - it is quite a scary sound when you are deep in a dark and alien environment, and suggests that away in at the back, the cave widens and has rocks where the seals can land.
This is the entrance to the second cave.
This is the inside of the cave - again, away beyond the narrows at the back, the cave widens again, and I could hear more seals roaring.
Just after I put my camera away and started to back out, a very large seal came swimming out of the darkness with glowing eyes - I hastily pulled out my camera again and tried to photograph it, but the picture didn`t work.
I have paddled into many sea caves over the years - I think these two caves were the most sinister I have ever been in.
Above the entrance to the second cave there is the most amazing gully, and I would love to abseil down it, and then climb back up.
However I discovered later that above the gully is more precipice, so I don`t think there would be any chance of getting to the top of the gully.
Further round Penrhyn Glas now, and beginning to see the next beach - I think that it is these outlying rocks that are shown on the Landranger map as Llech Lydan.
Through the gap, and this is as far as I went - this is looking right down the next beach to Penrhyn Bodeilas -
A bit more round to the right, and the long low peninsula Trwyn Porth Dinllaen is in sight.
I think that I am now back through Llech Lydan, looking northeast towards Penrhyn Glas, and you get a better view of the scale of the cliffs.
One of the very noticeable things about all these cliffs is the amount of birdie poo - there must be thousands of birds here during the breeding season - the only birds I saw were cormorants - there are three of them in this picture hiding in the dark bit in the middle of the picture, but I`m sure that they alone didn`t make all this mess.
Just past Penrhyn Glas now, and looking right up the coast past the small bay and headland, along Porth y Nant, to Trwyn y Gorlech.
The group of buildings nestling in the fold of the mountains above the beach is the Welsh National Learning Centre - it is a fabulous location, and looks even more impressive from the road up out of Llithfaen, with its long descent down to the Centre.
Heading back up to Trefor, and some more cormorants - as I said earlier, cormorants were the only birds I saw, but judging by the amount of birdie poo all along the cliffs, there must be thousands of birds along this bit coast during the breeding season.
If you are paddling along here during the breeding season you would have to be careful to give them space - and a boat mounted umbrella might be a good investment !
It is a fabulous bit of coastline, and very different from Anglesey.
Next time I will launch from down by Porth Dinllaen, and work my way up the coast, certainly as far as Penrhyn Glas again.
I had near perfect weather - the whole of this coastline faces northwest and is very exposed - I guess that the sea could get pretty wild if the weather is coming in from the west, northwest, north or northeast.
Although there are lots of beaches to land on, most of them are stoney and quite steeply sloping, so dumping surf could be quite a problem.
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