Wild West Anglesey

Friday brought in an early start to the weekend but even by then the roads were getting busy with the beginning of the school holidays. Kirstine and I planned an early escape from the Welsh holiday traffic by paddling directly from the campsite at Rhoscolyn, to Trearddur Bay to get supplies in for the weekend.

Apart from avoiding the traffic and general chaos of supermarket shopping, we got a splendid afternoon of sea kayaking on the way to the shops.

We visited the seals that live at Rhoscolyn Beacon...

...and we explored the depths of the deep cave at Rhoscolyn Head.

On Saturday we joined a group from North West Sea Kayakers to circumnavigate Holy Island. Once again we started at Rhoscolyn wheeling our kayaks down to the beach to avoid busy roads laden with holiday traffic. The Cymyran Strait and Inland Sea were both very shallow but bristling with birdlife. We saw cattle egret, redshank and a female red breasted merganser with half a dozen fluffy chicks.

Before we could cross Holyhead Harbour entrance we had to wait for the fast ferry to pass before heading off towards North Stack.

We stopped briefly to chat to another group who were enjoying the sunshine and shelter of Parliament House Cave, before heading accross Gogarth Bay and round South Stack. Finally the ebb tide brought us back to Rhoscolyn in plenty of time for a barbecue supper.

On Sunday we hatched a plan to paddle from Church Bay, out to the Skerries and onwards to Cemlyn.

Most of the Arctic tern chicks have now fledged leaving a few latecomers with some catching up to do.

Parent birds are busy catching sand eels to feed to the rapidly growing youngsters.

Before the mass migration to the south Atlantic this tiny group of islands is still swarming with birds...

...and its waters teeming with grey seals.