Shall I land on Shell Island - 10th Aug ‘23

A mixture of cloud and sun for most of the day. It suddenly got a little chilly around tea time and then we were treated to a lovely evening.

Out again at 11.30. Bed strip, breakfast and ablutions is not a quick process so I’m pleased we’re getting out before midday. Today we even had a Twinnie teeth brushing ?!

A bit of a disaster this morning! We headed out to Barmouth. The plan was to combine beach with some typical seaside town attractions. It took us about 30 minutes to get there. 20 minutes driving around looking for a car parking space and then 30 minutes back again! It was very very busy with absolutely no parking in the car parks and along the very long front beach side road. Both the beach and the town were very busy. Charlie thought it looked very Chavvy and the Twinnies asked rather indignantly “why have we come here?” I wrote it off as a bad decision - my first of the day

We headed back for Shell Island. Charlie couldn’t believe it when we had to pay £10 to get in and the chaotic busy entrance - people and cars. I think he thought it was going to be more like Craggy Island?!

Here again, we struggled to park in the beach car park but at least we did eventually. A walk across the dunes bagged us a fairly quiet part of the beach.

I was rather like Lawrence of Arabia’s camal for this very strenuous journey. I was carrying bag, food, towels, buckets, spade and kids Crocs. The Twinnies were carrying nothing! I suggested Finners may want to carry the spade and Harry the buckets.

When we arrived at the beach there was no spade. Finners had dropped it at the top of the highest dune and decided it was preferable not to carry it than have a spade available at our final destination. It turns out this wasn’t a popular decision with the rest of the party!!

We spent a pleasant hour or so swimming (twice), trying to catch wee fish in a wee lagoon and snacking. The lack of a spade meant sand castles were not on the agenda today!

We retraced our steps through the dunes - after the obligatory “running down the highest dune” races. I didn’t partake in that one! Once cleaned up back at the car we headed for the harbour at the other end of the island. It was absolutely rammed with campers and campervanners - caravans are not allowed!!

The harbour was disappointing so we wandered on a stoney beach for a bit and then set off home - after stopping at the island supermarket for some BBQ meat!

I’m glad we went but I can’t say I would want to rush back - it was just too darn busy. Better than bloody Barmouth though! On the way out, I heard Charlie muttering something  about Chavs (again!) so I don’t think he was a big fan either!?

Home to Brunnehilda for more chillaxing. Ok We fired up the BBQ at 6 and were nicely stuffed by 7! It’s a full time job encouraging the Twinnies to “eat up” - especially Finners. I’m sure Bobby Sands’ H Block gaolers had it easier!?

We decided on an evening walk to our beautiful local Morfa Harlech - 15 minutes down the road. It was a gorgeous evening and much fun was had with “dune running” and finding and commenting on all the sandcastles that had been made and abandoned that afternoon.

There were a lot of couples walking dogs on the beach tonight. I had to take a moment. This type of holiday is much worse than my normal solo holiday. When I’m with Charlie and the Twinnies we are always doing stuff that Kimbo would have loved to have done.

Lots of tidying up and then settled down for an hour or so of games - still no DVD!

I was going to claim that I saw the error of my ways and let the children win tonight but that would be a fib! Charlie bettered me tonight at Sevens and Flick football. Gutted, but a useful life lesson learnt for me tonight!

As I lie in bed, the wind really is getting up. Time to put my trainers on and go out and check the sun canopies guy ropes. Bracing ourselves for some dodgy weather tomorrow!