Anglesey – day 1: Rhosneigr

It's a five and a half hour train journey to Rhosneigr from Lewes, East Sussex, via London and Chester. Not that much quicker than if you travel by car without any stops, but I have to say, a lot more pleasant and relaxing than my recent drive up to nearby Llandudno.

Rhosneigr is a request only stop on the route to Holyhead. We were the only two people to get off the train, and as soon as we pushed through the squeaky gate we knew we were going to love it here. The grassy verges sprouted an array of flowers, open fields surrounded us divided by drystone walls and blossoming hedgerows and after three previous washouts in Wales, the sun was actually shining!

We had managed to squeeze everything into five bags for the trip, and T had the idea of photographing our kit to show just how much stuff it's possible to carry halfway across the country on public transport. Unfortunately, the lure of the beach was too great, so we only took one photo of the small day pack's contents and never found the time to do the others. As you can see, one of the headaches of travelling in Britain is the need to be prepared for any type of weather, no matter what time of year you go. To complicate things further, you should never travel in summer without your snorkel.

We followed Rhosneigr High Street until it spilled us onto sandy Traeth Llydan. It's backed by a ripple of dunes, and the beach is studded with slabs of rock. Later in the week we saw surfers, entirely covered in neoprene, except for their oval blue faces, braving the icy brine to ride the most meagre of waves.

The river from the lake of Llyn Maelog wends its way through sand dunes, across the beach and into the sea.

Nestled within the dunes is the newly opened Oyster Catcher. We didn't sample the food and drink on offer, but it's owned by the people behind the The White Eagle on Holy Island, so expectations are high. It seemed an odd place to build a restaurant, behind the dunes, away from the sea, until I found out that it's on the spot of an old hotel that had fallen into disrepair.

Traeth Llydan dunes

As the tide was out, we explored the rocks and islands close to the shore. Braich Parlwr is a beautiful long fingered rock that reaches into the sea but never quite escapes the shoreline to become an island.

The sea thrift and trefoil covered Braich Parlwr.

Rhosneigr road

As we walked back along the High Street, every so often a road runs down to the beach offering a glimpse of the sea. Rhosneigr is in a great position, sandwiched between two long stretches of beach and dunes. This hasn't gone unnoticed as more and more holiday apartments are being constructed. That's not to say it's being ruined though, there's enough space and enough charm for Rhosneigr to handle getting a little larger.