This was day 3 of this little expedition (and these things never quite go to plan in our household) –

When I woke up in this little hotel sort of place today at about 6.15am, I was traumatised by being whacked over the head with a pillow while I remained in bed; when I moved, I could hear the sheep on the hills in the distance, I couldn’t remember where the bathroom was – and didn’t want to open anyone else’s bedroom door (and Mum had gone to do her tai chi/weird arm waving) – so attempted to wash my armpits a bit in the sink in the bathroom, dressed myself, ate the squashed croissant in my bag just before 8am and tried to make my hair look presentable; then went out and tried to photograph the scenery…

…returned, and could hear a radio in the kitchen. Once we’d eaten our breakfast, we left the table, made sure we were fully packed, loaded the car, said goodbye and thank you to the owners, and we were in it (and it had 18108 miles on its mileometer) at 9.15am. Wormhout Way was the road approaching Llandudno town centre – where there were a lot of people, seagulls, a place called Frosty Towers, and a lifeboat station, and after some searching, our next hotel was found at 11.25am.

Mum went and checked in, came back and told me it was incredibly basic, and the car was moved from the roadside and into a rather mucky parking place. Once we’d heaved our luggage out – we went down a dark corridor to the reception desk. As our room wouldn’t be ready until 2pm, our luggage was left there; then we went back to the car, loud seagull noises were coming from all directions, she decided we’d go to the nature reserve, and tried to find it on the map. We moved, I saw ‘Hen Dy’ on a sign, the nature reserve couldn’t be found – so she stopped and asked at a seaside cafe; I saw an old bathtub being used as a flower planter, and this place was eventually found at 12.34pm, we parked (and a pole over the entrance had lots of metal bird shapes on it.) We went walking round a huge very very muddy lake sort of thing that presumably empties and refills with the tide – and it had swans on it and a big castle at one end, and a loud traffic nearby. There were some very pungent flowers that bees were clearly enjoying, swans floating in formation down a stream of water in the sand, and a couple of what looked like canoes. Big puffs of smoke were coming from somewhere on the other side, and I saw a German Shepherd that appeared to be wearing shoes on his or her back feet, and when we returned to the car, it was decided we’d go to another nature reserve. At that 1, we were let in, given maps and activity sheets, and set off round the path. There were reeds everywhere, numbered bits of paper with rhymes on, there were some big birds in the sky, horse poo on the paths, and a robin posed for me. A herd of horses became visible (and included one foal), and the humidity was becoming extreme.

A rather mucky grey pipe was poking out from under a small hill/mound – and a gate on top of it said ‘dangerous structure’, the mud continued, and a couple of big red pipes were poking out from under the mud further round. More of a breeze developed as we returned to the car, and I noticed a smashed up and partially decomposed wooden boat on the rocks. The tide was rapidly coming in by 2.18pm – and the car felt horrendously humid.
It was 10 minutes later that when the car started moving and air conditioning could be turned on. The next town was Deganwy, a partially decomposed signpost said ‘Orth Wales Gol Lub’ on it, and back by the seaside (where directions had been asked for earlier) it was decided we’d stop for tea, so we did, and cake tins we’d come equipped with were found in the boot of the car. After my chunk of tiffin, I took some more pictures of the scenery, spotted a dog that may’ve been a St.Bernard being walked and tried to subtlety photograph it from a distance:

…several little white dogs were with some other people, and there was a very soggy spaniel further down the beach.

Mum decided to have a snooze – and started twitching on the car seat, the massive dog was walked back again – and halfway along the grass in front of the beach he or she decided to plonk themselves down and refuse to move for several minutes, rolled around a bit while the owner stared into the distance and looked like this had happened many, many times before, and eventually moved again. When we moved – in the car – I saw a Turkish barbers shop, we returned to the hotel car park, and had to ask a coach parked in front of it to move, and then – once in the car park, it was discovered all the spaces were full, Mum used some bad language, I was beginning to feel slightly hysterical, and she went into the hotel (with a face mask) to ask about alternative parking, and lots of loud seagull noises were going on while I remained in my seat. She returned, someone moved their car, and I was told how basic this was; and up in the room – almost everything was either white or brown, and it was – to both of us – rather prison cell like. And this trip had another 4 days to it.