Ormes trip - 21st April 2007

Six paddlers set out from Llandudno West Shore at midday on a pleasant Saturday. We paddled round the Great Orme and then across to the Little Orme. Four paddlers got off the water at Llandudno and walked through to the cars, with the remaining two paddling back round to West Shore against the wind.

My thanks to JimK for his advice. We had a very pleasant trip.

"Huts" on the way out from West Shore. Anyone know exactly what these were for? Jim reckons "the huts are lookout / defence placements from the WW2". This fits in with other information from the Country Park (PDF) that says they were part of an artillery school. It was a little lumpy as we set out , with a gentle breeze on our backs:Some nice stratification of the rocks:
Small caves all over the place, some carved through the rock by streams like the one shown below. [On the way back we saw the cave that featured in the BBC "Coast" series, where the inside has been modified with dressed stone.]
Annete by one of the caves where fresh water was dripping from the roof:
We found a lovely place to stop for lunch; a scramble up from the pebble beach to a sun-trap on the ledges. A bit less crowded than the beach at the town but still quite busy:
Following the example set by the locals, two of the group prepare to jump off the ledge into the sea:
On the way down (almost missed them completely):
And in the water:
After working up an appetite we finished off lunch in the sun:
Our view of Llandudno as we paddled across to the Little Orme:
The Little Orme:
Looking back towards the Great Orme:
The cliffs of the Little Orme:
Around the Little Orme:
At the turnaround (a nice sunny sheltered bay out of the wind):
On the way back, after the group split up, the wind got a bit stronger. The sea was a bit lumpier too. Like the gentleman I am, I hid in a cave and watched Liz struggle:
Statistics
Total distance: 23.9km
Elapsed time: 5hrs 31mins