Childhood recollections; new discoveries
Back in October 2016, I decided to retrace steps into my childhood, to revisit the Llŷn Peninsula and the furthest reaches of North Wales, a region so familiar to me from annual family holidays 30 years and more ago, but not visited at all since. I think the long absence was borne out of an anxiety that my fond (both sunlit and of course rain-swept) memories would be shattered or irredeemably altered. Or, that the place would come simply to no longer exist in any meaningful way to me at all. My parents have, though, occasionally visited: a conversation with them about one trip sowed a seed in my mind, and I thought I’d chance my arm on a solo visit out of season.
It’s a pretty long slog from North Oxfordshire to Snowdonia and then the extra 45 minutes or so down to Aberdaron. Altogether, it’s about 4 hours or so each way for me via Telford and the A5, with opportunities for stops around Betwys-y-Coed and the foot of Snowdon, though the roads seem to have dramatically improved since I was young.