Bull Bay to Church Bay to Holyhead July 3+4

Yesterday's walk was to be 16 miles and today's 14, but what is supposed to be and what is are not necessarily the same, for, in fact,  yesterday' walk was 20.81 miles and today's was 18.5.  Let's put it this way, this walk is the most navigationally challenging I have done, except maybe the first Coast to Coast when I knew nada de nada, and now, thanks be to God, I can at least use a GPS.  Just as an aside, though, A GPS cannot tell you that yes, you are going in the right direction only you can't continue in the right direction because there is a wall or a fence or barbed wire or some other impassible obstacle in your way.  This is where raw, human intelligence comes in! It helps you determine that, "No, it cannot be this way exactly because the human person cannot continue, this way having stopped  abruptly.  Example to be supplied shortly.

Anyway, almost 21 miles through difficult terrain is a lot of miles.  It was not so much the hillage, although there was some, it was things like lots and lots of tall wet grass (there must be a physics theory that deals with the resistance of tall wet grass and the energy it takes to push through it, and maybe also a variant theory relating to stony beaches and stuff), and loose stones and more tall wet grass.

I was tired by the end of it, I have to say, and at the end of today's, too, though the distance was slightly more modest.  Yesterday was a Pu&Do day, and Eurwyn, the guy, knowing I wasn't keen on restaurants, but preferred to have a sandwich in the room, stopped at a Super Tesco so that I could pick up a few things.  That store was so big, sort of like a super WalMart, that I had to ask someone where the food was.  Turns out it was in the middle of the store, but so vast was the place that it was not easy to find what you wanted, and besides my mental faculties were not the keenest at that point. Whilst seeking out egg salad (not found), I did find potato salad, and discovered that it, too, makes a pretty good dressing on those mini romaine lettuces they sell here.

Back to the walk.  Every day should have at least one shot of scenery:

And one rock, which, you could say, is a subset of scenery:

This was a place where I could not find my way, not because I was looking for the house that was not, although that could have been a factor:

The aptly named Shale Beach:

The important part of this picture is not the impressive rear end of the cow, it is the slightly blurry walker-guy to the left.  (He is the first walker person I have met, only he was going in the other direction.) Walker guy was scared of the cows.

He was especially afraid of this bull, but I told him that anatomic evidence suggested that this was a she animal.  Horns can throw one off:

Cow on left is telling walker guy, "Walker guy, I am going to eat you for lunch." Cow on right does not care:

Cows looking satisfied after lunch:

Anyone walking the length of this beach—it must have been between 1/2-1 mile long— need never take a Pilates class:

Name of this house:  New House;

Now, you see this huge area of green, which, when walking through it, you do not know how you are going to get out of it?  Because there is either nothing or a wall, even though you are doing it right, You think and you try and wander and you try again and wander some more, and finally slog back to the last "thing" you remember, which, in this case, was a wooden gate, and, yes, there is a little sign telling you to go this way, but, ha, you are supposed to be on the other side of the barbed wire and walking along the estuary instead.  You are so filled with joy at finding the estuary that you forgive the "not-error" you made and all the wandering you did and all the time spent trying to figure it out:

The estuary you are supposed to be walking along.  But guess what?  When you emerge from the length of this estuary, you find yourself in a field that looks JUST LIKE THE ONE ABOVE, only it is not, thank God, the one above, but its neighbour and twin, and it did have egress:

Some ducks near a parking lot:

p.s. I should not be hard on walker guy because later in the day, again cursing a field whose exit could not be located, I was about to head for a a large, high metal gate, which I was planning on scaling had it been locked (that would not have helped, it turns out) when all of a sudden a herd of huge bovines came charging though said gate and were heading straight for me at full gallop. "I am getting out of this field, " I said, "Even if I have to call a taxi to finish this segment"—and it is a good thing I did not have to because there is no reception on most parts of this island—and I swear, just as I was reaching safety, a creature of gargantuan dimensions was breathing hotly down my neck,  All that said, I think the cows are more curious than dangerous, but still!