Newberger Forest to Mol y Don July 09

One of the highlights of today's walk was to be leaping from stone to stone to cross the Afon Braint, which can only be done at low tide, and would be so much fun!!! Doesn't it look like so much fun?

But, as luck would have it, I would have had to wait more than an hour to attempt the crossing, which was not worthwhile, and besides, even if I had waited, the stones, just emerging from the water, would be very slippery and some of the stones are far apart, as you can see, so that was an experience missed: 😥 😥 

However, I did  walk very very very fast early in the morning to be able to visit the little island of Llanddwyn, which also has tidal restrictions.  It was a gorgeous little spot.  Inter alia, it has a new(ish)  lighthouse:

and an older one:

I met a local man, not local as living on the island because now nobody does, who walks regularly here, and asked him about the two lighthouses, a curiosity for such a teeny tiny place.  (It takes less than an hour to walk around the island, although one could spend much time on its small beaches where the Irish Sea laps gently on the shore. So sweet is the sound.) Anyway, he did not know.  He did know, though, that these little cottages were inhabited by boat pilots years ago.  Now they are a museum:

Some sights never become tired:

Art:

I have to tell you about these heinous gates.  To open them, you have to pull the metal handle out of a hole drilled into a wall.  That is not so bad.  But, upon being opened, the gate falls several inches, and since you have to close all gates you open, you must summon 350 pounds of inner strength to hoist this VERY HEAVY gate back up to position for the pin to reach the hole:  

This is how big the gate really is,  See, it is so big it does not even fit in the photo:

On to other matters.  This is a first:

Two small diversions, or, more precisely, one diversion with two parts interrupted the last phase of the walk today.  One was a visit to the Anglesey Sea Zoo; the other, right next door, a tour of the Halen Mon (the o should have a circumflex) salt factory.  The first was, as Trip Advisor would put it, "Not worth the price of admission," though there were some pretty anemones and it was interesting to see several different creatures clinging to rocks in a replica of the briny deep.  

Watching salt being produced is essentially watching water evaporate.  There are other parts to the process: filtration, rinsing and drying, por ejemplo, but these, probably just as interesting to watch, you do not see. But I say there is always something to be learned and, indeed, there was.  A couple of guys shovel the precipitate, i.e., the NaCl from the evaporation tanks using large, very large, heavy, very heavy (I got to lift one so I know) stainless steel shovels that have just three wee holes for the water to drip out and deposit these huge shovels-full (shovel-fulls?) of salt into big plastic tubs where it sits and drips.  And, of course, there are a few other steps in the refinement process. The resulting salt is quite wonderful, and apparently quite well-known in the salt world.  Most proud are the owners of their admirers, among whom are chefs, chip companies such as Walkers, restaurants, and Barak Obama who features large in one of the videos.