Sunday, 31 July 2011

Coastwalk

Prestatyn → Colwyn Bay

treasure-hunting.png Distance: 14.7 miles
Ascent: 56 metres
Duration: 4 hours 15 minutes

The Prom
« Flint | Conwy Morfa »

The next town after Prestatyn is Rhyl, so it seemed fitting to start the morning by listening to Catatonia's International Velvet, whose second verse mentions the town (although the song is better known for its chorus of "every day when I wake up I thank the Lord I'm Welsh").

telescope.png

Gwledd o fedd gynhyrfodd Cymraes swil
Darganfyddais gwir baradwys Rhyl
A treat of mead/graves stirred up a shy Welshwoman
I discovered the true paradise that is Rhyl

Cerys Matthews has her tongue firmly in her cheek when she sings of the "true paradise that is Rhyl", although a pun in the preceding line sums up the town nicely by holding the graveyard and hostelry in tension.

(In Welsh a word may mutate – change its spelling – depending on the preceding word. The words bedd – meaning "grave" – and medd – "mead" – mutate to the same word, fedd, resulting in a deliciously black pun.)

ice-cream.png

Rhyl is run down. Rhyl is under development. Rhyl's seafront offers an over-sized theatre (on this season: Jim Davidson), and a derelict amusement park. Rhyl is on the up, but whether it is able to stay afloat is anyone's guess.

Colwyn Bay's Victoria Pier seems to have suffered the same fate as Rhyl's Ocean Beach theme park. A large banner declaring the pier to be "open all day every day" hung across the shuttered entrance. The story of its closure seems bizarre in the extreme.

cycle-path.png

My entire walk today has been on promenades and cycle tracks. In terms of accessibility it's the best walk I've done, but I'm a little tired of the undulating tarmac and would like to have seen more variation.

Posted by pab at 15:42 | Comments will be back later in the year. Please email me instead!